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Two more unintended consequences of the transfer portal.
While the Tar Heel basketball program is waiting on word from Rutgers big man transfer Clifford Omoruyi, Tar Heel football got a surprise transfer it was not expecting until a few days ago.
Quarterback Jacolby Criswell competed for the starting position with Drake Maye in 2022 and after the season transferred to his home state university Arkansas. He announced he was transferring back to Carolina after playing in four games for the Razorbacks with three touchdown passes and no picks last season.
Did we even know that was possible, transferring twice without losing a year and returning to your first school (Seth Trimble did it, but never enrolled anywhere else)? It could have had something to do with Mack Brown saying at a pre-Spring Game press conference that “we need three quarterbacks.”
The grid Tar Heels have two good ones in junior Conner Harrell and grad transfer Max Johnson, for whom UNC is his third and last school. Both played well in the controlled scrimmage at Kenan Stadium on April 20, but Harrell had the edge while Johnson is still learning the offense.
Brown had an amusing anecdote about how his staff will know which players are leaving. “The portal opened on spring game day,” he said. “I told the coaches, if you walk by a guy at pre-game meal and he doesn’t look up and doesn’t speak, he’s gone. That’s just kind of the world that we’re living in now.”
Omoruyi’s world is international. The 6-11, 240-pound Nigerian would make a great addition to Hubert Davis’ latest rebuilding job. He played four years for the Scarlet Knights and has one season of eligibility remaining. As a senior, he played 27 minutes a game and averaged more than 10 points and eight rebounds, plus 3 blocks. Sounds like a good replacement for Armando Bacot.
But one reason it may have taken Omoruyi so long to decide is because he is not an American citizen and is over here on an education visa, which allows athletes to have a scholarship but not to get paid. So NIL can get tricky.
Kentucky is among the schools that got around the problem by hooking players up in Canada or other foreign countries where they got paid for their NIL, which seems to be perfectly legal if illogical.
We should know something pretty soon, as Omoruyi is reportedly visiting Chapel Hill Thursday to meet with Davis and his staff and the available returning players. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Featured image via Rutgers Athletics
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
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Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
“Portal Madness” is a kind way to put it. The door has been opened to elevated levels of corruption.