There is no level of college football more disrupted by the transfer portal than the Group of Six.
That’s those conferences in the FBS that don’t make top-tier money or have clean access to the College Football Playoff, including the AAC, Pac-12, Mountain West, Sun Belt, C-USA and MAC.
The Power Four tends to use the Group of Six as a farm system for upcoming players. So, those G6 teams need to find players on the way down from the P4, or up from FCS, to fill out their rosters. So, it’s worth looking into the most interesting newcomers.
For the sake of the exercise, the Independents are being included here, as they don’t have another home. That’s UConn and Notre Dame. Only one player per team, and while quarterbacks do tend to be the most interesting, all positions have some value.
Quincy Porter, WR, Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Notre Dame could use help at wide receiver and give CJ Carr a consistent target to throw to. Marcus Freeman knew that, and dipped his toes in the water for a pair of transfers from Ohio State.
Here, the focus is on Quincy Porter. A five-star recruit in the class of 2025, Porter only played in five games a season ago. So, it’s a bet on potential, but that potential could be program-altering if it hits for the Irish.
At one point, Jackson Arnold was one of the highest-ranked recruits in the country, starting at Oklahoma and then Auburn. However, he struggled with his consistency. In 27 games over three seasons, he has completed 63 percent of his passes for 3,293 yards and 22 touchdowns to eight interceptions.
Now, Arnold is stepping into the Mountain West. UNLV expects to be one of the best teams in the Group of Six, but if Arnold isn’t consistent, that won’t happen.
During his college career, J’Mond Tapp bounced around a bit. After two years and nine games at Texas, he moved to Arizona State but again saw limited playing time. That is until he transferred to Southern Miss and had a breakout season with 70 tackles, 12.0 tackles for a loss and 7.5 sacks.
Now, Tapp is following his Southern Miss coach, Charles Huff, to Memphis. He’ll have a new defensive coordinator, but he seems poised to take the American Conference by storm.
Colorado State wants to make a bold first impression in the Pac-12 this season. To do that, it dipped into the transfer portal and landed Hauss Hejny, a transfer from Oklahoma State.
It’s an interesting move because it is betting on being able to fix Hejny. A former four-star recruit with stops at TCU and Oklahoma State, he was expected to be a major Big 12 name. However, in two seasons, he has more rushing attempts than passing attempts.
Since moving to FBS football in 2012, UMass has never won more than four games in a season. It’s been worse lately, going winless in 2025 and going 10-76 since 2019. So, how does it turn things around? The hope is with Pop Watson.
A local kid from western Massachusetts, Watson was a three-star recruit who originally went to Virginia Tech. In three seasons there, he had limited playing time, and it will be interesting to see if he can help UMass turn things around.
