Transfer Tracker: FCS DE piling up the offers
Mark Pszonak contributed to this report.
The transfer portal never stops grinding. No FCS player has made a bigger splash in the portal during this recruiting cycle than Albany defensive end Jared Verse. Now with upwards of 30 offers and after taking a few visits, a few schools seem to be rising to the top.
Recruiting: Verse never saw his recruiting process take off in high school, eventually committing to Albany during the Early Signing Period.
At Albany: After not playing during his true freshman season, Verse had a huge spring season this year with 22 tackles, 10 tackles for a loss and four sacks in only four games. This fall he continued his excellent play with 52 tackles, 11.5 tackles for a loss and 9.5 sacks.
Potential landing spots: The offers have been coming in fast and furiously for Verse since he entered the portal. His most recent offers have come in from LSU, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, USC, Miami and Auburn, while earlier offers came in from Florida State, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Syracuse, Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia, Utah, Houston and many others. He has taken visits to Florida State, Tennessee, Syracuse and Houston. With three years of eligibility remaining, Verse plans to make a final decision at the end of this month or early January.
Farrell’s Take: If you haven't watched his film at Albany you should as he's emerged as an elite pass rusher and a player on the NFL radar now. He hails from Pennsylvania but staying close to home doesn't appear to be a priority for him. FSU and Tennessee get mentioned the most in rumors but with offers coming in daily it's impossible to predict where he will end up and more schools will jump in. He has elite pass rushing moves and it's hard to see how he was missed out of high school.
Impact Meter: 8.9 out of 10
IMPACT METER
The Transfer Portal continues to change the way college football programs recruit and manage their rosters so we here at Rivals.com continue to evolve our coverage. Each time a player of note enters the portal, we will examine their potential impact on the college football landscape and assign an impact rating, both when they enter the portal and when they choose a destination. The scale is from 1-10 and the description below explains the scoring scale.
1.1-4.0 — Not a big impact expected, likely a non-starter and down the bench depth player.
4.1- 6.0 — A solid impact can be expected in the right scenario and has the potential to battle for a starting job.
6.1-9.0. — A high impact player who won’t change a program but will certainly be a very good contributor and starter.
9.1- 9.9 — A very high impact player who should start the moment he steps on the field and will change the outlook of a program immediately.
10 — A franchise transfer who has a chance to be an All American and one of the elite players in college football.