How good is a transfer portal prospect worth? The rankings might indicate one thing. Performance is the true measure. USC has had some great portal pickups — Caleb Williams, Jordan Addison, Travis Dye, and Mekhi Blackmon — but other highly-touted transfers such as Mario Williams and Dorian Singer did not pan out.
Rankings and performance are two different things.
With that in mind, let’s look at Oregon, a school USC will compete with in the Big Ten next year.
Since Dan Lanning became the head coach for the Oregon Ducks, he has worked plenty of magic in the transfer portal.
This past weekend, he pulled off another huge addition by landing Oklahoma transfer quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
The former UCF QB transferred to Oklahoma after Caleb Williams went to USC, and he dazzled in two seasons in Norman.
Zachary Neel of Ducks Wire ranked the top 25 transfers since Lanning became the head coach, and Gabriel is fifth on this list, with room to grow:
“Of course, Gabriel can’t be ranked here because we don’t know how productive he will be in Eugene. However, if he plays up to expectations based on what we’ve see from him at Oklahoma and UCF, I have a feeling that he could be up near the top of the list when all is said and done.”
The rest of the list from four through one is as follows: Evan Williams, Bucky Irving, Ajani Cornelius, and Jordan Burch.
As Neel points out, there is a chance Gabriel could be at the top of the list by season’s end.
That said, the performance has to match the hype and the ranking.
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