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The transfer portal has been the biggest change in college sports in the last decade. Student-athletes are changing schools more than ever.
Oregon’s women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves just saw most of an entire recruiting class enter the portal in one night. But sometimes we forget these decisions aren’t made at the drop of a hat.
There are many reasons athletes leave; playing time, not getting along with coaches or teammates or a coaching change seems to be the most common reason players get out of Dodge.
For Travis Dye, the former Duck running back who ranks fourth on the all-time career rushing list in Eugene, the catalyst for the departure started with Mario Cristobal leaving, but it was much more than that.
In a recent article in the Orange County Register, Dye said he wanted to be closer to home because he was starting a family. Cristobal leaving just helped him pull the trigger to leave.
Unlike many situations with transfers, there are absolutely no hard feelings towards the former school.
“It was tough. Oregon was my first love, and it always will be,” Dye said. “But it was just I gave everything I could to that school for four years straight, and it was time to move on.”
Oregon has also moved on with Dan Lanning, and the Ducks have a few options for finding Dye’s replacement. Sean Dollars might be that guy; the sophomore seems to be having a very good spring camp.
It would have been a perfect season for the Trojans to come up to Autzen just to have Dye take part in “Shout” one more time. Unfortunately, the two teams don’t meet in the regular season and the only hope of seeing Dye go up against the Duck defenders would be in the Pac-12 title game in Las Vegas.
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