Fresno State’s Justin Rice Enters Transfer Portal

Frenso State is losing arguably its best player as Justin Rice will move on as a graduate transfer.

[jwplayer jF5wU66N-sNi3MVSU]

Fresno State’s Justin Rice Enters Transfer Portal

Rice will be a sought after grad transfer.

Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire

Will Rice find a place to play?

One of the predictable outcomes of the Mountain West and other conferences that are not playing football this fall was players deciding to transfer to one of the six leagues that are still playing.

Fresno State is losing one such player in linebacker Justin Rice. He is a senior and has graduated and sent a tweet giving his intentions to enter the transfer portal.

“Being a Bulldog has been a tremendous honor and experience for me I have gained invaluable life lessons both on the football field and in the classroom. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the college football landscape has been turned upside down,” Rice said. “Because of this, and after many conversations with family and coaches, I have decided to forego my senior season at Fresno State and enter the transfer portal as a graduate transfer student.

Rice will be a sought after player, in fact, he was selected as the Mountain West preseason defensive player of the year by the media.

Rice, who also was selected to watch lists for the Chuck Bednarik Award and also the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, will be a big loss for the Bulldogs when they do return to the football field this season, which the league is looking at doing so in the spring.

Last season, Rice was a first-team All-Mountain West selection He had 112 total tackles, seven tackles for loss and two sacks. He also was all over the field by forcing four fumbles, recovered two of fumbles and had a pair interceptions in 2019.

Even though Rice is a star player and will be a sought after player from the remaining six leagues that are going forward, but despite how good he is there may not be a place for him to play.

This is true for anyone who decides to enter the portal but this year could be more difficult than others since it may not be dozens of players but there could be hundreds who might be looking to find a place to play this fall.

If Rice is to land anywhere it would be in the American, Sun Belt, Conference USA, Big 12, SEC, or ACC.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1370]

[protected-iframe id=”f7652191f99ba13728097498e8a79cd8-137729785-123448869″ info=”https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/show/48681pqFq0kB9dhrtPPoNd” width=”100%” height=”232″ frameborder=”0″]