The college football transfer portal opens for its single January window after the 2026 season, and a group of stars still playing out the fall would draw the heaviest bidding from Power Four programs if they enter.
That list shifted Saturday, when Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham benched sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood at halftime against Penn State and Oregon State’s Braden Atkinson threw for 347 yards in a 48-30 win over Washington State. Seven players stand out as the names programs will chase hardest.
Bryce Underwood, QB, Michigan
Michigan trailed Penn State 3-0 at halftime after managing 80 yards and two interceptions with Underwood under center, so Whittingham turned to true freshman Tommy Carr. Carr led three second-half touchdown drives and sealed the 21-18 win with a 12-yard touchdown run with 2:58 left.
Carr is the grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and the younger brother of Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr. Still, Whittingham didn’t commit to a starter for Saturday’s game against Indiana. “Going forward we will take a good look at the tape. Not prepared to make a decision yet,” he said after the win.
Underwood arrived as the consensus No. 1 quarterback recruit in the 2025 class, and Michigan landed him with a financial package worth about $12 million after he flipped from LSU. He entered Saturday with 881 passing yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions in five games, but schools that missed on him as a recruit would get a second chance at a quarterback with two seasons of eligibility left.
Braden Atkinson, QB, Oregon State
Atkinson won the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in FCS at Mercer in 2025, then beat out Maalik Murphy and Brady Jones for Oregon State’s starting job. He’s thrown for at least 300 yards in all seven games, matching the program record of seven straight Sean Mannion set in 2013.
The sophomore has 2,604 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and two interceptions. He threw five touchdown passes in back-to-back wins over Colorado State and San Diego State, then added three more against Washington State as the Beavers improved to 5-2 and 3-0 in Pac-12 play. Power Four staffs searching for a ready-made starter rarely find one with this much production and two years of eligibility left.
Speaking of Oregon State...
Jesse Legree, WR, Oregon State
The true freshman from Baltimore leads the nation with 1,040 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns, and he’s topped 100 yards and scored in every game this season. His 90-yard touchdown against Washington State made him the first player in the country to reach 1,000 receiving yards this fall, and ESPN’s David Hale ranked him fifth among Heisman Trophy candidates heading into Week 7.
Legree played receiver and defensive back at St. Frances Academy and totaled 721 all-purpose yards as a senior. His 240-yard game against Texas Tech in Week 2 ranks second in program history, and his three remaining years of eligibility are the most of anyone on this list.
Dylan Riley, RB, Boise State
Riley ranks fourth in FBS with 835 rushing yards after Boise State’s Week 7 bye, and the junior earned AP Midseason All-America second-team honors last week while leading the nation in rushing and all-purpose yards. He ran for a career-best 206 yards against Memphis on Sept. 12, and he’s the only FBS player with three runs of 70 yards or longer this season.
The Moreno Valley, Calif., native splits carries with running back Sire Gaines, who ran for 120 yards in a 38-31 win at Fresno State. Riley has one season of eligibility left, and Power Four programs that can make him a lead back without a split backfield would have the strongest pitch.
Andrew Zock, Edge, Toledo
Zock came out of the same Mercer program as Atkinson, winning the Buck Buchanan Award as the top defender in FCS in 2025 before following Toledo coach Mike Jacobs to the Glass City. Colorado scheduled a visit with him during last winter’s portal cycle.
The junior leads Toledo with seven sacks and has recorded one in six straight games, including two sacks, nine quarterback hurries and a forced fumble in a 34-14 win at Eastern Michigan on Saturday. His nine hurries set a career high, and he has one season of eligibility left after leading the Rockets’ pass rush in his first FBS season.
DJ Kelly, CB, James Madison
Kelly picked off a pass in a 49-22 win over Georgia State on Saturday, giving him a team-high four interceptions. Two of them came in the red zone during a 45-17 win over Marshall, and each ended a Thundering Herd scoring chance.
The second-year cornerback from Allentown, Pa., played high school ball at St. Frances Academy, the same Baltimore program that produced Legree, and spent his freshman season at Toledo. JMU is 7-0 in its first season under coach Billy Napier and accepted an invitation to join the American by July 1, 2028, but Kelly has already transferred once and has two years of eligibility left.
Jahiem White, RB, North Texas
White was a Freshman All-American at West Virginia in 2023 and ran for 1,820 yards with the Mountaineers before a knee injury ended his 2025 season after two games. He chose North Texas for a fresh start, and he ran for a career-high 219 yards in a 45-44 overtime win at Tulsa on Oct. 1, including an 84-yard run that’s the Mean Green’s longest play this season.
White has run for 687 yards and nine touchdowns on 96 carries through six games, an average of 7.2 yards per carry. He was also named the Offensive Comeback Player of the Month for September. His 7.7 yards per carry as a freshman in 2023 led all FBS running backs with at least 100 carries, and that efficiency this fall shows Power Four staffs he’s back to the back who started his career in the Big 12.
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