5 transfer portal quarterbacks that’ll have biggest impact in 2023

Looking back at both college football transfer portal windows, here are five quarterbacks that will make the biggest impact next season. 

The college football transfer portal has changed the sport. There’s no debating that and combined with NIL, it’s created a free agency of sorts for college football teams.

A perfect example was Payton Thorne. He was expected to start at Michigan State but was enticed by the transfer portal and wound up at Auburn, where he will have a chance to start and play for Hugh Freeze.

A bunch of college football teams went searching for quarterback upgrades this offseason in the transfer portal. It worked last offseason with Caleb Williams and USC. There aren’t any quarterbacks that are going to have quite that impact this college football season, but here are the five transfer portal quarterbacks that will have the biggest impact heading into 2023.

DJ Uiagalelei, Oregon State

There was a lot of pressure for DJ Uiagalelei to be the next great thing at Clemson after replacing Trevor Lawrence and he didn’t quite live up to it. But Clemson’s offense didn’t do him any favors and when he transferred to Oregon State, he basically said he wanted to play in an offense that would let him be who he is.

Clemson hired a new offensive coordinator, stealing Garrett Riley away from TCU, which shows that Uiagalelei wasn’t the only problem. Furthermore, lots of college football teams would take a quarterback that completed over 61 percent of his passes with 22 touchdown passes and seven rushing touchdowns.

Clemson did win the ACC last season, even though Uiagalelei was replaced in the ACC title game. My point is, at Oregon State, which won 10 games last season, Uiagalelei is going to thrive. The pressure won’t be so intense and the system will be a better fit.

It’s going to work out and more college football teams are going to wish they pursued the former five-star quarterback when he entered the transfer portal.