For everything that has changed in college football, you still win and lose games at the line of scrimmage. That means building through the offensive and defensive lines. It also means that the programs with the best players at those positions tend to pay up to keep them.
Saturday Blitz transfer portal rankings 2026: QB,WR, RB, TE, OL, EDGE, DL, LB, CB, S
That doesn't mean, however, that the transfer portal won't be stocked with talent along the interior defensive line when it opens on January 2. Instead of the stud four and five-stars who broke out from Day 1 looking for a big payday on the open market, the DL pool is littered with some of the sport's most impressive developmental stories; DII and JUCO transfers dominating the G6 and former Power 4 players who found their footing in a lesser conference and are ready to make the jump back up.
So, fittingly, we start with a Tulane star who began his career at App State and is poised for a big final season of eligibility in the Big Ten or SEC, maybe even following his former head coach to Gainesville. Here are your official Saturday Blitz DL transfer portal rankings for 2026.
Last rankings update: 8:30 a.m. ET, 12/30/2025
1. Santana Hopper, Tulane
A former App State transfer, Santana Hopper, had a monster year at Tulane with 4.5 sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss. Undersized at just 265 pounds, Hopper is a penetrator who wins with quickness and impressive agility on the interior, routinely knifing into the backfield. Because he’s so light on his feet, he’s particularly impactful running stunts and twists from the interior. There’s a chance he gets washed out of the run fit too often to stick in the Power 4, but I’ll bet on his heavy hands and quick feet to translate.
2. Mateen Ibirogba - Wake Forest
The redshirt junior tailed off down the stretch of the regular season, failing to record a sack across his final six games of the year. However, he still posted a stellar redshirt junior season with 26 QB pressures, three sacks, and 3.5 tackles for loss. He has serious knockback in the run game, which can take away running lanes. His next team would like to see him finish more of those plays for stops.
3. Ezra Christensen - New Mexico State
After two average seasons at Fresno State, Ezra Christensen had a breakout at New Mexico State. That could mean he’s just better suited to play at the Conference USA level than in the Mountain West, but the tape and the numbers say his improvement is real. He finished the 2025 season in the top 15 in run stop rate (per PFF) and top 10 in pass-rush win-rate among interior defensive linemen. That’s a rare combination, especially when it translates to 11.0 tackles for loss and 6.0 sacks.
4. Traevon Mitchell - USF
At 282 pounds, the DII transfer was able to hold up at nose tackle for a significant portion of the season, but it’s doubtful he can replicate that at the Power 4 level. Still, as a three-technique defensive tackle, he can wreak havoc in the backfield. Despite playing 160 of his 439 total defensive snaps at the nose, he managed 32 pressures and two sacks.
5. Ian Geffrard - Arkansas
Ian Geffrard is a true run-plugging nose tackle. His job is to take on double teams, eat up blocks, and keep his second-level players clean, and though Arkansas’s defense struggled in 2025, he did it fairly well. Geffrard struggles, though, as a pass-rusher. His pad level is a bit high to begin with, and on pass-rush reps, especially as the game wears on, he’ll practically stand up straight and surrender any leverage he could’ve had to collapse the pocket.
6. Devan Thompkins - USC
At 6-foot-5, Thompkins has impressive length, and he blends his size with impressive athleticism that allows him to slide up and down the defensive line, playing snaps at both nose and edge last season for defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn. However, USC’s biggest problem when it arrived in the Big Ten was stopping the run, and Thompkins didn’t do much to rectify it. He can dominate slower-footed guards on passing downs, but doesn’t hold up against the run, ranking 387th among interior defensive linemen in average depth of tackle and 142nd in run stop rate.
7. Cody Sigler - Arkansas State
Sigler didn’t have a significant size advantage over the rest of the Sun Belt, but his strength is undeniable on tape, and his entire game is predicated on it. Rather than display any technicality as a rusher, Sigler relied on his bull rush to drive the center or guard back into the quarterback and his strong hands to shed them at the last second to make the play. He’s an excellent run defender for the same reasons, but if that strength advantage dwindles at a higher level, he may not have a counterpunch.
8. Malcolm Alcorn-Crowder - Kansas State
A former JUCO transfer, Alcorn-Crowder developed into a very useful player for the Wilcats this season. He’s a capable pass rusher and has the size to play the run, and regularly gets penetration into the backfield. His 1.4-yard average depth of tackle is a reflection of that. The catch with Alcorn-Crowder is that, because of that penetration, he finds himself in space with running backs a bit too often and finished the year with a 20 percent missed tackle rate.
9. John Walker - UCF
Walker doesn’t have much juice as a pass-rusher, finishing last season with a 3.4 percent pass rush win-rate, ranking 390th among FBS interior defensive linemen (per PFF). However, he doesn’t give up ground at the point of attack in the run game, and that’s always going to be a valuable skill. If you want to see how valuable, fire up the tape from his five-tackle, four-stop game against Houston in Week 11.
10. Rondo Porter - Appalachian State
For most players along the interior of the line of scrimmage, if you don’t win immediately, you won’t win the rep, but that’s not the case for Porter. With his low center of gravity, the former South Carolina Gamecock can generate ridiculous power from a virtual standstill, even if he gets knocked back on the initial contact. That’s rare, and it’s why he was one of the most well-rounded defensive tackles in the Sun Belt this year.