Not everyone walks out of the spring transfer portal window feeling like a winner. While some teams quietly built playoff-caliber depth, others found themselves dealing with roster holes and drama.
Let’s not sugarcoat it: the spring portal period wasn’t kind to everyone. Whether it was a leadership issue or just plain bad luck, a few programs came out of this cycle looking like they took a step back.
Here’s a look at the college football teams that lost the most ground—and in some cases, maybe even the locker room.
Tennessee Volunteers
It’s hard to talk about the spring transfer window without starting with Tennessee. Just a few months ago, Nico Iamaleava was being talked about as the face of the program. Now? He’s gone, and the Vols are left trying to pick up the pieces.
The entire situation was a mess. NIL drama, unconfirmed rumors about locker room issues, and a swap that saw Iamaleava land at UCLA while Tennessee brought in Appalachian State’s Joey Aguilar—it just doesn’t feel like an upgrade.
Aguilar is a capable player, no doubt. But he’s not Nico. And Tennessee fans know it. They had hopes of contending in the SEC, and now those expectations are being replaced with serious concern. Fair or not, the optics here scream instability. And that's never a good thing for a program trying to build long-term momentum.
Coming into the spring, we had Tennessee as one of the favorites in the SEC. Now, the Vols are looking up at a lot of programs with the potential that they could even be looking at a disastrous season if they got closer to their floor rather than their ceiling.
California Bears
Cal didn’t just lose a few key players—they lost a full-on position group. Five running backs. Gone. That includes Jadyn Ott, who just so happened to be their most explosive offensive player. It doesn’t stop there—tight end Jack Endries and a wave of other offensive talent also hit the portal.
A total of 18 offensive players left between the winter and spring windows. That’s a signal of something deeper than just normal roster turnover. Whether it’s donor frustration, NIL disorganization, or something else,, it’s clear that Cal is struggling to keep its roster intact in this new era of college football.
And with uncertainty looming as the sport continues to shift, Cal didn’t just lose players—they may have lost their competitive footing.
Stanford Cardinal
Stanford isn’t exactly known for thriving in the transfer portal, but this spring brought things to a whole new level. After parting ways with head coach Troy Taylor, the Cardinal were left to patch things together under interim coach Frank Reich—and the results weren’t pretty.
Key losses like offensive lineman Jake Maikkula, wideout Emmett Mosley V, and star EDGE rusher David Bailey (who bolted to Texas Tech) have left the roster looking stripped down and in need of serious repair.
To make matters worse, they even lost Julian Neal, a player they had just brought in from Fresno State. It’s one thing to strike out on big names, but when you can’t even hold onto transfers you already landed, that could make for a long rebuilding process.