After the close of the transfer portal, which outbound player had the biggest impact? One former Auburn football player stands out
The Auburn football program had a pretty successful go in the transfer portal during the December window, which was open from the 9th to the 28th. Head coach Hugh Freeze and his staff brought in 14 players during the transfer window, including two quarterbacks and a few offensive linemen and wide receivers.
Although the 14 players the Tigers brought in had a higher average ranking than those that left, 24 former Auburn football players hit the transfer portal, some of whom had a bigger impact on the future of the team than others.
Of the scholarship players that left, only eight of them were upperclassmen, but there is one underclassmen who departed that could have had a particularly bright future on the Plains. According to The Montgomery Advertiser's Adam Cole, it's harder to find a bigger loss to the portal than freshman quarterback Walker White.
"It's hard to argue that any departure was more significant than White's, who entered the portal Dec. 14 — the same day Auburn announced its signing of former Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold,"
wrote Cole. "In him, Auburn lost a potential quarterback of the future. But with the former top-100 recruit being Freeze's most significant loss, it highlights that the program's departures weren't all that significant. Without him, the Tigers still have Arnold, as well as five-star signee Deuce Knight and Stanford transfer Ashton Daniels."
With White gone, there is still one scholarship available for a quarterback on the roster, and it's likely the Tigers will try to bring in an additional QB during the spring transfer window in April. Still, at the end of the December window, Auburn football's gains in the transfer portal definitely outweighed its losses.