Former Auburn Tigers quarterback Deuce Knight is between a rock and a hard place in Oxford, Mississippi, after an Ole Miss alumnus at the Calhoun County Courthouse in Pittsboro granted Trinidad Chambliss an extra year of eligibility.
Knight can't hit the transfer portal to find a new school, since the window closed on January 16. More than likely, he'll be riding the bench for a second straight year, getting a handsome check from the Rebels to do so.
As Slap The Sign's Oliver Vandervoort notes, in theory, Knight can still plot his exit without the portal. The reality of overcoming the legal mumbo jumbo necessary to get Knight out of his contracts with Ole Miss will present plenty of challenges, though.
"The question now is just what the former Notre Dame commit can do about it? The transfer portal has been closed for a long time now. There's no spring portal anymore. He could do his own end-around and withdraw from Ole Miss and enroll elsewhere, but that's hardly the best decision, especially since he's likely signed contracts with and at his new school," Vandervoort wrote.
Deuce Knight overplayed his hand in leaving Auburn
Knight is quickly learning that the grass isn't greener on the other side. While leaving always made sense once Alex Golesh was hired and his stud upperclassman quarterback with the USF Bulls, Byrum Brown, transferred to Auburn, landing with the Rebels, only to be in the same exact spot he would've been on the Plains, is a major career setback.
He would've had to learn a new system anyway. Now, though, Knight is forming a program-hopping reputation, which could give some coaches pause next cycle if he's looking for a third home and isn't trying to hit the NFL draft after three years in college.
Obviously, the NIL/rev-share era is a talent-driven, mercenary-friendly era, where being a winning player will get you paid no matter what. Knight will surely find a home, since more than three quarters of the country don't have a better option than the Lucedale product.
Still, it's not a good look for Knight to have essentially been played by Pete Golding, who promised him the world and only offered him what he already had, just in a way less desirable location.