The new age of college football has added lots of new ways to build a team, none more well-known or used than the transfer portal. Ohio utilized the transfer portal very well last season, picking up big players that helped the team win the 2024 Mid-American Conference Championship. Here is every incoming Ohio transfer broken down.
Offense
RB Sieh Bangura
Bangura is one of a few former Bobcats to come back to Athens after departing in the portal. He was the first player Ohio signed this offseason and one of the biggest acquisitions after Rickey Hunt Jr. left through the portal and Anthony Tyus III graduated.
K David Dellenbach
The Utah native played his first year of college football for UCLA, and after not seeing any playing time last year he will likely be taking his first in-game kicks this year as a Bobcat.
OL Josh Waite
The Pennsylvania native stayed local for the last three years of his college career, playing at Division II school Shippensburg in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. Waite started all 11 games last year and started six the year before in 2023 for the Raiders.
WR Alfred Jordan Jr.
A veteran leader, Jordan spent the last two seasons of college football playing for Idaho State, an FCS team in the Big Sky conference. During his time as a Bengal, he put up 479 yards and three touchdowns in 2023, and four catches for 90 yards last year.
WR Colton Grover
One of the coolest tidbits about this Ohio roster this season is that new transfer Grover played at the same Phoenix high school as Parker Navarro. Both played high school ball at Desert Vista, even though they didn’t cross paths there. Last season for the South Dakota School of Mines, Grover went for 451 yards and five touchdowns.
OL Nick Marinaro
Marinaro will be spending his last season of college football in Athens after spending every other year in the Ivy League with Dartmouth. He has started 19 games over the past two seasons for the Big Green, and he was a 2024 All-Ivy Honorable Mention.
OL Andres Dewerk
Much like new head coach Brian Smith, Dewerk hails from the West Coast and he stayed close to home to start his college career, spending the first three seasons of his career with USC. He then transferred to App State, and the 6’7’’ giant played in all 11 games for the Mountaineers last year.
OL Shedrick Rhodes Jr.
Much like Bangura, Rhodes is a former Bobcat who transferred to the Big 10 for a season only to come back to Athens a year later. After starting all 13 games for Ohio in 2023, he saw action in two games last year for Rutgers.
QB Tim Carpenter
Carpenter is the only in-state product transferring in on the offensive side as the signal caller is from Trotwood, Ohio, just outside of Dayton. He spent his first year in college at Tulsa last season and saw action in four games.
Defense
DB Pierre Kemeni Jr
Kemeni is another former Bobcat who will be coming back to Athens. He played for the Bobcats in 2020 and 2021 before transferring to Texas State in 2022, going the junior college route at Garden City in 2023, before landing with New Mexico last year.
DB Rickey Hyatt Jr.
Hyatt Jr. was a top-ranked recruit out of high school at Westerville Central and played his freshman season at Kentucky before leaving for South Alabama, where he spent the last three years as a Jaguar.
DL Nehemiah Dukes
The junior defensive lineman played his last two seasons just north of Athens at Youngstown State. Last year he played in all 12 games for the Penguins and recorded a sack in the process. He and other transfers on the defensive line are needed heavily this upcoming year.
DL Anas Luqman
Similar to the Grover and Navarro connection, Luqman played his high school football at Princeton in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was on the same roster as wide receiver Rodney Harris II. Luqman rejoins Harris after spending last year at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
DL Evan Herrmann
Coming out of high school, Herrmann was a three-star recruit and the top recruit in the state of Wisconsin. Vanderbilt was sold on his talents, and he spent the last two years there, but didn’t do much in a limited role in the SEC.
DB Jaymar Mundy
A former Miami RedHawk, Mundy has spent time on the other side of the Battle of the Bricks rivalry as a freshman in 2021. After that year in Oxford, he transferred to Hutchinson CC, a junior college, which allowed him to play his last season of football with Western Kentucky.
DB Ronald Jackson
Jackson will be coming to Ohio for his fifth year of college football, and he will be returning to the MAC in the process. He spent his first three years in college as a Zip before transferring to Montana for the last two years.
DB Caleb Chamberlin
Chamberlain will be the second former Air Force Falcon to come to Ohio, joining secondary partner Mike Mack. The Florida native redshirted last season and didn’t see any game action as a Falcon.
LB Derek Reagans
Reagans will be coming to Athens from the Community College of San Francisco, a junior college in the Bay Area. Last year he put up 22 tackles in six games and he looks to be involved this year after the departure of Shay Taylor.
LB Makel Williams
Another linebacker, Williams also comes from a small school in Fort Hays State, located in Hays, Kansas. He was named to the All-Mid American Intercollegiate Athletics Association third team in 2022 and 2023, and put up 88 tackles last year.
