I will present this spreadsheet without comment until after you check it out. Information is from On3 and 24/7 Sports.

Position	Player	Transferred From	Ht/Wt	On3	24/7 Sports	Average
DL	Lee Hunter	UCF	6-4/320	92	92	92.00
OT	Hunter Zambrano	Illinois State	6-5/300	90	93	91.50
CB	Brice Pollack	Mississippi State	6-1/190	91	90	90.50
RB	Quinten Joyner	USC	5-11/216	90	90	90.00
DE	Romello Height	Georgia Tech	6-3/240	88	92	90.00
TE	Terrance Carter	Louisiana-Lafayette	6-4/240	90	90	90.00
WR	Reginald Virgil	Miami (Ohio)	6-4/190	90	90	90.00
OT	Howard Sampson	North Carolina	6-8/330	90	89	89.50
DL	Skyler Gill-Howard	Northern Illinois	6-1/285	90	88	89.00
S	Cole Wisniewski	North Dakota State	6-4/218	89	89	89.00
CB	Tarrion Grant	Purdue	6-2/197	90	87	88.50
CB	Amier Boyd-Matthews	UTEP	6-1/180	86	89	87.50
OT	Will Jados	Miami (Ohio)	6-8/307	86	88	87.00
CB	Dontae Balfour	Charlotte	6-2/180	88	86	87.00
DL	Anthony Holmes	Houston	6-3/295	87	86	86.50
QB	Mitch Griffis	Wake Forest	5-11/183	86	85	85.50
K	Upton Bellenfant	Buffalo	6-2/180	80	80	80.00

At first glance, this looks amazing. All of those high scores and 90’s and 80’s and you’re thinking (I was thinking this too) that this transfer haul is bananas and this is the announcement to the CFP that Texas Tech is on the way.

Now what if I told you that Sterling Porcher was graded an 88. Trevon McAlpine is also an 88. Javeon Wilcox is 89. Jalon Peoples is an 88. Kaden Carr is an 86, D.J. Crest is an 87, Jake Strong is an 87. Ty Buchanan is an 87. Micah Hudson is a 93. You get the idea. Those out-going players that are middling players at best are also rated really high and there’s going to be a fan at some school who looks at that and thinks they’ve upgraded and you’d politely let them know to maybe not bet all of their ducats on these players.

This caused me to consider what is the best method of evaluating these transfers? Relying on these “ratings” seems pointless in comparison and short of me watching highlight videos of these players and doing evaluations on my own (which would take up a lot of time), I wanted to find something else that could tell me that Texas Tech was on the right path in terms of transfers or wasn’t.

Although you may groan at the source, ESPN ranked the best 50 players in the portal and Max Olson has been covering college football for a long time and I trust his perspective.

#17 DT Lee Hunter: Hunter was scheduled to take an official visit to Texas after his trip to Lubbock. The Red Raiders weren’t going to let that happen and got a deal done to add him to their growing portal class. They’re shoving all-in for 2025, and Hunter is their biggest get yet. New Texas Tech DC Shiel Wood adds one of the Big 12’s best returning D-linemen and can expect him to make a significant impact in the middle of his defense.

#25 OT Howard Sampson: The Humble, Texas, native is coming home to join a Texas Tech squad that is absolutely loading up to chase a Big 12 championship in 2025. The Red Raiders had a big need at tackle with super senior right tackle Caleb Rogers graduating and left tackle Ty Buchanan hitting the portal, and they succeeded in locking up one of the best on the market.

#32 OT Hunter Zambrano: The combination of Howard Sampson and Zambrano should help the Red Raiders get a lot better up front in 2025. Zambrano is a legit NFL draft prospect who’s ready to prove he can compete at the highest level, and it’ll be interesting to see which spot he holds down in the lineup in Lubbock.

#37 OLB Romello Height: The Red Raiders are getting the No. 1 edge defender on their board and someone who they trust can be an impact pass rusher in Wood’s defense. Going into his fourth school in six years, Height should be treating 2025 like a contract year and bringing his absolute best to go out and prove he’s an NFL draft pick.

#49 WR Reggie Virgil: The Red Raiders just got a big year out of Washington State transfer Josh Kelly, who earned second-team All-Big 12 honors in 2024, and are hoping for similar success with Virgil. With Micah Hudson and three more wideouts currently in the portal, Texas Tech had a clear need at this position and got Virgil locked up before he took more visits.

ESPN’s Billy Tucker also picked out his favorite sleeper prospects, which are smaller-college prospects who could be household names in 2025:

S Cole Wisniewski: Wisniewski might be making a big jump, but he has played in a lot of big games and in arguably the toughest conference in FCS. He was a consensus first-team All-American in 2023 after leading all FCS defenders with eight interceptions (including one pick-six) over 14 games to go along with a team-high 92 tackles. That’s after making the move back to the secondary from linebacker. He can line up anywhere and remain quick to read, react and attack. Wisniewski pursues with purpose and direct angles against the run and utilizes his strong range and ball skills when deployed as a half-field safety. The Red Raiders have a scheme-versatile defender who fills some voids in the back-seven.

OT Hunter Zambrano: Zambrano developed into a three-year starter at left tackle for the Redbirds after going under the radar as a high school prospect due to injuries. The late bloomer signed with Illinois State and has been dominant when healthy. Once enrolled, he transformed his body and gained more functional strength and athleticism. Zambrano has started at left tackle, but his agility is more suited for right tackle at the FBS level. He could also develop on the interior at guard given his power and leverage. That versatility makes him even more valuable. Zambrano demonstrates good feet and hands in pass protection and is technically sound overall. Given the lack of depth in Lubbock, he should be an immediate starter for the Red Raiders.

The one thing that Rivals did do is rank every player in the portal and I am sure that this is a bit of a moving target, but here are the results of the players arriving:

Rivals Rank	Player
42	Hunter Zambrano
73	Tarrion Grant
75	Lee Hunter
104	Quinten Joyner
105	Romello Height
117	Brice Pollack
139	Terrance Carter
188	Dontae Balfour
216	Skyler Gill-Howard
232	Anthony Holmes
243	Howard Sampson
259	Reginald Virgil
296	Cole Wisniewski
750	Amier Boyd-Matthews
947	Will Jados
1646	Mitch Griffis
1654	Upton Bellenfant
416.82	Average
216	Median

And here are the results of the players leaving (and there will need to be more I would guess):

Rivals Rank	Player
3	Micah Hudson
569	Jalon Peoples
614	Jake Strong
670	DJ Crest
733	Brady Boyd
769	Ty Buchanan
789	Kaden Carr
804	Jordan Brown
976	Trevon McAlpine
1042	Kaden Turner
1088	Miles Thompson
1308	Garrett Morphis
1354	Cameran Brown
1366	Cooper Lafebre
1630	TJ West
914.33	Average
804	Median

And I’d like to state that for the players who are leaving that their stories aren’t written yet and they may end up being better than this ranking right now. The players that are coming on board are older and more established and the players leaving don’t have a ton of experience. Regardless, there is significant improvement overall. Just 1 player, Micah Hudson, being a top-500 player and replacing that with 13 top-500 players seems like a win overall.

And to summarize, who are the best players based on people who scout and look at these sorts of things? ESPN likes Hunter, Sampson, Zambrano, Height and Virgil with Wisniewski and Zambrano getting sleeper status. According to Rivals, Zambrano, Grant, Hunter, Joyner Height, Pollack, Carter, and Balfour have top-200 status.

Players that both ESPN and Rivals like? Hunter, Zambrano, and Height are the most well-liked by both both.

I’d also like to state that I really started this with wanting to just take the rating of each player as I presented in the first table, but when I realized that the results didn’t appear to be that meaningful in comparison to the players leaving, I decided to try again and do so more research. That’s what eventually resulted with this post this morning. Again, we’ll have to see it on the field, but I wanted some sort of clarification about how good the transfers actually were.