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A big trend that we are seeing in college football this season is players that are contributing often deciding to take red shirts so that they can enter the transfer portal when the season is over. This started with UNLV’s starting quarterback, Matthew Sluka, opting for a red shirt despite being the team’s starter and the Rebels being ranked in the top-25. His reasoning was NIL issues, but we have seen it for a lot of different reasons. Another big player that decided to go this route is USC football defensive lineman Bear Alexander.
It’s very normal for players to red shirt to save their eligibility, but players typically go that route because they aren’t getting any playing time. There’s no point in wasting one of your years of eligibility if you aren’t going to play at all. However, starting QBs and contributing defensive linemen opting out of the season so that they can maintain eligibility and transfer somewhere else after the season? That is something that we are going to have to get used to in this new era of college football.
Bear Alexander made this decision after the USC football team went on the road and lost against Michigan in week four. Alexander was on the field for a decent chunk of the game, but his dad was not happy with the amount of playing time that Alexander got. He took his frustrations to social media.
“But s**t what yall want from him with 21 f**king snaps,” Alexander's dad said in a post. “But let’s watch every snap from the interior defensive lineman this game and let’s see who the f**k was WHO. My son won’t be the mf scapegoat, if you ask me he had the best game inside, in only 21 f**king snaps.”
USC head coach Lincoln Riley was obviously aware of the situation, and it was a big topic of discussion during media availabilities the following week. Riley seemed a bit surprised as he saw Alexander as an important part of the defense and thought that he was playing during some important moments of the game.
“He played over a third of the game,” Lincoln Riley said, according to an article from On3. “People want to act like he’s not playing snaps. He’s doing a good job for us out here. There’s no story there. I know you guys are looking for one. There’s no story there. Guy’s out here working hard. He’s in a new system, with a new coach. He’s getting better, and I think he’s going to get better. It should be hard to play D-line at USC. It ought to be kind of hard. It wasn’t hard last year, that’s why we weren’t very good up front. You know what, we’re pretty decent up there. And it’s hard. The margins are thin. So sometimes, it’s not what someone is not doing, but it’s competitive, and there’s tough decisions to make every week.”
Shortly after those comments were made by Lincoln Riley, Alexander decided to red shirt, and he will enter the transfer portal when the season ends. There were initial rumors that Alexander had interest in Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas. However, whether or not the teams have interest in him is important too.
Bear Alexander is clearly going to bring some baggage. This will be his third time in the transfer portal, and teams know that they will have an angry dad to deal with if he doesn’t play a lot. Not every team will want him. So, which teams would be a good fit? Here are two:
Colorado
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There are now rumors swirling that Bear Alexander has a lot of interest in Colorado. The Buffaloes weren’t initially mentioned, but the rumor started because of a post from Blue Bloods Bias on social media:
“REPORT: USC Transfer DT Bear Alexander's camp tells me that he has MAJOR interest in Colorado…The Star DT announced his intentions to enter the Portal a few weeks ago, & already publicized a list of schools he had interest in,” The post read. “However, Colorado wasn't on that original list. This is a MAJOR twist in his recruitment… What was his reason for the new interest in the Buffs? Bear has a big desire to play for both Coach Prime & DL Coach Warren Sapp. The opportunity to play under 2 NFL Legends is the PERFECT situation for a star to thrive.”
Colorado would be a good fit for Alexander, and it’s a place that probably wouldn’t have a lot of concerns about Alexander’s past and the issues with playing time this year. The Buffaloes just need good football players, and Alexander is a good football player.
Georgia
Bear Alexander started his career at Georgia, and that could be a good fit for him now as well. The Bulldogs recruited Alexander for a reason, they want him to be Bulldog, and maybe it’s not too late. Things didn’t work out the first time, but if there’s one head coach in college football that can get the most out of Alexander, it’s Kirby Smart.
Kirby Smart isn’t going to let the complaining about playing time stuff fly, and he is going to make that known before Alexander comes back. That is a big IF. Smart might not want to deal with Alexander again.
We won’t know where Alexander will end up for a while as he can’t technically enter the transfer portal until the end of the season, but those two schools seem like good fits.
