(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)
TEMPE – Arizona State football was in dire need of some reinforcements.
The 2025 season was an interesting one for the Sun Devils; inconsistent play and an overwhelming number of injuries led to an 8-5 record and a Sun Bowl loss, just one season after climbing to the top of the Big 12.
Adding insult to injury, the program’s prized redshirt sophomore quarterback, Sam Leavitt, entered the transfer portal, eventually committing to LSU and partnering with the program’s new head coach, Lane Kiffin.
The loss of Leavitt stabbed the hearts of ASU fans more than any, but he wasn’t the only big name to depart Tempe. Starting redshirt sophomore cornerback Javan Robinson left for Wisconsin, and redshirt junior 1,000-yard rusher Raleek Brown found his way to Texas.
The Sun Devils also fell victim to the natural cycle of college football, with stars like wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, cornerback Keith Abney II, right tackle Max Iheanachor, and defensive lineman Prince Dorbah all declaring for the NFL Draft.
With so many holes to fill, ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham had to look toward the transfer portal to retool his roster.
Since taking over as head coach in 2023, Dillingham and his staff have found gems in the portal, including the likes of Cam Skattebo, Leavitt, and Tyson in the portal. The most iconic class of Dillingham’s tenure was easily the 2024 class, which introduced dozens of key contributors to the Sun Devils 2024 Big 12 Championship title.
He and his staff attracted 25 free agents, including three four-stars, to take their talents to the Valley of the Sun. When all was said and done, ASU’s transfer class was ranked as No. 15 in the nation by 247Sports, ahead of Michigan and Alabama.
Dillingham and Co. have replenished the Sun Devils’ depth chart from top to bottom. Now, it’s up to the transfers to put in the work and get ready to help the returners when gates open at Mountain America Stadium in September.
Here’s a breakdown of the transfer class.
One of the biggest fish that Dillingham caught was former Kentucky QB and rising redshirt sophomore Cutter Boley.
Boley was 247Sports’ No. 19 quarterback in the transfer portal after an up-and-down 2025. He first appeared late in the Wildcats Week 2 loss to Ole Miss, before starting the rest of the way, posting 2,160 passing yards and 15 touchdown passes on a 65.8% completion rate at season’s end.
The 6-foot-5 QB is an intriguing talent; he doesn’t have the same scrambling ability as Leavitt, but he has a lively arm and showcased flashes of greatness, particularly in his 330-yard, five-touchdown performance against then-No. 17 Tennessee.
Boley is a project, but it’s easy to see why he and Dillingham were a natural fit.
“I wanted to be somewhere that they wanted me, and they were excited about me,” Boley said. “I think this whole coaching staff really showed me that, and at the same time, it was the same on my end.
“The biggest thing was, what do I need to do for my development and my process at quarterback to become the best player I could be on and off the field.”
Boley appears primed to be named ASU’s starting quarterback, but he wasn’t the only transfer at the position to find his way to Tempe, and he definitely doesn’t have the most experience.
That designation would go to Graduate Mikey Keene, who started 34 games across four years at Central Florida and Fresno State before backing up true freshman Bryce Underwood at Michigan a season ago.
Keene, 247’s No. 99 QB in the portal, has embraced being the veteran of the QB room, but what attracted the Chandler native back home was a chance to become a starter once more.
“All I needed was a chance to compete,” Keene said. “That sealed the deal for me.”
No matter who wins the battle for QB1, they’ll need people to throw to. Dillingham and wide receivers coach Hines Ward put in work to make sure that wouldn’t be an issue.
The duo landed a trio of wide receivers, highlighted by rising senior Omarion Miller, who comes with a 0.9500 247Sports transfer grade, the highest in ASU history.
Miller earned that grade after an 808-yard, eight-touchdown season with Colorado, and figures to replace fellow former Buff Jordyn Tyson, who he surpassed to become ASU’s highest graded transfer – atop the depth chart.
The parallels with Tyson don’t stop at their similar paths to Tempe. Miller similarly plays the game to the man he’s replacing, saying that Sun Devil fans can expect “A lot of big plays and taking the top off (defenses).”
Rising redshirt junior Reed Harris, 247’s No. 4 transfer portal wide receiver after posting 673 yards and five touchdowns at Boston College last season, joins Miller in Tempe to create a dangerous duo.
At 6-foot-5, 217 lbs., Harris is the bigger of the two, and describes himself as a “big body receiver,” but that doesn’t mean he can’t run downfield.
Harris, like Miller, takes pride in his ability to take the top off the defense, as well as his blocking ability, which should be music to Ward’s ears, as the wide receiver coach preaches the mantra of “no block, no rock.”
Rounding out the wide receiver additions is three-star rising sophomore wide receiver Raiden Vines-Bright, who spent his freshman season as a member of the Washington Huskies. He put up 238 yards and a touchdown on 24 receptions while operating primarily in the slot.
2026 will be something of a homecoming for Vines-Bright, who grew up in the Valley and attended Corona Del Sol High School before transferring to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for his senior year.
“It’s a great feeling,” Vines-Bright said. “Even just the weather, I’m a lot more happier here. I feel more positive, I feel excited to work out, I’m excited to do everything.”
In the running back room, Kyson Brown is the favorite to start after losing that role and most of his junior season to injuries; however, depth and potential studs were added to the equation.
The first running back to commit to ASU was three-star rising junior David Avit. Like Sun Devil legend and now New York Giant, Cam Skattebo, Avit comes from an FCS school. In his case, Villanova.
Skattebo’s development into one of the best running backs in college football, aided by ASU running backs coach Shaun Aguano, stood out to Avit during the portal process.
“Aguano has never had less than a 1,000-yard rusher,” Avit said. “So why not me? Why not be here? Cam Skattebo came from FCS, too. I feel like I’ve been doubted a lot, and I feel like this is really my year to show the whole nation, really, that I’ve been this player since high school, and I’ve been a great player.”
The stats and awards help make Avit’s case. He was named to the Maryland All-State first team twice in high school and set a freshman record at Villanova with 923 rushing yards before registering 687 on 125 rushing attempts in just 10 games as a sophomore.
Two days after Avit committed on Jan. 4, fellow three-star FCS back Marquis Gillis, a graduate student from Delaware State, joined him in Tempe.
Gillis appeared in 38 games across a five-year period for the Hornets, totalling 2,474 rushing yards and 19 rushing touchdowns. His best season came last year, breaking the 1,000-yard barrier (1,166) for the first time and scoring eight touchdowns on the ground.
Gillis made headlines after his commitment, when it became clear just how much he wanted to be a Sun Devil, telling 247Sports that he told ASU coaches he would sleep in an airport just to get the opportunity to meet them.
On Jan. 9, ASU added two tight ends to the roster in the form of three-star rising redshirt junior Anthony Miller from Tulane and three-star rising junior Kristian Ingman from Portland State; a necessity following starting and second-string tight ends Chamon Metayer and Cameron Harpole running out of eligibility.
Miller and Ingman could still figure to be depth pieces, given their lack of production at the Power Four level and ASU’s still deep tight end room. Miller only registered five receptions for 60 yards and a touchdown in 2025, while Ingman caught 23 passes for 342 yards, but no touchdowns.
The Sun Devils addressed their needs in the trenches by bringing in four linemen, two on each side of the ball.
Between the two offensive additions, three-star rising senior Luke Baklenko from Oklahoma has the most experience.
The veteran has seen most of his recent action at right tackle, operating in a reserve role at the position for the Sooners a season ago. The year prior, however, he made 11 appearances and nine starts there for Stanford, recording a 56.3 pass block grade and a 52.3 run block grade per Pro Football Focus.
Baklenko saw five starts in his freshman season, all at left tackle.
The SEC transfer is joined by three-star rising junior Tana Alo-Tupuola, who spent his first two years in the collegiate game at Georgia Tech.
Alo-Tupuola, who has experience at center, primarily played on special teams his freshman year before carving out a bigger role on the Yellow Jackets’ offensive line as a sophomore, starting four of Georgia Tech’s final six games.
On the defensive side of the ball, ASU was able to nab three-star rising redshirt senior defensive edge Emar’rion Winston from Big 12 foe Baylor.
Winston recorded 26 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, three sacks, and five quarterback hits, leading the Bears in the final two categories. Against the run, Winston’s eight stops were sixth in the Big 12, something that should help him fit into a Sun Devils defense that allowed the third fewest rushing yards per game in the conference a season ago.
Before his time at Baylor, Winston played 30 games across three seasons at Oregon, including one against the Sun Devils in 2023, where he registered two tackles.
Fellow three-star rising redshirt senior defensive edge Jalen Thompson from Michigan State rounds out the lineman transfers.
Thompson played a major role on the Spartans’ defense in his first three years of college football, playing over 1,000 snaps across 31 games and 26 starts, recording 66 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, and a forced fumble. His 2025 season was the best of his career so far, leading MSU with 6.5 tackles for loss and tying the team lead with 2.5 sacks.
Both Winston and Thompson will have a chance to make an impact on a defensive line that saw seven players run out of eligibility, declare for the NFL Draft, or enter the transfer portal.
Outside the line, ASU added nine players to its defense through the transfer portal in an effort to replace the departures of players like Abney and the senior linebacker duo of Jordan Crook and Keyshaun Elliott.
While last year’s seniors will surely be missed by Sun Devil fans, Dillingham and his coaches did well to find talent, not just quantity, on the open market.
Four-star rising junior linebacker Owen Long arguably leads the way in that department.
Long, who comes to the Valley via Colorado State, led the FCS in both tackles (151) and tackles per game (12.6) a season ago. Five of those tackles resulted in a loss of yards, and he registered two sacks, five pass breakups, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries, and 33 stops against the run to go along with those.
His efforts led to an AP Third-Team All-American selection – an honor he shared with Tyson – and his four-star rating entering the transfer portal after being a three-star recruit.
“It’s easy to see why this is such a good place,” Long said. “Being around this building, this coaching staff, there’s just a lot of good things here, and a lot of stuff to be excited for coming up soon.”
Long is joined in the linebacker room by rising redshirt sophomore Ramere Davis, who Sun Devil fans might remember for recording nine tackles against ASU in 2025’s season opener as a member of the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.
Davis, who can operate as an edge rusher, started all 12 games of NAU’s games at outside linebacker, and finished the season leading the team with 5.5 sacks and nine QB hurries, and tied for the team lead in tackles with 65, 7.5 of which were for a loss of yards.
Davis performance in 2025 earned him FCS Freshman All-American honors from FCS Football Central and Stats Perform after appearing in only five games and registering just two tackles in 2024.
As much as Long and Davis have already accomplished in their collegiate careers, neither of them has seen close to as much football as rising redshirt fifth-year defensive back Lyrik Rawls, who, alongside rising junior Ashton Stamps and rising redshirt sophomore Antoine “AJ” Belgrave-Shorter, leads the DB transfers with a 0.8600 247 grade.
Rawls spent the first four years of his career at Oklahoma State, recording 67 tackles, six pass deflections, two interceptions – one of which came against ASU and then-freshman QB Jaden Rashada in Rawls injury-shortened 2023 season – and a forced fumble.
He transferred to Kansas for his redshirt senior season, where he started all 12 games at safety. He recorded 73 tackles, good enough for second-most on the Jayhawks, as well as seven pass breakups and an interception while not allowing a touchdown all year.
“When I came here on the visit, they (the coaching staff) just seemed so welcoming and so down to earth,” Rawls said. “I knew that was the type of people I wanted to be around.”
Belgrave-Shorter earned his grade after recording 14 tackles across three starts, all at safety, and nine total games for Penn State, appearing on both defense and special teams. He recorded just six tackles across seven games in his true freshman 2024 season.
A third safety was added through the transfer portal in the form of rising sophomore Jessiah McGrew, who earned numerous honors, including All-CUSA Second Team and Football Writers Association of America Freshman All-American for his efforts at FIU.
McGrew started 12 of the Panthers 13 games at free safety, recording 68 tackles, five pass breakups, two forced fumbles, a blocked kick, and led the team with four interceptions.
As previously mentioned, Ashton Stamps was one of the highest graded transfers whom Dillingham’s staff landed in the portal. Stamps, who spent three years at LSU, has big shoes to fill in the cornerbacks room, but the talent to make it happen.
Stamps started 16 games at corner for the Tigers across his freshman and sophomore seasons, appearing in 24 games total, recording 74 tackles and 16 pass breakups, 14 of which came in his sophomore year and ranked him third in the SEC.
In his junior season, he was relegated to a backup role, appearing in three games before deciding to sit out the season and enter the transfer portal.
Outside of Stamps, rising redshirt junior Chance Rucker has the most starting experience at cornerback, with 10 starts and 23 total appearances for Michigan State from 2023-25.
Like Stamps, most of Rucker’s starting experience came earlier in his career. He made eight starts as a freshman before suffering a season-ending injury in week two of his sophomore campaign and when he came back in 2025, he only started again once.
Across his 23 career games, he’s registered 31 tackles, seven pass deflections and an interception.
Rising redshirt freshman Nigel Pringle and Caleb Chester, who have a combined nine games of experience under their belts, were also picked up in the transfer portal.
Pringle has played the most out of the two, appearing in eight games for Arkansas in 2025. He only managed to make two tackles, one in the Razorbacks’ season opener against Alabama A&M and his second against LSU in November.
Chester appeared in just one game for Texas last season and didn’t record any statistics.
After the Sun Devils found success with transfer redshirt senior kicker Jesus Gomez a season ago, Dillingham and new special teams coordinator Jack Nudo hopped back into the portal to grab rising fifth-year Carson Smith from Austin Peay, who played under Nudo in 2024.
Smith earned Second-Team All-United Athletic Conference honors that year, connecting on 13-of-20 field goal attempts – with a long of 53 – and 32-of-33 point after attempts. In 2025, he was even better, being named the UAC specialist of the year after going 14-of-17 on field goals and 53-for-53 on extra points.
Smith also kicked off 76 times with 47 touchbacks and only one try going out of bounds.
ASU is also attempting to address a need at punter after posting the lowest average yards per punt in the Big 12 a season ago by bringing in three-star rising redshirt sophomore Nick McLarty.
McLarty, who’s originally from Melbourne, Australia, and stands 6-foot-7, 255 lbs., comes from Ohio State, where he didn’t appear in any games. McLarty has, however, shown off his leg before, punting a ball 90 yards over a stadium.
The Sun Devils also added another long snapper to compete with rising redshirt senior Tyler Wigglesworth – who appeared in six games last season – in the form of fellow rising redshirt senior Grayson Curtis from New Mexico State.
Curtis served as the Aggies primary long snapper in 2025, and was able to get 52.4% of his snaps off in under 0.9 seconds, per PPF, which was the 13th highest mark in the FBS among players with a minimum of 100 snaps.
The No. 15 transfer class in the nation gives ASU the chance to not only bounce back to its 2024 highs, but potentially even bounce forward.
To get there, though, the players, each with different backgrounds and stories, need to come together and form a unit. Luckily for the Sun Devils, many members of the team are already forming tight bonds inside and outside the walls of their training facilities.
It’ll be up to the Sun Devils to see if they can keep their chemistry up and learn how to work with each other as plays are hammered in and jobs are fought and won across the spring and early fall before Morgan State comes into town on Sep. 5 and the season officially gets underway.
“You got to learn your brother is your brother,” Boley said. “You play better together when you know somebody on a real level. When you’re out there on the field, you’re just going to be more comfortable and be able to communicate better with them.”
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