Miami Hurricanes Lose Former Four-Star Linebacker to Transfer Portal

The Miami Hurricanes lost by just one score to the Indiana Hoosiers in the National Championship Game. An interception by Carson Beck on the final drive ended the Hurricanes’ shot at winning their first national title since 2001.

With the season ending in a painful fashion, players now have five days from the end of the national title to decide whether or not they want to enter the Transfer Portal. Miami has already added a bunch of players from the portal before they played for the national title.

Now, the Hurricanes are losing a very talented player to the Transfer Portal on the defensive end of the ball. Miami has lost linebacker Malik Bryant to the portal.

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The Miami Hurricanes Lose Malik Bryant to the Transfer Portal

According to Pete Nakos of ON3, Bryant has officially entered the Transfer Portal. He did so with a no-contact tag, meaning he already has a place in mind that he will be playing next year. Bryant will leave with three years of eligibility remaining at his new destination.

Bryant had limited laying time in the two years he played for the Hurricanes. In the two seasons that Bryant played in Miami, he had just 19 tackles. Bryant was a four-star recruit coming out of high school in the 2023 recruiting class. He is clearly a talented player.

Miami won’t miss Bryant heading into next season since he didn’t play much of a factor with the defense in the first two years. Still, the Hurricanes are losing a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball. That is especially true with the defensive line.

The Hurricanes will lose both Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Messidor to the NFL Draft. Both of them will likely be first-round picks. Keeping as much talent in the front seven would be ideal for the Hurricanes next season.

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The Miami Hurricanes Are Still Doing Work in the Transfer Portal

While Miami will lose a lot of key pieces from this team, they aren’t finished doing work in the portal, either. Right now, they have just the 51st-ranked Transfer Portal class in the country. Now that their season is over, they can comb through the players who are left in the portal.

Miami has just six commits through the portal right now, but they are also linked to Duke quarterback Darian Mensah. Mensah is locked in a dispute with the Blue Devils over a contract that he signed right now, so it’s unclear if he will be able to enter the portal at all.

If the Hurricanes are able to land him, they have a shot to make the College Football Playoff once again next season. The ACC is the worst P4 conference in the country, so they won’t have a tough conference schedule to get through next season. All they need is a quarterback to guide them and some reinforcements on the defensive line.

Ryan Stano Ryan Stano covers the NBA for Heavy.com. He has been covering sports since 2017, covering the NFL, College Football, College Basketball, and the NBA. His work has been featured on Yahoo, Bleacher Report, FanSided, and Sports Illustrated. More about Ryan Stano