ACC Football Favorites Keeping Best Players From Portal Exits
By David Glenn
On his way to the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference football championship, Duke’s first outright league title on the gridiron since 1962, coach Manny Diaz talked about player retention as one of the bedrocks of the Blue Devils’ program.
Especially in the modern revenue-sharing and Name-Image-Likeness era, Diaz said, it is a “superpower” to be able to keep your top players — i.e., almost all starters and projected starters — through some combination of a healthy locker-room culture and, nowadays, competitive financial offers.
“You get a lot of people that were really raised the same way,” Diaz said. “Guess what happens when you put them in a locker room? They really enjoy playing with and for one another.
“So, when that (transfer) portal opens, they don’t want to leave their best friends. I’d like to take credit for it; it ain’t me. They want to play for the guys down there, and that’s because they’re about the same stuff.”
After the Blue Devils finished 9-4 in 2024, Diaz’s first year in Durham, they lost only two starters to the transfer portal. That’s an uncommonly low number for most programs in the modern era, and that impressive offseason stability contributed heavily to the Devils’ title-winning campaign in 2025.
That offseason picture looks even brighter when you consider that one of the two starters who left Duke last year actually was pushed out the door. Quarterback Maalik Murphy confirmed publicly that he did not have the option of returning to Durham, and the Devils ultimately made a major upgrade at that all-important position with then-incoming Tulane transfer Darian Mensah, who went on to earn both All-ACC recognition and the ACC title game MVP honor.
In reality, then, the 2025 ACC champion Blue Devils had lost only a single 2024 starter with remaining eligibility (running back Star Thomas, who transferred to Tennessee) they actually wanted back from the previous year. In hindsight, that single fact was, indeed, a huge part of the program’s history-making campaign.
With that in mind, and as the 2026 season nears, it’s important to remember that none of the ACC’s four in-state programs (Duke, NC State, UNC, Wake Forest) managed that uncommon level of offseason stability this time, whereas all three of the league’s preseason favorites (Miami, SMU, Louisville) did.
North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick checks his tablet during a break in the action during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Stanford, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
2024/2025 Starters Who Transferred Out
11 — Florida State 8 — Boston College, Cal 7 — Pitt 5 — NC State, Wake Forest 4 — Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse 3 — Clemson, Stanford, Virginia 2 — Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech 1 — Louisville, SMU 0 — Miami
Within a month or so of its ACC championship, Duke had lost not only four starters to the transfer portal, but four players who had received All-ACC recognition during their time in Durham: Mensah (Miami), wide receiver Cooper Barkate (Miami), all-purpose player Que’Sean Brown (Virginia Tech) and safety Terry Moore (Ohio State).
Similarly, in Raleigh, the #1 reason for skepticism heading into a season where NC State coach Dave Doeren and star quarterback CJ Bailey are talking openly about the Wolfpack as ACC title contenders is the program’s loss of five of its best 2025 players to the transfer portal. If the Pack had been able to keep wide receiver Terrell Anderson (Southern Cal), left tackle Jacarrius Peak (South Carolina), wide receiver Noah Rogers (Alabama), running back Hollywood Smothers (Texas) and linebacker Kenny Soares Jr. (Michigan State), it would have had a much better chance of helping State to its first ACC title since 1979.
Meanwhile, although not all of the starting-caliber portal departures (see details below) from UNC or Wake Forest were standout performers in 2025, most of them will be starting this season at places such as Arkansas, Auburn, Oklahoma State, Texas and Texas A&M.
Overall, among the 17 ACC football programs, whereas Florida State (11), Boston College (eight) and Cal (eight) all experienced massive talent exoduses via the transfer portal, the top three teams in the media’s preseason predictions — Miami, SMU and Louisville — lost few, if any, players of significance to other college programs.
SMU coach Rhett Lashlee has averaged more than 10 victories per season over his last three years with the Mustangs. That stretch included a conference championship in the program’s final season in the American Conference (2023) and a trip to the league title game in its ACC debut (2024).
“It’s crazy to say it out loud, but we haven’t lost a starter (that we tried to retain) to the portal in the last four years. We haven’t lost a person in our two-deep that we tried to retain in the last four years,” Lashlee said. “So, credit to our staff, to the culture our staff and players have created.
“I can’t totally explain it. I can tell you that once you’re in our program, you’re family. It doesn’t mean that some guys don’t leave, to play more (elsewhere) or for certain reasons, but we really do our best to do our due diligence on who we bring in, creating that atmosphere.
“Our staff, we’ve committed (to the concept) that we retain before we attain. So, retention is our focus before we go out and acquire. And I think, because of that, our guys know that if they’re in our program and they’re busting their tail and they’re performing, we’re going to do everything we can to reward them for that before we just go out and bring in somebody that hadn’t been in the program.”
While the retention of starting-caliber players is merely one piece in a complicated college football puzzle, it remains an element worth watching closely.
Duke used it as a launching pad for the Blue Devils’ 2025 ACC championship.
Now Miami, SMU and Louisville appear to have similarly strong foundations heading into the 2026 season.
Big Four 2024/2025 Starters Who Transferred Out (2026)
Duke
WR Cooper Barkate, Gr. (2nd-team All-ACC; 185 career catches, 2,848 yards, 21 TD) — MIAMI WR/PR Que’Sean Brown, r-Jr. (2024 HM All-ACC PR; 107 career catches, 1,310 yards, 7 TD) — VIRGINIA TECH QB Darian Mensah, r-Jr. (2nd-team All-ACC; 523-787 career passing, 6,696 yards, 56 TD, 12 INT) — MIAMI S Terry Moore, r-Sr. (2024 2nd-team All-ACC; 116 career tackles, 10.5 TFL, 3.5 sacks, 8 PD, 4 INT) — OHIO STATENorth Carolina
LB Khmori House, Jr. (HM All-ACC; team-leading 78 tackles) — ARKANSAS TE Jake Johnson, r-Sr. (primary 2025 TE; 6 career starts, 43 catches, 402 yards, 5 TD) — AUBURN QB Gio Lopez, r-Jr. (23 career starts, 417-634 passing, 4,781 yards, 32 TD, 12 INT) — WAKE FOREST DT CJ Mims, Sr. (9 career starts, 79 tackles, 8 TFL, 4 sacks, 3 FF) — TEXAS A&MNorth Carolina State
WR Terrell Anderson, Jr. (5 starts in 2025; 53 career catches, 787 yards, 6 TD) — SOUTHERN CAL LT Jacarrius Peak, r-Sr. (HM All-ACC; 3-year starter; 32 career starts) — SOUTH CAROLINA WR Noah Rogers, r-Jr. (2-year starter; 22 career starts, 68 catches, 919 yards, 3 TD) — ALABAMA RB Hollywood Smothers, r-Jr. (1st-team All-ACC; 17 career starts, 249 carries, 1,510 yards, 15 TD) — TEXAS LB Kenny Soares Jr., Gr. (13 career starts, 137 tackles, 9.5 TFL, 3 sacks) — MICHIGAN STATEWake Forest
WR/KR Chris Barnes, r-So. (3rd-team All-ACC KR, HM All-ACC AP) — OKLAHOMA STATE WR Sterling Berkhalter, Gr. (24 career starts, 76 catches, 1,083 yards, 5 TD) — TEXAS P Cal Joseph, So. (starter; 36-yard career average) — SAM HOUSTON STATE WR Micah Mays Jr., r-Jr., (2024 starter; 13 career starts, 34 catches, 520 yards, 4 TD) — FLORIDA LT Melvin Siani, r-Jr. (2-year starter at Temple/Wake; 24 career starts) — TEXASDavid Glenn (DavidGlennShow.com, @DavidGlennShow) is an award-winning author, broadcaster, editor, entrepreneur, publisher, speaker, writer and university lecturer (now at UNC Wilmington) who has covered sports in North Carolina since 1987.
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