Key non-QB transfers for the 2026 college football season: Can Cam Coleman and Raleek Brown push Texas back into the playoff?
We went through the key quarterbacks who changed schools ahead of the 2026 season earlier this week. Now it's time to take a look at the top non-quarterbacks who transferred schools this offseason.
RB Raleek Brown (Arizona State to Texas)
Brown headlines Texas' backfield makeover after the 2025 season. Tre Wisner led the Longhorns with 597 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Texas' rushing TD leader and second-leading rusher in yards? Arch Manning.
While Manning is a threat with his legs, Texas would love to not make him a primary option in the run game. Enter Brown and Hollywood Smothers from NC State. Brown had 186 carries for 1,141 yards and four scores a season ago. It was by far his best season of college football. In three prior seasons — the first two were at USC — Brown had 54 carries for for 285 yards and four touchdowns.
Smothers nearly went to Alabama before he ended up at Texas. He rushed 160 times for 939 yards and six scores after rushing for 571 yards on 89 carries in 2024.
WR Cam Coleman (Auburn to Texas)
Coleman is the Longhorns' headline offensive transfer and he has to be salivating at the prospect of catching passes from Manning all season. Over 23 games in two seasons at Auburn, Coleman had 93 catches for 1,306 yards and 13 scores. Yes, that's two seasons worth of production, but Auburn didn't exactly have a stellar quarterback group in his time on the Plains. Just ask former coach Hugh Freeze.
Coleman was a five-star recruit in the class of 2024 and was the No. 4 prospect in the country. The only wide receiver ranked ahead of him? Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith. That's pretty good company.
Edge John Henry Daley (Utah to Michigan)
Daley followed Kyle Whittingham to Ann Arbor and should immediately add juice to a Michigan pass rush that has seen a host of players head to the NFL in the past two seasons. Daley had 11.5 sacks and 17.5 tackles for loss in just 11 games as a redshirt sophomore in 2025. It was his breakout season, too. Daley had just seven total tackles across 10 games for BYU and Utah in his first two seasons of college football. Daley will immediately be counted on to be the Wolverines' best edge rusher.
RB Caleb Hawkins (North Texas to Oklahoma State)
Don't sleep on an Oklahoma State rebound in 2026 thanks to the flood of North Texas transfers that came with Eric Morris to Stillwater. QB Drew Mestemaker is the high-profile player who followed Morris, but Hawkins posted absurd numbers in 2025. Over 13 games, Hawkins rushed 13 times for 1,434 yards and 25 touchdowns. He scored 29 touchdowns overall; no other player had more than 24.
Oh, Hawkins did all that as a freshman too.
WR Isaiah Horton (Alabama to Texas A&M)
The Miami transfer played a key role for the Crimson Tide in 2025 with 42 catches for 511 yards and a team-leading eight touchdowns. At Texas A&M, he's not a like-for-like replacement for KC Concepcion, but he will team with Mario Craver and Ashton Bethel-Roman to form one of the top receiving trios in the SEC.
RB Wayne Knight (James Madison to UCLA)
Knight went to UCLA after the Bruins hired former JMU coach Bob Chesney. As the Dukes made the playoff in 2025, Knight rushed 207 times for 1,373 yards and nine touchdowns while also adding 40 catches for 397 yards and a TD in the pass game. His production will be very, very welcome in Westwood. No UCLA running back had more than 364 yards last season. QB Nico Iamaleava was the team's leading rusher.
WR Parker Livingstone (Texas to Oklahoma)
Livingstone didn't post the biggest numbers in 2025, with 29 catches for 516 yards. But it's not often you see a player transfer from Texas to Oklahoma. And especially one who was roommates with the starting quarterback. Sorry Parker and Arch, you won't go down in Texas QB-WR roommate lore like Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley.
WR Nick Marsh (Michigan State to Indiana)
With Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt off to the NFL, there's an opening at wide receiver for the defending national champions. And Marsh should immediately slide into the starting lineup with Charlie Becker. Over 23 games at Michigan State, Marsh had 100 catches for 1,311 yards and nine scores. Against the Hoosiers in 2025, Marsh had seven catches for 64 yards and a TD.
OT Jacarrius Peak (NC State to South Carolina)
Peak will slot in at left tackle for a South Carolina offensive line that was porous in 2025. The Gamecocks allowed over 40 sacks for the third straight season and the team averaged just 3.2 yards per carry. Enter Peak, who will be one of four offseason transfers who could start up front for South Carolina in Week 1.
LB Austin Romaine (Kansas State to Texas Tech)
Texas Tech needs a replacement for Jacob Rodriguez. Why not Romaine? In 2024, he led the Wildcats with 96 tackles, two sacks and three forced fumbles. In nine games in 2025, Romaine had 66 tackles and seven tackles for loss. He'll team with Ben Roberts and John Curry to form the best group of linebackers in the Big 12.
S Koi Perich (Minnesota to Oregon)
Can Perich do what Dillon Thieneman did for Oregon's defense in 2025? The Minnesota transfer played all over the field and was the team's second-leading tackler with 96 stops. After five interceptions as a freshman in 2024, Perich had 82 tackles in 2025 and returned his only pick of the season for a touchdown.
WR Tre Richardson (Vanderbilt to Louisville)
The former Division II transfer had a great first season at the top level of college football. Richardson immediately became Diego Pavia's downfield threat and led the Commodores with 806 yards on just 46 catches while tying Junior Sherrill for the team lead with seven receiving touchdowns. There's plenty of opportunity in Louisville; the Cardinals lost their top three receivers from 2025.
OT Jordan Seaton (Colorado to LSU)
The best recruit to sign with Deion Sanders' Buffaloes is now in Baton Rouge and tasked with protecting Sam Leavitt's blind side before potentially being a first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. Seaton started right away at left tackle for the Buffaloes and was a second-team All-Big 12 selection despite missing the final three games of the 2025 season.
Edge Princewill Umanmielen (Ole Miss to LSU)
As Ole Miss attempts to get money back from Umanmielen after his transfer to LSU, the Tigers hope he can bolster the pass rush. LSU's 27 sacks were the team's fewest since the pandemic-impacted 2020 season. Umanmielen led Ole Miss with nine sacks in his lone season in Oxford after he spent the first two seasons of his career at Nebraska.
Edge Damon Wilson (Missouri to Miami)
As Georgia moved to recoup money that it said Wilson owed after his transfer to Missouri, the pass rusher was on the move again after the 2025 season. Wilson led the Tigers with nine sacks last season and was immediately a top target of the Hurricanes after the departure of Akheem Mesidor and Rueben Bain.
WR Eugene Wilson III (Florida to LSU)
After a freshman season in 2023 where Wilson posted 61 catches for 538 yards and six touchdowns, he's a flier of sorts for LSU in 2026. Wilson has been limited to just 12 games over the past two seasons due to injuries and his stats have declined as a result. Especially in 2025. Over his last two years, Wilson has 46 catches for 505 yards and four touchdowns. If he's healthy, he can be a key playmaker for an LSU team that immediately has title aspirations.
RB Tre Wisner (Texas to Florida State)
Wisner was Texas' leading rusher in each of the past two seasons, but appeared in nine games in 2025 due to injury. As the Longhorns moved to change their top rushers, Wisner is off to Florida State, a team that needs a jolt after a 2025 that was nothing short of disastrous. The Seminoles hope that Wisner and Ousmane Kromah can form a dynamic duo after Kromah averaged 5.7 yards a carry as a freshman.
