Kentucky QB Devin Leary Offers His Perspective To Players Who Enter Transfer Portal In NIL Era

Devin Leary is a breakout candidate in college football this fall. That might be a strange way of phrasing it because he was a highly-watched NFL prospect in each of the last two seasons.

However, the 23-year-old redshirt junior quarterback has a real opportunity to play his way into an early-round pick come April, if not one of the first signal-callers off of the board. Leary can spin it.

He threw for 3,433 yards and 35 touchdowns with five interceptions on a 65.7% completion clip at N.C. State in 2021 and completed 61.1% of his passes for 1,265 yards and 11 touchdowns in just six games last year. Unfortunately, a pectoral injury cut his season short.

There was a lot of buzz that Leary might choose to enter the NFL Draft anyway, but he ended up hopping in the transfer portal and landing at Kentucky. The Wildcats were in desperate need of a quarterback and offered the 6-foot-1, 215-pounder a chance to ball out in the SEC and improve his stock.

It has become a normality for star players to transfer during their college careers. It feels like it is happening more often than not.

NIL plays a large role in a lot of those decisions. Athletes are getting big money offers to leave their current programs to play elsewhere. The new reality is the new reality. Roster retention is hard.

Keeping a star player at a smaller program is nearly impossible.

Leary is an interesting case. Even though money had something to do with his decision to play at Kentucky, finances may not have been everything.

The New Jersey-native was balling out for the Wolfpack. He didn't have to transfer. He could have gone pro.

Instead, the money came later and wasn't necessarily the driving force. Leary chose to put himself right in the middle of the best conference in football.

Devin Leary has a unique perspective.

Very few players that have entered the transfer portal have been in Leary's situation. His draft buzz was at its peak ahead of what most people expected to be his final year on the collegiate level.

And then he got injured. He still could have gone pro but decided to transfer.

Now, as Leary reflects back on his journey, he has advice for others.

I think for everyone entering the portal, you've got to weigh out all your options. You've got to know what your end goal is, what you want to get out of this game. For me, I wanted to develop as the best possible player as I can not only where I'm at right now, but continue to excel on to the next level and hope to have a successful career later down the line.

For Leary, it came down to the fit, the coaching staff and the talent already in Lexington.

It starts right now, being able to learn in this system, being able to learn around guys like Coach Coen. And just playing under a coach like Coach Stoops of just really showing my natural leadership ability and really making sure that guys around here can rally behind me, as well.

All of that is pretty standard stuff, but in a world where money drives the transfer portal, it's important to hear a different perspective. NIL isn't the only thing!