Colleague Travis Haney named his top 15 impact transfers across college football
, and a third of his list is coming to the Big 12. One more is leaving, too.
West Virginia running back Charles Sims tops the list, bringing his impressive résumé to Morgantown after scoring 14 touchdowns and accounting for 1,219 yards last season. Most importantly for his new offense, he caught 37 passes a year ago. That versatility will give him a lot of opportunities.
Kansas State quarterback Jake Waters is No. 4 on the list. Color me skeptical that juco transfers should count (I kid!), but if he can beat out Daniel Sams for the quarterback job, I totally agree with Haney. Bringing back most of his offensive line and having John Hubert, Tyler Lockett and Tramaine Thompson surrounding him is a recipe for success.
BYU transfer Jake Heaps is hoping to have better fortunes than another impact transfer to Kansas at quarterback a year ago: Dayne Crist. Heaps will definitely have a big impact one way or another, but there's no telling how this experiment will go. He'll have a better supporting cast on offense than Crist did, but nobody forecast a midseason benching for Crist.
Nebraska transfer running back Aaron Green will debut at TCU this fall, but with B.J. Catalon and Waymon James in the backfield finding immediate carries won't be an easy task. I think he'll develop into a big-time player eventually, but finding time now and making a huge impact is asking a lot.
The Sooners' backup quarterback, Drew Allen, graduated and headed to Syracuse and made No. 15 on Haney's list, but we'll close with No. 14, who's coming to Norman.
Oklahoma's secondary needs playmakers, and Arizona transfer Cortez Johnson will try to provide it. He followed Mike Stoops and Tim Kish from Tucson, and Oklahoma will probably need him to start opposite Aaron Colvin. The Sooners are going to be very young all over on defense, which is the biggest reason I see a down year ahead in Norman, but a nice debut from Johnson could help change that.