Familiar faces in new places: Top 7 college football transfers who will make big impact

Which transfers will impact their college football team the most in 2020?

A new face in a new place could make all the difference for any of these college football teams.

It has become increasingly common in the Division I landscape that players who sign with a program out of high school may not exhaust all four years of their eligibility with that particular team. Opportunities to play, coaching regime changes, injuries and off-the-field issues, all of which have contributed to marquee players entering the incredibly popular transfer portal.

Even though two Power 5 conferences and two Group of 5 conferences will not play college football this season due to the coronavirus, there will be a ton of talent on display at the Power 5 level between the ACC, the Big 12 and the SEC. For this year only, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will a full-time member of the ACC, as they compete in that conference in all other sports.

As far as we know, the College Football Playoff Selection Committee still plans on picking the four best teams, as well as the four other high-profile bowl games that comprise of the New Year’s Six. Yes, it may be weird not seeing the Big Ten or the Pac-12 involved, but if we get a rematch of the Georgia Bulldogs vs. the Oklahoma Sooners in the Rose Bowl, who is going to be mad about that?

For teams like Georgia, Notre Dame or Oklahoma to taste College Football Playoff glory again, they are going to need key players to step up, especially the marquee additions that have come over from via the transfer portal. We’ve seen transfer players have major impacts on their new teams before and we’re sure to see it happen again this fall if we do end up having college football.

Here are seven college football transfers that will make an immediate impact with their new teams in 2020

After four years with the Florida Gators, once-promising quarterback Feleipe Franks left Gainesville and conference title aspirations behind for a chance to help rebuild something special from the ground up in the SEC West. Franks is the new starting quarterback of the Arkansas Razorbacks under first-time head coach Sam Pittman, who coached against him while at Georgia.

There’s no denying Franks’ talent, as he completed 59 percent of his passes for 4,593 yards, 38 touchdowns and 17 interceptions in his time at Florida. While maturity and injury concerns limited him, as Kyle Trask took over and never looked back after Franks went down, this is a huge opportunity for Franks to grow as a leader and lay the foundation needed for the rebuilding Hogs.

While he could have stayed at Clemson University and possibly won the starting job in 2021 over D.J. Uiagalelei, Chase Brice made the best decision for himself to swap ACC teams. He leaves a perennial national title contender in the Clemson Tigers in favor of the ACC Coastal’s quarterback whisperer David Cutcliffe with the Duke Blue Devils. Will this pan out for him, though?

Brice played sparingly backing up Kelly Bryant and later Trevor Lawrence in his first two years at Clemson. While he won’t have the talent he had at Clemson, Brice could be the latest signal-caller to have great success playing for Cutcliffe, joining the likes of Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Thaddeus Lewis, Sean Renfree and most recently Daniel Jones. This will be interesting for sure.

When safety Isaiah Pryor transferred from the Ohio State Buckeyes to Notre Dame, he was certainly looking for more playing time than when he was in Columbus. The Buckeyes are a pro football factory in the secondary, but fate would have it Pryor will be playing this fall and none of his former teammates will. He’ll be competing for an ACC title of all things now with the Irish.

Pryor will complement emerging defensive back star Kyle Hamilton on Brian Kelly’s defense. Houston Griffith might be ahead of him on the depth chart at safety, but Pryor will be a great deal of leadership to this Notre Dame secondary that needs it after Alohi Gilman left for the NFL. If Notre Dame is solid defensively this season, the Irish can win the ACC Conference Championship.