These Missouri Tigers football players entered the transfer portal this week
Missouri Tigers defensive back Ja’Marion Wayne and linebacker Mikai Gbayor both announced their intentions to enter the transfer portal Thursday evening, becoming the second and third players on the defensive side of the ball to enter the portal this week.
Defensive lineman Jahkai Lang entered the transfer portal Wednesday.
The announcements came just two days after Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz told the media that he anticipated some of his players would elect to transfer in the near future.
Wayne, who played high school ball at Parkway West in Ballwin in the St. Louis area, came to the Tigers as a four-star wide receiver in 2022 but switched to safety during his freshman season.
In 2023, the redshirt junior played in all 13 games, working primarily on special teams. In 2024, he appeared in 10 games as a cornerback and recorded five tackles, one pass defended and one fumble recovery.
MU is returning starters Toriano Pride Jr., Dreyden Norwood and Nicholas DeLoach Jr. in the cornerbacks room, and also added Washington State transfer Stephen Hall.
Gbayor’s stay in Columbia was a brief one, as the graduate student elected to leave Mizzou just four months after transferring from Nebraska. In two seasons with the Cornhuskers, the 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker recorded 73 tackles, nine tackles for loss, 1½ sacks, three passes defended and two fumbles recovered.
Drinkwitz added West Virginia linebacker Josiah Trotter out of the transfer portal the same day as Gbayor — Dec. 16 — and Missouri also returns Triston Newson, Khalil Jacobs and Nicholas Rodriguez.
More on Jahkai Lang’s departure
By Quentin Corpuel, Columbia Missourian
On Tuesday, Drinkwitz said he anticipated having “a few more” players enter the transfer portal in the near future.
On Wednesday, a little more than 24 hours following that statement, edge rusher Lang entered the portal. The redshirt sophomore has three years of eligibility remaining.
After redshirting in 2023, Lang seemed to find his footing a bit in 2024, tallying three sacks in 12 games for the Tigers — one apiece against Buffalo, UMass and Auburn. Even within a defensive line room that included Johnny Walker Jr., Zion Young, Kristian Williams and other talented contributors, those three sacks tied for second on the team.
While Lang put together a productive 2024 campaign in just 144 snaps played — which ranked seventh among MU defensive linemen, per Pro Football Focus — the Tigers are projected to have a loaded defensive end group this season.
Drinkwitz and his staff brought in a healthy dose of transfers, including Damon Wilson (Georgia) and Nate Johnson (Appalachian State). Darris Smith, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL after transferring from Georgia, has a good chance of playing a big role this season.
“Darris Smith, prior to his injury, was as impactful of a defensive end as I’ve been around,” Drinkwitz said Tuesday.
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