College football transfer All-Americans vs. homegrown All-Americans: Who has the edge? - The Athletic

If a team of the best homegrown college football players in 2024 played a team of the best transfers, who would win?

That’s a question we’ve set out to answer during this, midseason All-America week. This is meant to be a fun exercise, not a conclusive one, though trends could develop over years of tracking. One thing for certain, the pool of potential quarterbacks is deeper on the transfer side — they moved around quite a bit before the word “portal” had any meaning in college athletics.

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Also, “homegrown” doesn’t mean as much for players who stayed at places that endured coaching changes. That still represents a system switch and a lack of continuity to some extent — such as with our stay-at-home team’s quarterback. But player movement or lack thereof is how we’re splitting this up, and we’re staying consistent with The Athletic’s All-America voting. And we didn’t limit our transfer pool to players who were on the move this past offseason — anyone who has transferred during their career was eligible.

Before comparing the teams as theoretical combatants, one key stat: Team Homegrown had 14 All-America first-teamers compared with 11 for Team Transfer.

The most painful omission is Arizona star receiver Tetairoa McMillan from Team Homegrown, especially considering he’s edged out by a pair of freshmen who, based on the recent histories of their programs, may end up swapping teams at some point anyway. But have you seen Jeremiah Smith and Ryan Williams play?

Those who abhor this era of player movement can take solace in the fact that there’s more high-level talent on the stay-at-home side. The 14 first-team All-Americans are joined by eight second-team All-Americans on Team Homegrown for a total of 22. Team Transfer’s total number is 16.

We had to fudge it a bit at offensive tackle. Josh Simmons gets the nod for his first-half play, though he suffered what is believed to be a season-ending injury at Oregon. Logan Brown, a former five-star recruit who signed with Wisconsin, has played well and earned the other spot. We considered putting Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor on Team Transfer even though he spent only the spring with Iowa’s program before returning to his original college football home. Taking such liberties would be consistent with the tampering and false promising that goes on in the transfer portal, but we decided to be above board with this team.

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Team Homegrown has all kinds of depth available at running back (DJ Giddens of Kansas State, Nick Singleton of Penn State, Tahj Brooks of Texas Tech and more), offensive tackle (Wyatt Milum of West Virginia and Aireontae Ersery of Minnesota), tight end (Harold Fannin Jr. of Bowling Green) and linebacker (Barrett Carter of Clemson and Danny Stutsman of Oklahoma).

But, again, Team Transfer had tons of top options after Cam Ward — Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel, Vanderbilt’s Diego Pavia, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke to name a few — and boasts a monster defensive line. Team Homegrown is much more decorated on offense, but Team Transfer’s defensive line is a clean-sweep quartet of first-team All-Americans. Quarterbacks and defensive linemen love the portal.

That loaded front must be great to deal with Jalen Milroe, an absurd backfield combo of Ashton Jeanty and Kaleb Johnson, the aforementioned freshman receivers and Penn State star tight end Tyler Warren. But we are absolutely starting Travis Hunter at cornerback, and he can get in there and help Jack Bech and Tre Harris on downfield shots from Ward as well.

Meanwhile, Team Homegrown may not have the same star power up front on defense, but the back seven is elite — six first-teamers and a second-teamer. Michigan’s Will Johnson and Notre Dame’s Xavier Watts are opportunistic players who can take advantage of Ward’s tendency to be loose with the ball at times. Give them a pick apiece, give Jeanty and Johnson 250 yards combined and give this one to Team Homegrown over Team Transfer 31-21.

(Photo of Ashton Jeanty, Cam Skattebo: Marco Garcia, Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

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Joe Rexrode is a senior writer for The Athletic covering college football. He previously worked at The Tennessean, Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal, and covered the Pyeongchang, Rio and London Olympics for USA Today. Follow Joe on Twitter @joerexrode