{"id":365432,"date":"2025-12-23T11:37:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365432\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T11:37:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T11:37:05","slug":"penn-state-cb-a-j-harris-plans-to-enter-the-ncaa-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/365432\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State CB A.J. Harris plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/penn-state-nittany-lions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penn State<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/aj-harris-2176\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CB A.J. Harris<\/a> plans to enter his name into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/transfer-portal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the NCAA Transfer Portal<\/a>. That comes <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TransferPortal\/status\/2003202118317146229\" rel=\"nofollow\">per the latest reporting<\/a> on Monday by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/user\/petenakos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On3\u2019s Pete Nakos<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/penn-state-nittany-lions\/news\/penn-state-cornerback-aj-harris-plans-to-enter-the-ncaa-transfer-portal-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harris just finished his second season at Penn State<\/a>. That comes after one year he spent beginning his collegiate career at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/georgia-bulldogs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Georgia<\/a>. He, over three seasons in total, has since made 34 appearances, 26 of those being starts, in the secondaries for the Bulldogs and the Nittany Lions.<\/p>\n<p>He, as a freshman, made eight tackles in seven games played at UGA. Then, after transferring to Happy Valley, Harris has, in 27 games with all but one of those being starts at corner, has posted 81 total tackles, 5.0 of those being for loss, with six deflections, one interception, and one fumble recovery. That led to a selection as All-Big Ten Third Team, for both the coaches and media, as a sophomore in 2024, and a nod as an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention, also for the coaches as well as the media, as a junior in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>A native of Phenix City, Alabama, Harris played his high school football at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/high-school\/central-phenix-city-al-16149\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Central<\/a>. He was a Top-40 overall recruit there as a four-star in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/rankings\/industry-player\/football\/2023\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the 2023 recruiting cycle<\/a>. He also rated as the No. 3 CB in his class, behind only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/cormani-mcclain-26428\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cormani McClain<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/sites\/cu-sports-report\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/florida-gators\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Florida<\/a>) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/dezz-ricks-35611\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dezz Ricks<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/teams\/alabama-crimson-tide\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alabama<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/sites\/aggie-yell\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas A&amp;M<\/a>), and as the No. 5 player that year out of the state of Alabama. That\u2019s according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/rankings\/industry-player\/football\/2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rivals\u2019 Industry Ranking<\/a>, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He\u2019d then arrive in Athens as one of the highest-rated signees that cycle for the \u2018Dawgs, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/georgia-bulldogs\/football\/2023\/industry-comparison-commits\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">had the No. 2 class in the country<\/a> per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/rankings\/industry-team\/football\/2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rivals\u2019 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This comes as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/college\/penn-state-nittany-lions\/football\/2026\/transfers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the latest loss, and a notable one at that, to the portal<\/a> for Penn State. That\u2019s been ongoing since the midseason firing of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/coach\/james-franklin-131195\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Franklin<\/a> back in mid-October, and has continued into the offseason even since their hiring of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/coach\/matt-campbell-132266\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matt Campbell<\/a>. More transfer news could be expected for the program then over the next four weeks of the cycle.<\/p>\n<p>Harris emerged over the past two years as a respectable college corner in University Park. However, following the coaching change, he\u2019s the next to decide to spend his next season, in what\u2019ll be his final one of eligibility, elsewhere, in intending to have his name in the portal once the one-time, two-week window opens on January 2nd.<\/p>\n<p>To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3\u2019s Transfer Portal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/transfer-portal\/wire\/football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wire<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/transferportal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TransferPortal\" rel=\"nofollow\">Twitter account<\/a>\u00a0are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn State CB A.J. Harris plans to enter his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal. That comes per&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[179771,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-365432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-a-j-harris-23-central","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}