By Blessing 
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell has never been shy about the kind of players he wants on his team — competitors who embrace the grind and don’t shy away from adversity.
Since taking the helm in Detroit, Campbell has built a roster full of players who reflect that gritty, hardworking mindset. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that he’s cautious about one growing trend in college football: frequent transfers.
On a recent episode of the LiucciCast, Campbell shared a strong opinion about college athletes who switch schools multiple times. According to him, that’s often a red flag.
“This doesn’t look like it’s going my way. And I don’t think I’m gonna start. I’m just leaving,” Campbell said. “And then you go to the next place, and it just looks like it may not be going where you want to — ‘Okay, well then I’m going to leave that school too,’ or ‘I’m leaving this spring to go somewhere else.’ Well, we don’t want those guys.”
He added that while there are exceptions, generally speaking, the Lions remove those players from their draft board.
“I mean, you’re looking at guys that transfer two or three times. Like, to me, you’re scared of competition. So we just — I don’t want to say with every one of them — but we just get them off the board. It’s not worth it,” Campbell said.
Despite this tough stance, the Lions did draft a few players this year who transferred during their college careers. However, in those cases, the moves made sense. Wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa jumped from Division II to Arkansas, while offensive lineman Miles Frazier moved up from FIU to LSU — both clear upgrades in competition level.
The third was Dominic Lovett, a seventh-round pick who went from Missouri to Georgia — a lateral move within the same conference.
With the NCAA transfer portal becoming a staple of college football, it’ll be interesting to see if the Lions stay firm on this stance. But for now, college athletes hoping to wear Honolulu blue one day should think twice before making that second or third transfer.