The transfer portal is a very real thing and while attrition has always been part of the sport of college football there has never been more attention paid to movement before.

Often times the news would go underreported, in the first game of the season you might look up and down the sideline for a player and just assume that they have left to go elsewhere.

That is different today as portal news is very real. Even the top teams like Ohio State have dipped into the portal to pick up a key piece. Last season it was the addition of offensive guard Jonah Jackson and this year it is the addition of running back Trey Sermon.

Ohio State has also been on the other end of things, losing players like Keandre Jones a couple of years ago and this season in losing guys like Brendon White, Alex Williams and Jaelen Gill.

The portal is a place where a struggling team can reshape itself, look at Rutgers as the Scarlet Knights under Greg Schiano have been just about as active as anyone in the portal, getting players who have been within other programs for one, two or more years.

The Big Ten on the whole has been busy with the portal and we are going to focus mostly on the players that are coming in rather than the players who are coming out. Some will be names that people are already aware of, others will be players that could emerge this season or just move from being depth in one program to being depth at a new program.

On Thursday we looked at the offense and here on Friday we move over to the defensive side of the ball. There are fewer names on this side and the Buckeyes are involved more in terms of bolstering other teams with players who went elsewhere in search of opportunity.

As we have before, we will focus on names that are familiar to Ohio State and the Buckeyes lose two names, in a roundabout way. First there is Alex Williams who is going to traditional transfer from the Buckeyes to Vanderbilt. The former Pickerington (Ohio) star had a few moments with the Buckeyes during some late-game action but announced at the end of January that he would finish his career with the Commodores.

Malik Barrow on the other hand took a medical hardship with the Buckeyes and actually left the game briefly before transferring to Central Florida. That stay at UCF was a short one and he is now off to Rutgers and back to the Big Ten. Barrow is credited with two games in the 2019 season and had two tackles according to official stats. So, this is not a direct “from Ohio State” transfer, but it is a player who started off at Ohio State who is now going elsewhere.

Jovan Swann is coming back home after transferring from Stanford to Indiana. The Center Grove (Ind.) product earned 2018 All-Pac 12 honorable mention honors and was a two-time All-Pac 12 academic standout. Swann had a career-high 31 tackles last season including four sacks.

Another player is going home as well with Michael Dwumfour transferring from Michigan to Rutgers as the Wayne (N.J.) star will have a chance to play close to home as a grad transfer. Over a 33-game playing career with the Wolverines, Dwumfour had 36 tackles, four sacks and a pick.

Other moves: Ireland Burke from Boston College to Rutgers, Mayan Ahanotu from Minnesota to Rutgers

Not a lot of names here to report at linebacker and that one name will be somewhat familiar to Ohio State fans out of a curiosity over a familiar name more than a deep stat line or anything of that nature.

Edward Warriner, son of former offensive line coach Ed Warinner is transferring from Michigan State to Michigan and that move makes sense as dad is a coach with the Wolverines. Warinner is a graduate of Olentangy Liberty high school in Powell (Ohio) and his dad was a coach with Minnesota briefly during his recruitment. Now he will be able to play at the same school that pays the family bills with dad’s employment. Warriner played in three games last year for the Spartans including the annual rivalry game against Michigan.

Ohio State will see Brendon White head to Rutgers, a familiar trend as Rutgers seems to be signing 10-percent of the entire portal this offseason (okay, maybe not that many, but it is a lot). It is the next step in a strange journey for White that saw him go from being a Rose Bowl MVP to being the “bullet position” that did not play behind Pete Werner. White eventually decided to leave the team but won’t go far in staying in conference.

Isaiah Pryor is another player to make the move from Ohio State and will end up in South Bend (Ind.) to play for Notre Dame. Pryor put up stats for three seasons with the Buckeyes and had 31 tackles during the 2019 season and five passes defended and a pick. Pryor will have two years to play with the Fighting Irish as a graduate transfer.

TreSean Smith is moving from Louisville to Illinois after racking up 70 tackles and two picks in his two years on-field with the Cardinals. He will be a graduate transfer and will be able to play immediately with two years of eligibility as he is coming off a season-long suspension by head coach Scott Satterfield.

Purdue will pick up a graduate transfer with Tyler Coyle leaving UConn and heading to West Lafayette (Ind.). Coyle has some stats to his credit with 260 tackles during three seasons of play on the field along with 7.5 tackles for loss, three picks and 18 PBUs. Coyle led the Huskies in tackles twice and was a captain during the 2019 season. Coyle had 107 tackles for the Huskies in the 2018 season.

He will have one year of eligibility at Purdue and is looking to help bolster a pass defense for the Boilermakers that was 81st in the nation in pass efficiency defense and 100th in total defense.