You could make a case that Cam Coleman will have as vast and lucrative of a market as any non-quarterback in the transfer portal era. Or really, the Auburn receiver should be as coveted as any non-quarterback since the 2021 season when undergraduates were granted a 1-time transfer without having to sit a year.
The timing of this move will make it different than a situation like Caleb Downs, who might’ve been the best non-QB player to transfer portal, but wasn’t part of the original window because of Nick Saban‘s retirement in January. It’s also different than Jordan Addison, who was a post-spring transfer after winning the Biletnikoff Award, but was considered a lock to join Lincoln Riley at USC (Pat Narduzzi publicly accused Riley of tampering).
Coleman announced his intentions to enter the transfer portal ahead of the new lone window opening on Jan. 2-16. That means he’ll have the ability to get a full market. Unlike Downs, who might’ve only been affordable for a select few, the right team can go all in for Coleman’s services in 2026.
For what it’s worth, it’s possible that Coleman returns to Auburn. Entering the portal just means that he has permission to openly speak to/visit other teams. If he decided to return to Auburn, he’d have a new starting quarterback and a new offense. Granted, Alex Golesh has had 4 different 1,000-yard receivers since he became an FBS play-caller in 2020. That included coaching Biletnikoff Award winner Jalin Hyatt the last time that he was an SEC play caller at Tennessee in 2022.
Lord knows that’s been part of the sell for Golesh. If Coleman returns, that won’t be lost on him. But after the 2 years of quarterback play that Coleman endured with the likes of Payton Thorne and Jackson Arnold in a Hugh Freeze offense, needless to say, he’s earned the right to explore his options outside of Auburn.
The former 5-star receiver has been a human highlight reel during his 2 years on The Plains. For a guy who turned 19 years old in August, Coleman should already have NFL scouts drooling:
Of course, that happened while he was subjected to a passing offense that barely cracked the top 100 in FBS in passing touchdowns and quarterback rating in 2025. After Freeze was fired, Coleman received the most targets he had in a 2-game stretch (20) in his career, which produced 15 catches for 208 yards. All you need to know about Coleman is that he played in an offense with a starting quarterback who attempted just 23 passes that were 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage (No. 15 in SEC), yet he was tied for No. 2 in the SEC with 10 catches on those passes, and he finished tied for No. 1 in the SEC with 12 total contested catches.
Any scoffing at Coleman’s less-than-jaw-dropping production of 93 career catches for 1,306 yards lacks context. He’s the real deal. Anybody in America could be better with Coleman. But the question with Coleman is where can we see the best version of him?
These 5 destinations would give us just that:
Texas
You had me at “Arch Manning’s new go-to target.” That’s not a disrespect to Coleman’s 2024 classmate Ryan Wingo, who has had nearly identical production in his first 2 seasons in Austin. But Wingo hasn’t been the contested-catch guy — he had 4 in each of his first 2 seasons — that someone like Manning’s skill set could pair well with. Wingo had just 1 contested catch on passes 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage compared to 10 for Coleman, 9 of which were at least 20 yards. Manning struggled with short-yardage accuracy, but his downfield prowess was on display in 2025. In the regular season, he was tied for No. 3 in the SEC with 24 completions on those passes that were 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, and he was No. 2 in attempts (59).
After Texas lost DeAndre Moore Jr. to the transfer portal, it would love to add a dynamic play maker in the passing game that it often lacked in 2025. The Steve Sarkisian offense has been at its best when it has 2 dynamic weapons on the outside. Whether that was the Matthew Golden-Isaiah Bond duo or the Xavier Worthy-AD Mitchell duo, the Longhorns would immediately vault back to the top of the nation’s most explosive offenses if they paired Wingo with Coleman.
LSU
Are we sure that when Lane Kiffin left the Texas Bowl early that he wasn’t flying to Alabama to meet with Coleman ahead of his transfer portal announcement? Legal or not, there’s a greater than 0% chance of that. If Kiffin is getting close to unlimited resources, Coleman is the exactly the type of player that he could build his first offense around. Coleman could do all the things that we saw Tre Harris do in 2024 when he was en route to a historic season before injuries took away his final month.
While the cupboard in Baton Rouge won’t be completely bare, Kiffin will likely be on the lookout for several plug-and-play pass catchers. As someone who has been as portal-reliant at receiver as anyone in the sport, he’s had limited opportunities to land a top-tier option like Coleman. There could be a touch of hesitation on Coleman’s part until LSU‘s quarterback picture is clear, but that could be the only thing getting in the way of Kiffin having a seat at the final table.
Miami
Imagine being an ACC defensive coordinator and having to game plan for Malachi Toney and Coleman in the same offense. Mercy. Toney would be the perfect complement to Coleman because he plays the vast majority of his snaps out of the slot, and he’s lethal after the catch in short-yardage (he had 595 YAC yards on passes that traveled less than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage). That’s not mentioning Mark Fletcher Jr., who announced his return to the Miami backfield behind what figures to be another elite Mario Cristobal-coached offensive line. Goodness. That’s a terrifying thought. It’s an intriguing thought for someone like Miami OC Shannon Dawson, who’ll have a new quarterback to work with, though given how much Miami has been willing to shell out for a signal caller the last 2 years, one would think that position will be filled in an advantageous way for Coleman.
Much like with LSU, Coleman’s Miami prospects could be on hold until a quarterback option is finalized. But if he’s sold on everything that the Canes have to offer, a pre-draft season in Coral Gables could make all sorts of sense.
USC
All Riley has to do to sell Coleman is point to Makai Lemon. As in, the Biletnikoff Award winner who had tons of promise as a sophomore with extremely similar production to Coleman, before he became the best receiver in the sport in his pre-draft season alongside Jayden Maiava. Speaking of Maiava, he’s back in 2026 after he led Power Conference quarterbacks with 34 completions on throws 20 yards downfield. Auburn’s entire team had half as many completions … and 59% of them went to Coleman, who had a 133.4 NFL QB rating when targeted on those throws. With Lemon and his Power Conference-leading 16 downfield catches off to the NFL, Coleman and Maiava would be match made in heaven.
It remains to be seen if the Alabama native and former Texas A&M commit would sign up to play outside of the South, but if he’d be willing to leave the region and perhaps enter another situation with a coach facing a pivotal season, a destination like USC would check a ton of boxes.
And this should be illegal, but … Ohio State
Jeremiah Smith and Coleman joining forces in their pre-draft seasons with a Heisman Trophy finalist returning at quarterback would feel like cheating. It’s the type of thing that you’d pull off in a video game and then get bored because it’s too easy. If Coleman ended up at Ohio State, it would probably force the entire college football world to collectively say that a true salary cap needs to be enforced. Of course, the irony is that Ohio State currently has Carnell Tate for its Playoff run, and he’s a more advanced version of Coleman. But even with decorated wide receiver developer Brian Hartline off to USF, replacing a future first-round pick like Tate with Coleman would be enough to make Ohio State an overwhelming preseason national title favorite.
Let’s also remember that while some would treat a Coleman move to Ohio State like Kevin Durant joining the Golden State Warriors, he’s someone who hasn’t even played in a bowl game yet. The possibility of playing for a national championship with an all-world complement on one side and a preseason All-American throwing him passes could give us the scariest version of Coleman.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
