Transfer Tracker: Bama wins battle for To'oto'o

Mark Pszonak contributed to this report.

The transfer portal never stops grinding. After several weeks of intense rumors, Alabama was finally able to seal the deal with the addition of Tennessee transfer linebacker Henry To'oto'o

Recruiting: To'oto'o committed to Tennessee over Washington, Alabama and several others on Signing Day in 2019.

As a Vol: To'oto'o made an immediate impact for the Vols, starting in 22 of 23 games he played while recording 140 tackles, including 12.5 for loss. While To'oto'o has been productive from a raw stats perspective, his Pro Football Focus grades were 59.8 in 2019 and 51.7 in 2020, both considered below average.

Farrell’s Take: To’oto’o has been very solid for the Vols and was an early impact guy and starter who hit the SEC ground running. He can read and diagnose and run plays down and is a likely starter for Alabama. He was clearly coveted by Nick Saban and the staff and they stayed patient through the many twists and turns of this process. This recruitment was all over the map but the bottom line is that 'Bama ended up with a key piece on a defense that could use a tackler like To'oto'o and his impact should be immediate. Now we have to see what the SEC says about transferring within conferences.

Impact Meter: 8.7 out of 10

IMPACT METER

The Transfer Portal continues to change the way college football programs recruit and manage their rosters so we here at Rivals.com continue to evolve our coverage. Each time a player of note enters the portal, we will examine their potential impact on the college football landscape and assign an impact rating, both when they enter the portal and when they choose a destination. The scale is from 1-10 and the description below explains the scoring scale.

1.1-4.0 — Not a big impact expected, likely a non-starter and down the bench depth player.

4.1- 6.0 — A solid impact can be expected in the right scenario and has the potential to battle for a starting job.

6.1-9.0. — A high impact player who won’t change a program but will certainly be a very good contributor and starter.

9.1- 9.9 — A very high impact player who should start the moment he steps on the field and will change the outlook of a program immediately.

10 — A franchise transfer who has a chance to be an All American and one of the elite players in college football.