The Transfer Portal has changed the landscape of college football. So at Rivals we bring you the Transfer Tracker, where we analyze players entering the portal and rate them on what kind of impact they could make at their new home.
Next up in the tracker: UCLA linebacker Mique Juarez
AS A RECRUIT
As a recruit: Juarez played all over the field for his high school team, including quarterback and safety. He garnered offers from coast to coast and took his recruitment all the way down to the wire in 2016. After official visits to Alabama, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, BYU and UCLA, he chose the Bruins in a nationally televised announcement.
He signed with UCLA but had stints of being on the team and off the team and then his career with the Bruins ended because of multiple concussions. It has been reported that he’s made an attempt to now join Utah’s football team and numerous social media posts from his account seem to confirm that. He’s listed as having one tackle in his college career so far.
AT UCLA
Juarez redshirted his first year on campus in 2016 and saw his most significant action during the 2017 season, playing 170 total snaps, most of them on special teams. He finished the 2017 season with three tackles and also 11 yards rushing that he picked up on a fake punt. In 2018, Juarez played five snaps on special teams in the season-opener but that would be the only action he saw all season. Juarez left the Bruins in the spring of 2019 and announced plans to graduate transfer to Utah. However, he was never added to the Utes roster and is listed in the transfer portal as a student at UCLA. Juarez will have at least one year remaining at his next school but could petition for an extra season due to his injury history.
POTENTIAL LANDING SPOTS
This one is pretty wide open as Juarez has been off the radar so long it's tough to say where he might land. It seems likely than an FBS school might give him a shot, but it's hard to see him landing at the Power Five level.
FARRELL'S TAKE
"Juarez was a dynamic talent in high school who tailed off a bit at the end with his conditioning but still remained a five-star ranking due to his ceiling and athleticism. Now? We don’t really know as he’s suffered three concussions during his time at UCLA, took a year off for personal reasons and hasn’t contributed much to a small body of work. He was an exceptional talent in high school, but that was so long ago." -- National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell
Impact Rating: 3.3 out of 10
IMPACT METER
The Transfer Portal continues to change the way college football programs recruit and mange 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.
