Mark Pszonak contributed to this report.

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.

On Saturday, Syracuse beat out Michigan State, Purdue, TCU and others for New Mexico State transfer DB Jason Simmons

Recruiting: Simmons was initially committed to Memphis during the summer leading up to his senior season, but reopened his process in early November and eventually committed to New Mexico State a few days before National Signing Day.

At New Mexico State: In 11 games as a true freshman in 2019, Simmons finished with 61 tackles, 4.5 TFL, three passes defended and one forced fumble. The Aggies opted out of the fall 2020 season.

Farrell’s Take: Simmons surprised many with his impressive first year and showed not only ability in coverage but the willingness to hit and make big plays as a tackler despite needing to fill out. Now much stronger, he's a great get for Syracuse as he was coveted by TCU and Michigan State especially and he can be an instant starter for the Orange.

Impact Rating: 7.9 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.