After a sensational season that saw him named the CUSA Most Valuable Player of the Year, Liberty Flames quarterback Kaidon Salter is set to enter the college football transfer portal. As comfortably one of the most talented playmakers available, the former four-star recruit should have plenty of suitors, but where are some potential landing spots for Salter ahead of next season?
Update: Salter announced his return to Liberty for the 2024 college football season in a social media post on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024.
Transfer Portal Landing Spots for Kaidon Salter
A true dual-threat who earned comparisons to reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels coming out of Cedar Hill High School in the 2020 class, there aren’t many available quarterbacks that combine the high-level arm talent and creative mobility and movement skills that Salter brings to the table. He’s a transfer portal entree following an incredible 2023 campaign.
MORE: College Football Transfer Portal Tracker
After winning the Liberty quarterback battle over incumbent starter Johnathan Bennett in the spring, Salter embarked on a reign of terror in CUSA, lighting up every single opponent on the way to a 13-1 season and a Fiesta Bowl appearance. The Liberty QB threw for 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns while adding 12 scores and 1,098 yards (at 6.7 yards per carry) on the ground.
Auburn Tigers
If there’s a team that needs an offensive spark from the transfer portal, it’s the Auburn Tigers. They averaged just 26.2 points per game in the 2023 college football season behind former Michigan State quarterback Payton Thorne who returns for 2024. OC Philip Montgomery was forced to experiment at the QB position last season, and their offense relied on RB Jarquez Hunter.
As such, Auburn is a frontrunner amongst the Salter landing spots. The former Tennessee passer deserves a shot at a starting job in the Power Five, and he’s got a good chance of winning that role. Adding fire to the flames of a potential move to the Tigers, head coach Hugh Freeze was the man who lured the talented quarterback to Liberty when he was the head coach in 2021.
Ohio State Buckeyes
I’m not sure there’s a person alive who believes that Devin Brown is the heir apparent at the quarterback position for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Brown failed to beat out Kyle McCord last spring/summer and now their 2023 starter — much-maligned through a disappointing campaign — is set to be the starter at Syracuse after his transfer there earlier in the portal window.
MORE: 2023 All-Transfer Portal Team
Ryan Day has Lincoln Kienholz and Air Noland waiting in the wings, but the Buckeyes need a player who can come in and grab the starting quarterback role by the horns while those two young guns learn and develop. Salter gives the Buckeyes a player in the mold of former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields in that he can make all the throws while adding a dangerous ground threat.
TCU Horned Frogs
While considering Auburn and Ohio State as the ideal landing spots for Salter, could a return to his home state be on the cards? TCU saw a downturn in offensive production this season behind Josh Hoover and Chandler Morris and could use an injection of playmaking spark at the QB position. OC Kendal Briles recruited Salter for Arkansas coming out of high school.
Texas Tech Red Raiders
Another coach who recruited the Liberty quarterback out of high school was current Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire, who tried to bring the former four-star to Baylor in 2020. The Red Raiders lost Tyler Shough to the transfer portal, and current starter Behren Morton may be talented but has missed time with injury over the past two seasons. Morton can be turnover-prone.
Washington State Cougars
The will he, won’t he is officially over as Cameron Ward declared for the 2024 NFL Draft. We already knew he wouldn’t be coming back to Pullman for the 2024 college football season, leaving a very sizeable hole in the Washington State offense that they’re yet to fill.
Salter brings a similar skillset to Ward for the Cougars and would feast on a Mountain West-heavy schedule next year.
Miss any action from the top college QB Rankings during the 2023 football season? Want to track all the movement with the college football’s transfer portal? College Football Network has you covered with that and more!