Sources: Jalen Geiger to enter transfer portal

The end of college football's regular season used to mean speculation about bowl games.

Now it means a lot more. For starters, the transfer portal is about to get crazy.

Players are having conversations with coaches all over the country, looking ahead to next year and beyond, and that's taking place in Lexington as well.

Cats Illustrated can report that senior safety Jalen Geiger is planning to enter the NCAA transfer portal.

Geiger is one of only three members of Kentucky's 2019 signing class who is still on the roster, so he has demonstrated a lot of loyalty to the program. He was a three-star defensive back prospect from South Carolina when he arrived as a freshman that year.

The 6'1, 199-pound defensive back from Columbia (S.C.) Spring Valley is capable of playing every position in the secondary: Corner, nickel, or safety, and has been a Swiss Army knife on the back end of UK's defense for much of the last several years.

Geiger redshirted as a true freshman in 2019, though he did see action in two SEC games, and saw action in six games during the COVID-impacted 2020 campaign. In 2021, Geiger played in all 13 games for the Wildcats and drew a pair of starting assignments, logging 18 tackles, a TFL, a hurry, a PBU, and a pick six.

Geiger went into last season as a starting safety but was injured early in the year in a win against Florida.

He returned from his patellar injury in 2022 to play 253 snaps this year as a valuable rotation player at safety, with PFF giving him an above average 67.0 score, thanks to strong marks in run defense and coverage.

UK does return safeties Jordan Lovett and Zion Childress but the Wildcats could be prompted to look for help at safety from the portal to help offset the loss of Geiger.