Bricen Garner enters NCAA transfer portal

Pitt safety Bricen Garner entered the transfer portal on Wednesday, according to 247Sports. The Pittsburgh native joined the Panthers in 2016, but after redshirting as a true freshman, he served primarily in a reserve role in the team’s defensive backfield. That was likely to continue in 2020, with Damar Hamlin and Paris Ford both returning at the safety position.

Garner appeared in 33 games over the last three seasons, recording 46 tackles while playing as a safety and special-teamer. That included five tackles in 10 games in 2019, but his most notable season at Pitt came in 2017, when he made six starts at safety and came up with a game-saving pick against Youngstown State in the first game of his Pitt career.

It is unclear where Garner will transfer to, but it is unlikely he will play at Pitt again, as Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi has publicly voiced his displeasure with Pitt players entering the transfer portal.

”If a kid’s name goes in the transfer portal, you can pretty much kiss him goodbye,” Narduzzi told Jerry DiPaola of the Tribune-Review in January 2019. “I’m not going to have one guy with one foot in and one foot out.”

The 6’1”, 190-pound defensive back committed to Pitt as a three-star recruit in June 2015, and at the time, he held offers from Cincinnati, Indiana, Temple and West Virginia in addition to a handful from MAC schools and service academies. He is the third Pitt player to enter the transfer portal this month, with the other two being V’Lique Carter and Cameron O’Neil.