As the transfer portal hits its final 24 hours of entrance eligibility, there have been some late Wake Forest moves and some cleaning up of some information that we need to get through in order to get everyone current.
Portal News at Wake Forest
Midnight East Coast time on Friday is the deadline to enter the transfer portal for college football players. Players can still exit when they have found their next home, if they ever find one. But Friday at midnight is the deadline for entering, with the exception of players for Indiana and Miami. With the championship game on Monday night, those players have an extra five days after their game to enter the portal if they want to make a change.
Unexpected Departure
Wake Forest got hit with a late and unexpected departure. Starting offensive tackle Melvin Siani declared for the portal on Thursday and immediately did the paperwork filing with a “Do Not Contact” note. That is an indication that he already knows where he is going and does not want to hear from other schools. It’s often a not-so-subtle indicator of tampering from another school. As of the publication of this article, Siani is expected to go to the Texas Longhorns.
Siani was a key part of the offensive line in the 2025 season, starting 11 games. He was expected to be a big factor for the 2026 season. After the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Devin Kylany said the future of the offensive line, specifically naming Siani, was special. He had been mentioned multiple times by head coach Jake Dickert as a big part of the future.
Offensive Line
Unrelated to Siani’s departure, Wake did pick up a couple of new offensive linemen late in the week. Ethan Calloway is going to be hard to miss on the Wake Forest campus. The transfer from LSU is 6’-7”, 305 pounds. He was a four-star recruit coming out of high school when he signed with LSU. He now moves to Wake Forest with three years of eligibility remaining.
The Demon Deacons are also getting offensive lineman John Ohnegian from Bucknell. He played in all 12 games last year and is a four-time Academic All-Patriot League selection, including being the conference’s scholar athlete of the year in 2024. Ohnegian is 6’-2”, 304 pounds. He has one year of eligibility left.
Linebacker
Wake Forest also has a commitment from linebacker Tylan McNichols, a linebacker who is transferring from UAB. He has appeared in a total of 22 games over the last two seasons. He started in seven games last season for the Blazers with 39 tackles and a fumble recovery. McNichols has two years of eligibility left, but has yet to use his redshirt year. That would allow him to play in some games in one season and still take a redshirt.
Defensive Line
The Deacs are expected to add Matt Herron, a defensive lineman from Weber State. He has spent the previous four years at Weber State, including a redshirt year in 2022. Herron was second-team All-Big Sky Conference last season. He will have one season of eligibility left.
Very unofficially, Wake has added 24 players through the transfer portal. The Deacs have lost 15 players to the transfer portal, although eight of them have yet to officially move on to another school.
Main Image: Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
