You just transferred to South Carolina. So what did you do with your old gear?
The entire apartment was clear. Air Noland and his family were ready to jet off for a 573-mile road trip from Ohio State back to their hometown of South Fulton, Georgia.
Except there was a matter to tend to — a bag inside an empty Columbus apartment that contained who knows how much team-issued Buckeyes gear that was given to the quarterback.
“I was like, ‘Are we going to take it? Are we going to leave it here?’ ” Noland’s mom, Audrey Gill, told The State. “And we left it. We just left everything.”
Aside from his jerseys and a few high-quality winter coats, all that Noland accrued from his lone season at Ohio State was relinquished to whoever found it.
Gill still isn’t sure what happened to it. Was there a cleaning crew that divvied it up? Did some apartment staff scoop it up before then? Did someone try to sell it on eBay?
“They called me about cleaning up the apartment,” Gill said. “She was like, ‘Well, we’re going to do the walk-through,’ and I was like, ‘Oooo.’ I was thinking like, well, we left a bag of Ohio State stuff there. But they never called and complained or never said anything.”
Coaches often describe how frantic and chaotic the transfer portal process can be, that it’s a supersonic acceleration compared with high school recruiting. Offers are handed out in minutes or hours versus months or years. Visits and calls are lined up almost instantaneously.
In the process of a student-athlete picking a new school, they also have to uproot their life. And those who understand the dread of moving understand that things get left behind, things find new homes, that some stuff is thrown away or into a box that isn’t seen again for years.
Which led us to wonder: What happens to all the team gear when a player transfers? Because they get so much fancy logoed gear — shoes, shirts, jackets, bags, hats — at one school, then transfer. And they get all the same stuff with a new logo at another school.
Some, like Noland, just leave it behind. In early March, N.C. State Brandon Cisse still hadn’t moved out of his apartment in Raleigh and had no clue what he was going to do with it. Maybe give it to family, he said. But maybe the car was full and he figured the cleaning crew could take some.
Others — especially those who graduated from their previous institution — had no intention of discarding anything.
“I still have my Utah State gear. It’s here,” said USU transfer tailback Rahsul Faison. “I wear it sometimes because I graduated from Utah State, so that’s always a home for me for sure. And without them, I wouldn’t be here. I don’t wear it to the facility or anything but if I’m just chilling at the house, I’ll put a long sleeve on or a hoodie on.”
“I have a lot of family members,” said Wake Forest O-line transfer Nick Sharpe. “It’s a little different for me as well — I still graduated (from Wake Forest). It’s not like I transferred my second or first year and I’ve still got my Wake degree. So there’s certain pieces I still have, but I had a lot of gear over four years so I gave a lot of that to my family.”
Surprisingly, no incoming South Carolina transfer we spoke with said they gave any of their previous school’s gear to their former teammates. Not even a trade — you give me some shoes and I’ll hand over all these logoed shirts.
The only person, aside from Noland’s mom, who admitted to somehow vacating their old gear was Troy transfer offensive lineman Boaz Stanley. While he kept a good majority of the stuff, noting that Troy will always be “a part of my life,” he discarded some of the excess.
“I put some of it in Goodwill, which was just some shirts I had like three of — I was like, I only need one of these,” he said. “But none of my family can wear any of it because I’m so much bigger than them.”
Most just brought all the stuff back to their parents’ house so family and friends could deck out with some new stuff.
“My little brother and little sister, they wear a lot of it,” said DB Myles Norwood, who was at four schools before South Carolina. “I come home and they’ve got it on. It’s like whatever, they can have it.”
“It’s just back at home at my parents’ home,” said Kentucky transfer tight end Jordan Dingle. “I might just keep it down the line for my kids or something. As far as jerseys go, encase those.”
“(I) just spread it out throughout the family,” added OL Rodney Newsom Jr, who was at three schools before USC, “because I don’t think I’m gonna ever wear it again because I’m a Gamecock.”
That last sentiment was one shared by a few folks: Why keep stuff from the past when your whole life right now is South Carolina?
“It’s like I’m done with that gear,” Sharpe said.
Defensive back Shawn Murphy, whose past stops included Alabama and Florida State, said he only kept things that resulted in a trophy. Something from a conference championship or bowl game. Other than that, everything went to family members.
He’s got a new school to rep now.
“Some of it’s still in the closet,” he said. “I didn’t bring all of it because I just wanted to focus on South Carolina.”
