Vanderbilt RB Johann Cardenas Commits to Minnesota

The native of Houston, Texas, redshirted as a true freshman in 2024 before entering the transfer portal recently. He will have four years of eligibility to play with the Golden Gophers and will join a running back room that recently saw the departure of redshirt freshman Jaydon Wright, who spent most of his early time with the program banged up.

Cardenas signed with Vanderbilt as part of their 2024 recruiting class after originally being committed to Texas Tech. He also held notable offers from BYU, Colorado, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Memphis, Missouri, and SMU. Notably, the Gophers were not among the schools that recruited him out of St. Thomas Catholic High School.

While he has not seen the field at the collegiate level, Cardenas was a highly productive running back in high school with 4,743 career rushing yards and 64 career rushing touchdowns. He also had nearly 1,500 receiving yards and an additional 15 touchdowns.

The Spring NCAA Transfer Portal Window

On Wednesday, April 16, the NCAA transfer portal opened, giving college football players around the country an opportunity to enter the name into the transfer portal over the course of a 10-day period.

The spring transfer portal window is expected to be a busy one across college football, especially for players entering the transfer portal. Starting this fall, NCAA roster limits for football will be 105 players. Currently, most programs carry somewhere between 115 and 130 athletes on their roster, meaning most programs will at least see 10-20 athletes enter the portal. That also doesn't include any potential portal additions those programs choose to make this spring, which would necessitate additional players leaving their respective programs.

This spring transfer portal window, Gophers Nation will actively and diligently track transfer portal movement and activity for the Minnesota Golden Gophers program. You can follow along with our transfer portal central.

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