On Friday, reports broke that 2 more Miami Hurricanes are departing the program via the transfer portal.

Kicker Bubba Baxa and Tight End Brian Polendey are both in the portal and looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Both Polendey and Baxa will have the ability to continue their careers elsewhere after entering the portal.

For Polendey, a mainly blocking tight end, he’d been passed up on the depth chart by younger, more athletic players such as Brevin Jordan and Will Mallory. And, with Michael Irvin II, Larry Hodges, and early-enrollee Dominic Mammarelli also at the position, the snaps were likely going to decrease for Polendey, who played in 6 games and had 0 catches in 2019.

For Baxa, things just didn’t go the way he would have liked at Miami. blessed with a huge kicking leg, Baxa was never able to marry the amazing power of his kicks with passable accuracy. After going 9/12 on FGs as a freshman, Baxa regressed to just 5/10 on FG while also missing 2 XPs as a sophomore in 2019. With his performance flagging, Miami switched kickers, demoting Baxa from his placekicking duties in favor of 2 different walk-ons: Turner Davidson and Camden Price. Baxa got another chance to redeem himself and reclaim his job partway through the season. But, instead, he was the 3rd kicker (all named here) to miss a FG against Georgia Tech, and Baxa never attempted another FG here. He remained on kickoffs for the duration of the year, due to his booming leg, but it was clear for a while that a change of scenery was needed.

Miami has now seen 6 players elect to transfer out of the program this offseason, with Baxa and Polendey joining RB Lorenzo Lingard, WR Brian Hightower, FB Realus George, and DT Tyreic Martin in seeking a transfer elsewhere.

We wish Brian Polendey and Bubba Baxa all the best in their future endeavors.

More on the Canes in the coming days.

Go Canes