A day after news broke of his departure, now-former Penn State running back Caziah Holmes has entered the transfer portal, a source confirmed with Nittany Sports Now.
Holmes came to Penn State after a stellar four-year career at Cocoa High School in Florida.
247Sports, ESPN and Rivals all had Holmes as a four-star recruit. 247 and Rivals each had him as a top 10 all-purpose back in Florida from his class. 247 had him at No. 4. He committed to Penn State in August of 2019.
Penn State saw flashes of what Holmes could do in his true freshman season.
In a pandemic-shortened campaign, Holmes played in all nine games, stepping up in a backfield hurt by getting an opportunity Journey Brown’s medical retirement and Noah Cain’s season-ending injury in the season opener at Indiana.
Holmes rushed for 227 yards and two touchdowns on 51 carries, averaging 4.45 yards per carry.
He didn’t get much of a chance to build on his success in 2021.
With Cain back and Baylor transfer John Lovett added to the backfield, Penn State had more options at the position, and aside from three games, Holmes wasn’t one of them. He ended the season with 27 yards on five carries.
Despite not being a factor in 2021, it looked like Holmes would be back at Penn State for the 2022 season.
At the team’s media day, Aug. 7, Holmes said he never thought about entering the transfer portal and was seen at practice as recently as Wednesday.
But with starter Keyvone Lee back and five-star freshman Nick Singleton and four-star freshman Kaytron Allen ready to debut, its hard to imagine that Holmes’s luck would have improved much in 2022 or blame him for wanting to transfer.
