Dayon Hayes to enter transfer portal
The Pitt football program ended spring practice for the 2024 season on Saturday and in the aftermath, the craziness of the transfer portal has already struck the program in a negative way. Senior defensive end Dayon Hayes is reportedly entering the transfer portal to play out his final year of college eligibility at another program.
Hayes, a Pittsburgh native, played four seasons with the Panthers. From 2020-2022, he was a depth piece on the defensive line, but that changed in the 2023 season. Hayes started 11 games and produced a career-high 45 tackles, 10.5 TFLs, and four sacks this past season.
The former Pittsburgh City League standout was a four-star recruit and the prize of Pitt’s recruiting class in 2020. He was brought along slowly, but after some veterans moved on, Hayes stepped into a full-time starter role this past season, and should generate a lot of interest in the portal. Despite the low sack number, Hayes led the ACC in pressure rate and was expected to be Pitt’s top defensive linemen for this upcoming season.
The defensive line room has sustained wide scale changes from the top down this offseason. Longtime assistant coach Charlie Partridge left for the NFL and was replaced by Tim Daoust, but the changes also carried down to the personnel. Promising redshirt freshman Samuel Okunlola hit the portal at the end of the season and ultimately landed at Colorado. Hayes now joins him as the second contributor at defensive end to defect from the team, likely for NIL reasons.
The departure of Hayes leaves plenty of question marks surrounding the defensive line entering the 2024 seasons. Prior to the Hayes departure, Pitt lost senior Nate Temple to a year-long injury during spring ball, thus leaving the position with mostly unproven commodities. Kansas State transfer Nate Matlack, though a newcomer, is now the most experienced player with returning FBS experience.
The departure of Hayes won’t be the last this offseason either. By the roster numbers, the Panthers are still technically over the 85-man limit for next season with 91 players according to our count at Panther-Lair.com and the teams needs to be at 85 or under by the time the remainder of the 2024 class enrolls in June.