Khairi Fortt Transfers from Penn State to California
By Ricky Widmer
Khairi Fortt announced Wednesday morning that he will leave the Penn State Nittany Lions and transfer to the California Golden Bears.
Fortt follows in the footsteps of Silas Redd after the decision made by the NCAA to announce severe sanctions on Penn State. Redd decided to transfer to the USC Trojans earlier this week.
The biggest of the NCAA’s sanctions on the school include a four-year bowl ban. This was also followed by the Big Ten conference banning the Nittany Lions from the Big Ten Championship Game for four-years.
Fortt played in all thirteen games for Penn State last season. In his sophomore year, he recorded 33 total tackles, six tackles for loss (22 yards), and 2.5 sacks (16 yards).
After Penn State’s spring drills, Fortt was listed as the co-starter with junior Glenn Carson at middle linebacker. This was expected to be a position battle on defense for Penn State going into camp.
When asked about the transfer to Cal, Fortt told the Stamford Adocate:
"“This is what’s right for me and my family. … The way you go through life is the way you handle adversity. The friends I’ve made here are friends.”"
This is a huge transfer for the California Golden Bears. They lost two of their senior linebackers this past offseason, Mychal Kendrick and D.J. Holt. Khairi Fortt will add some additional help for the Golden Bears this season.
It is unsure if Fortt will be a starter at Cal, but signs might point to yes because of the fact that the Golden Bears might not have anywhere else to go.
Cal will play Oregon at California Memorial Stadium on November 10th, 2012.
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