BLOOMINGTON – The transfer portal has changed opportunities for athletes who weren’t recruited highly as high schoolers. Players who were overlooked in high school or improved rapidly in college have the chance to transfer up to a higher level.
In the case of Indiana wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, he’s transferring to a higher level for the second year in a row. Sarratt followed Indiana coach Curt Cignetti and offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Mike Shanahan from James Madison to Indiana.
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Last spring, Sarratt joined Cignetti and Shanahan after spending his freshman season at Saint Francis (Pa.) in 2022. At the FCS level as a freshman, Sarratt recorded 42 catches for 700 yards and a program-record 13 touchdowns. The season helped Saint Francis reach the FCS Playoffs while earning Sarratt FCS Freshman All-American and first-team All-Northeast Conference honors.
Following that breakout year at the FCS level, Sarratt was brought in to play at JMU for Cignetti and Shanahan — two guys who are very familiar with the Pennsylvania area Sarratt began his college career in. Sarratt led JMU with 82 catches and 1,191 yards while scoring nine total touchdowns during the Dukes’ 11-win season in 2023. He was named first-team All-Sun Belt.
When Cignetti (and eventually Shanahan) made the move to Bloomington, Sarratt wasn’t sure if he’d follow right away. Sarratt initially wasn’t sure if he would transfer until the NCAA announced multi-time transfers would be allowed to play in late December.
Once he hit the portal, Sarratt had offers from several Power Four schools, including Purdue and Wisconsin in the Big Ten. Sarratt considered other schools but ultimately committed to play for IU with the coaching staff he’s familiar with.
“The coaching staff talked to me almost as soon as they were able to, and then things just moved from there,” Sarratt said on Thursday. “They weren’t pressuring me to commit right away. They knew other schools were interested in me, but I came down here to hear what they had to say and came here.”
Sarratt joins Indiana with fellow portal receivers Ke’Shawn Williams (Wake Forest), Myles Price (Texas Tech) and Miles Cross (Ohio). The four new receivers join Indiana with Donaven McCulley, who led the Hoosiers in all receiving categories in 2023 and returned to Bloomington after entering the portal.
Cignetti has quickly overturned IU’s receivers room and made it one of the deepest in the Big Ten. For Sarratt — who’s making another leap up the college football ladder — he knows he must be patient.
“Some days not gonna go how (you) want, you just gotta be consistent every single day,” Sarratt said. “You might catch one pass today, might catch eight passes tomorrow. You just gotta weather the storm and try to get better every single day.”
Constantly moving schools means constantly adjusting to new quarterbacks. The Hoosiers are still deciding who their lead quarterback will be in 2023. Cignetti has stated it’s a three-way race between Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke, redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson and true freshman Tyler Cherry.
Whoever wins the QB battle will mark another brand-new QB for Sarratt. His experience acclimating with new passers in the past could help in 2024.
“It comes with bumps throughout the road, getting that chemistry down,” Sarratt said. “We’re still early in the process, still getting everything down. … We’re getting better day by day. We just got to keep on stacking those days up.”
In less than two years, Sarratt has gone from enrolling at an FCS school to being a key wideout at a Big Ten program. He projects as one of IU’s most important offensive players heading into 2024. When IU plays its first spring game since 2019 next Thursday night, it will be Sarratt’s first chance to make an impression on Hoosiers fans.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Indiana WR Elijah Sarratt went from FCS to Big Ten in 2 years
