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Sowell calls portal a career blessing

When it comes to the transfer portal, many say there needs to be more restrictions for players throughout their college careers.

Chase Sowell is the perfect example of how the transfer portal can be so beneficial for student-athletes.

"My whole college career, the portal has been kind of a blessing for me," Sowell said.

Sowell (pronounced so-well) is on his fourth school in five years.

He was a true freshman at Colorado in 2022 and appeared in three games, but was part of the infamous housecleaning when Deion Sanders took over the Buffaloes program that offseason.

"In May 2023, I was sitting in my dorm, and I thought football was over," Sowell said. "I thought that's just what it was. I was going to accept it, but the transfer portal gave me an opportunity and kind of let me elevate myself."

He spent two years at East Carolina and produced solid numbers, but coach Mike Houston was fired in the middle of the 2024 season.

That's when Matt Campbell came calling at Iowa State, and Sowell said his life changed from there.

"It helped me grow as a man. It helped me grow as a player. It helped me grow as a student," he said. "I'm just blessed that I got the opportunity that I had."

Like a lot of other Iowa State players, when Campbell took the job at Penn State in December last year, it was a no-brainer for Sowell to join him.

He said he was held to a higher standard with the Cyclones than he was at East Carolina and Colorado.

His father, Ronnie, recently revealed on X that Chase had an offer at Florida where his father played, and his mother, Keisha, was a soccer player that won an NCAA title in 1998.

Chase's brother, Hunter, is also a receiver with the Nittany Lions.

Sowell finished last season with 500 yards on 32 catches and two touchdowns. So far this season, he has eight receptions for 126 yards, and got his first touchdown with the Nittany Lions in the win over Temple.

Sowell said he and quarterback Rocco Becht spent a lot of time off the field together in the spring. They bonded over things like their families, their desires to play football and their recruitments out of high school.

"You just kind of start to learn more and more about each other," Sowell said. "You want to go out there and play even harder for each other. I think the off-the-field chemistry kind of helped build that on-the-field chemistry."

Campbell now sees it as Sowell needing to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together to finish out his career.

"Chase's last step from good to elite, because he has elite ability, is consistency," Campbell said. "The ability to be the best game in, game out, moment in, moment out. That's what you would hope for from a fourth-year player.

"He has big-game moments, big-game plays," Campbell said. "Great production when he was at East Carolina before he came to us at Iowa State. He has played in the moments."