Houston running back Alton McCaskill officially entered the transfer portal on Wednesday, 12 hours after the news broke. This afternoon, he agreed to speak about his decision and future with GoCoogs.com. As a condition of his cooperation, we agreed not to record the conversation or use direct quotes.
McCaskill insisted that his desire to leave was not due to NIL opportunities or offensive coaches and/or teammates leaving. He says he is not leaving because of any one person or any specific event.
Alton said he has to be loyal to God and himself, not to a school or a city. He is transferring because UH was not aligning with his future or his family priorities and because the UH program did not show it values either of those things.
He also stated that it was not just him that UH had not valued.
Alton informed Dana Holgorsen of his decision on Monday but preferred not to discuss when he made his choice or his timeline, instead calling it a leap of faith. He has not selected a destination but says there has been significant interest. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, Florida and Arizona State had offered him.
When asked about his statement from three weeks ago that UH could be “one of the best running back groups in the nation,” he declared they still could be.
Alton said the tweets regarding his situation, which were sent by current and former UH players in the last 24 hours, speak for themselves. He was not interested in getting involved.