Hunter Sellers, a defensive back who spent the last two seasons at Pitt, entered the NCAA transfer portal in early December, and on Friday, he announced that he would continue his athletic career at New Mexico.
“I’d like to thank everybody standing behind me and supporting me throughout this process,” Sellers said in a message posted on Twitter. “Thank you to all the schools that reached out and offered, but after a lot of prayer and careful consideration, I’ll be committing to the University of New Mexico.”
The 5’11”, 185-pound defensive back committed to Pitt on June 17, 2019. At the time, Sellers was a standout at Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia, and he was considered a three-star recruit. Sellers chose Pitt over offers from the likes of Boston College, Duke, Indiana, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Rutgers, UCF and Wisconsin.
The defensive back found himself on Pitt’s radar after a breakout campaign in his sophomore year at Woodward. That year, Sellers amassed 67 tackles, two interceptions, five pass breakups, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. And in his junior year, he accrued 21 tackles and a pass breakup in a shortened season. However, he returned to form as a senior, as he racked up a total of 38 tackles, two interceptions, five pass breakups and two fumble recoveries in 2019.
With the move to New Mexico, Sellers will join an ailing Lobos team that has failed to top three wins in a season since 2016 and has won just four conference games in 32 attempts over that same span. Given his accomplishments at the high school level and the recent struggles of the Lobos, Sellers should see more playing time in Albuquerque than he did in Pittsburgh. But the tradeoff is he will likely have fewer opportunities to play in meaningful games.