Miami of Ohio Lands Commitment From Ex-Stanford Lineman

Austin Uke had all the makings to be a star at Stanford, but limited playing time ultimately led to him transferring for his final season, where he will play it with the Redhawks.

Sep 17, 2016; Stanford, CA, USA; General view of the Stanford Cardinal logo at midfield during a NCAA football game against the USC Trojans at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

More transfer portal players are finding new homes as the calendar flips to 2025. As one of the many Stanford football players that put their name in the transfer portal, Austin Uke quickly began to gather all of his options and find a place to play out his final year of eligibility. And it looks like he finally knows where that is going to be as the former Cardinal lineman announced on his X account that he was committing to Miami of Ohio as a graduate transfer.

Next Chapter! https://t.co/DCQiRVH7ve

— Austin Uke💎 (@austin_uke) January 1, 2025

Quickly garnering interest from the Redhawks once he officially made himself available in the portal, Uke will get the chance to not only be closer to home, but he will add to an offensive line unit that is in desperate need of some more pieces and with his experience as a Power Four player, he should be expected to compete for the starting job on day one.

A former four-star recruit out of the Parish Episcopal School in Dallas, Uke generated a lot of interest coming out of high school and received offers from Stanford, USC, Texas, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, TCU, SMU, Penn State, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Maryland among other top programs but ultimately chose to play for the Cardinal, with both a strong football program and a prestigious education as primary factors.

However, Uke saw very limited action during his tenure on The Farm, not making a single appearance during the entirety of his true freshman season in 2021 and while he played in 10 games the following year, he was used primarily as a depth piece. With a new coaching staff taking over in 2023 signaling the start of a fullscale rebuild, Uke saw his opportunites fall even more that season as he only played in two games while seeing no significant action as well in 2024.

As a high school athlete, Uke put together an accolade-filled tenure at Episcopal playing under head coach Dan Novakov. Guiding his school to consecutive state titles in 2019 and 2020, Uke became a key leader in the locker room with his exceptional talent, earning him Blue-Gray All-American honors and 247Sports 4-Star Athlete honors in 2021.

His dominant prep career led to him being ranked as a consensus top 35 offensive tackle by PrepStar (27th), ESPN (34th) and 247Sports (35th). A strong student as well, Uke also was on the National Honor Society.

Coming off of a 9-5 campaign and a win in the Arizona Bowl, the Redhawks will face some high expectations in the Mid-American Conference next season. While a good number of players are leaving, forcing the program to have somewhat of a new-look for 2025, getting players like Uke who have a lot of years of college football under their belt should make things easier for the historic program.