Redshirt freshman Ricky Barber has entered the transfer portal, the WKU football program confirmed on Friday afternoon.

The defensive tackle from Louisville, Kentucky had a significant high school prep career, ranked nationally at 103 and ranked 20th in Kentucky. Barber was named to the All-USA Today Kentucky Football First Team, All-State Courier Journal Second Team, All-District 4-5A Team and Metro-Louisville All-Area Team.

Barber was also selected to compete in the Best of Bluegrass All-Star Football Game. After his junior season, Barber was a Third Team Courier Journal All-State honoree as he finished off the season with 48 tackles.

{{tncms-inline account=”NCAA Transfer Portal” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">2019 DT Ricky Barber has entered the transfer portal after redshirting as a true freshman (played in 4 games) and totaling 58 tackles, 7 TFL, 4 sacks and 1 FF in 2020 at Western Kentucky <a href="https://twitter.com/rivalsmike?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rivalsmike</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WKU_Rivals?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WKU_Rivals</a> <a href="https://t.co/YRyQGoMGa3">https://t.co/YRyQGoMGa3</a></p>— NCAA Transfer Portal (@RivalsPortal) <a href="https://twitter.com/RivalsPortal/status/1383100666655150083?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2021</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/RivalsPortal/status/1383100666655150083″ type=”twitter”}}

Barber has also had a significant start in college, debuting his college football career at WKU in 2019, getting four sacks and three assists over the course of four games, earning him a spot on the 2019 C-USA All-Freshman Team.

In 2020, Barber started for the Hilltoppers in all 12 games, topping his previous season’s stats. Barber grabbed 26 solo tackles and assisted in 32. Barber racked up four sacks for 26 yards in 2020. 

Barber’s performance during this last season was enough to earn him several rewards. On Nov. 7, 2020, Barber would be honored with the PFF College National Team of the Week. Barber would also earn the 2020 Phil Steele All-C-USA Second Team, the 2020 FWAA Freshman All-American award, and was a 2020 Conference USA Honorable Mention.

Sports reporter Drew Toennies at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @drew_toennies.