Rutgers running back Raheem Blackshear, who started the team's first four games before electing to redshirt and preserve a season of eligibility, entered the transfer portal on Wednesday.

Blackshear, a team captain, earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in 2018, when he led Rutgers in both rushing and receiving and finished with 1,136 all-purpose yards. Both Blackshear and quarterback Art Sitkowski opted to redshirt the season after Rutgers fired coach Chris Ash in late September. Sitkowski also recently entered the transfer portal.

"Am I disappointed by it? Incredibly. Do I understand it? I guess so. I guess that's the way the world is now," Rutgers interim coach Nunzio Campanile said Oct. 5 when asked about the players' decisions to use the redshirt rule. "I think that this is a game about your team, you know, and it's about sacrificing personal accomplishment for the success of the team. But that's the world they live in, and they have got a lot of people telling them, you know, 'Worry about you, worry about you.' I get it."

The 5-foot-9, 192-pound Blackshear will have two years of eligibility remaining. He averaged 6.1 yards per carry as a freshman in 2017.