Hurricanes running back Chris Johnson Jr. is entering the transfer portal, according to a report from On3.

The Miami second-year running back and Dillard High alumnus is the third UM player known to be transferring, joining backup quarterback Reese Poffenbarger and offensive lineman Antonio Tripp Jr. (who announced his intention to transfer Friday).

Johnson was a star running back for Dillard and was a state track champion. He was rated a three-star prospect coming out of high school. He was a two-time Sun Sentinel Broward County track athlete of the year. 

Johnson has played sparingly in two seasons at Miami. He had 22 offensive snaps in 2023, getting 11 carries for 73 yards and a touchdown. This season, he had 27 offensive snaps, notching six carries for 31 yards. Johnson also had eight catches for 72 yards and two touchdowns.

Johnson also lined up as a kick returner, averaging 24.4 yards per carry.

Barring other transfers, Miami should return four scholarship running backs next season: Ajay Allen, Mark Fletcher Jr., Jordan Lyle and Chris Wheatley-Humphrey. Starter Damien Martinez has another year of eligibility remaining and could return, though he is a likely NFL draft prospect. The Hurricanes also signed four-star running back prospect Girard Pringle Jr. on Wednesday.

MIAMI GARDENS — The South Florida Sun Sentinel’s Miami Dolphins writers are picking out a pair of prop bets each week in the 2024 season.

Dolphins columnist Chris Perkins and Dolphins reporter David Furones, neither of whom condones gambling, will make predictions on player or team props they believe will occur for every Dolphins matchup.

Each writer will offer their “Best Bet,” a near 50-50 proposition they believe will occur, and a “Longshot,” which has to be given betting odds of at least +300, or 3-to-1 probability.

Odds are according to the Hard Rock Bet app. Also make sure to check out the Sun Sentinel’s game predictions for Thursday night.

Perk’s best bet: Jonnu Smith over 48.5 yards (-120)

Jonnu Smith is the most consistent part of the Dolphins offense. If we’re talking “best bet” I’m starting to lean toward all things Jonnu.

Furones’ Best Bet: Braelon Allen under 52.5 rushing yards

Breece Hall is doubtful for the Jets, so up comes Braelon Allen to play an expanded role behind him. But I don’t see the Dolphins defensive front letting him reach this number, not back at home after all the tackling and toughness questions surrounding the team. The Jets will put the game on the shoulders of Aaron Rodgers.

Both writers stayed hot on best bets last week. Furones surges to 8-4, and Perk has finally pulled back to an even .500 record, at 6-6.

Perk’s Longshot: River Cracraft anytime TD (+2250)

Let’s do it big!! I can see a scenario in which Cracraft gets a 25- or 30-yard TD or a red zone TD. I feel good about the chances of this one hitting.

Furones’ Longshot: Jaylen Waddle 6-plus receptions (+325)

If they’ll give me longshot odds for this, I’ll go right back to it after finding a win with it two weeks ago. The Jets have All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner doubtful. They’ll use extra help to contain Tyreek Hill, and although they know they can’t let Waddle beat them over the top like he did last year, he’ll get plenty of opportunities underneath.

Neither writer hit the longshot last week in frigid Green Bay. Furones is now 3-9 while Perk is 2-10. But these are meant to be tough.

Another CTE study is exposing the dangers of repetitive head impacts for athletes.

The largest study ever of CTE in dead hockey players found that the odds of having chronic traumatic encephalopathy significantly increased with longer careers.

The Boston University CTE Center study of 77 dead male ice hockey players showed that the risk for the brain disease jumped by 34% with each year played.

Eighteen of the 19 dead National Hockey League players who were studied had CTE — a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated traumatic brain injuries, and most frequently found in former contact sport athletes exposed to repetitive head impacts.

While many think of CTE risk as limited to hockey enforcers, this study makes it clear that all male ice hockey players are at risk.

“Ice hockey players with longer careers not only were more likely to have CTE, but they also had more severe disease,” said corresponding author Jesse Mez, co-director of clinical research at the BU CTE Center.

“We hope this data will help inspire changes to make the game safer as well as help former ice hockey players impacted by CTE get the care they need,” added Mez, who’s an associate professor of neurology at BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

The researchers studied male brain donors who had been amateur and professional ice hockey players. They found 96% (27 of 28) of pro players had CTE (18 of 19 NHL players, and all nine non-NHL pros); 46% of college, juniors and semi-pro players (13 of 28); and 10% (2 of 21) of youth and high school players.

Among enforcers, the researchers found that 18 of 22 had CTE, but the difference between enforcers and non-enforcers was not statistically significant after accounting for years of play.

“Enforcers have dominated the CTE conversation, but our findings provide the most evidence for the cumulative amount of play as the predominant risk factor for CTE,” Mez said. “Enforcers had about twice the odds of developing CTE, but the takeaway here is that non-enforcers are getting CTE as well.

“Ice hockey players skate quickly, and checking leads to impacts with other players, the ice, boards and glass,” Mez added. “We think years of play is a proxy for these impacts that are harder to measure directly, but are likely what are leading to the disease.”

After football and rugby, ice hockey is the third major sport to show a dose-response relationship between years of play and CTE risk, further strengthening the evidence that repetitive head impacts cause CTE.

The risk for CTE among female ice hockey players remains unknown, and because the rules around checking differ, the results should not be generalized to female ice hockey players.

The researchers stressed that the CTE data reported in this study should not be construed as the prevalence of CTE in the target population, as families whose loved ones are symptomatic are more likely to donate their brains.

MIAMI GARDENS — A matchup of left tackle versus edge rusher that might be seen for many years to come in the AFC East will present its first installment Sunday.

And the two parties involved were college teammates who went to their respective NFL teams in the first round of the past draft.

Miami Dolphins outside linebacker Chop Robinson will square off against New York Jets left tackle Olu Fashanu for the first time as professionals after both starred on opposite sides of the ball at Penn State the past two seasons.

Memories of facing Fashanu in college practices stay engraved in Robinson’s memory.

“I would just say really 1-on-1s every day in practice,” Robinson recalled this week. “When I first got to Penn State, I kept hearing the hype about Olu, and then once I went out there, I tried to just burn him off the ball and he put me down to the ground.

“I was like, ‘OK, yeah. He’s the real deal.’”

But after that rude awakening, Robinson would get him back on a later rep, of course.

“Oh yeah, 100 percent,” he said. “Always got my payback.”

In the draft, Fashanu was selected No. 11 by the Jets. Robinson went to Miami 10 picks later.

Both rookies have made progress as they go deeper into their first NFL seasons. Robinson, before last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, had his first 3 1/2 career sacks come in a four-game stretch. Fashanu has started for injured veteran left tackle Tyron Smith over the past month.

Robinson said Fashanu reached out to him early in the week to set up the jersey swap upon game’s end. Fashanu is from Washington, D.C. and Robinson is from Maryland.

“Chop’s my dog. We’ll talk. We’re brothers. We got super close at Penn State,” Fashanu told reporters in New Jersey this week. “For him and I, it’s a very unique situation. Two guys, both in the same area, ended up being at Penn State at the same time in our college careers, played on opposing sides of the ball and ended up both going in the first round . . . Super excited looking forward to it.”

Fashanu’s recollection of 1-on-1s with Robinson: “Absolute wars.”

“We truly made each other better going at it in practice, whether it was run or pass,” he said. “To this day, I still struggle to find anybody with a better get-off than him. The way he challenged me, especially with pass protection, it kind of forced me to improve my game just because of how dominant he was.”

The Dolphins’ second-round pick in the past draft, fellow left tackle Patrick Paul, actually trained with Fashanu during draft preparation.

“That’s my brother. I know him all too well,” Paul said. “It’s going to be great to see him and see that battle going, but me being a Dolphin, Chop, get after him.”

Dolphins defensive lineman Calais Campbell believes the rookie Robinson can act more like a seasoned veteran knowing his opponent.

“I think that’s very beneficial for us, because he has familiarity with him,” Campbell said. “That’s one of the biggest things that rookies don’t really have. So it allows him to be more of a vet this week, but it goes both ways because he’s also more familiar with Chop.”

Veteran edge rusher Emmanuel Ogbah has enjoyed seeing Robinson’s development as a rookie and said Robinson has relayed tendencies of Fashanu to others.

Miami coach Mike McDaniel, though, warns it could be something different when he hasn’t seen him yet under pro coaching.

“Anytime you get rookie college teammates going against each other,” McDaniel said, “it’s easy to assume you know exactly how the other person plays and then see how the NFL season adjusted their game.”

If Robinson can beat Fashanu on a pass rush Sunday, it might lead to a sack of Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was drafted when Robinson was 2 years old.

“It would mean a lot. Just watching the guy when I was a baby, and then my older brother, that was his guy too. So just doing whatever I can for the team for the win.”