 On September 14, 2009, Ryan Key and Sean O'Donnell made a MySpace blog post that Portman will be playing lead guitar in their side-project, Big If.The side project was discontinued when Key reformed Yellowcard in 2010 with O'Donnell joining.After Near Miss broke up, Portman was asked to fill the position of bassist for Yellowcard when Pete Mosely and the band parted ways mid-way through the first U.S. tour for "Paper Walls."