I believe our coaching staff deserves a lot of praise for how it has utilized the transfer portal.
Where would we have been against OU without new additions to the roster this year of Rashod Amos, Cade McDonald, Gage Larvadain and John Young? Let’s not forget Joe Wilkins, Jr or Miles Marshall from last year transfer group either on the offensive side this year…
Defense continues to get a huge lift from last year’s additions of Ty Wise, Michael Dowell, Brian Ugwu, Yahsyn McKee and Corey Suttle (currently injured).
What is impressive to me is that almost everyone they have brought in has been a key contributor.
That says a lot about assessing our needs, being selective about those needs, and identifying the talent that will help us.
The staff deserves a lot of credit for what they have done in this area.
We have lost some really great players, like Ivan Pace, a unanimous first team All American at UC, but overall it has been a positive and exactly as LaxDad points out, it is a tribute to the way Coach Martin and his staff have embraced the change and outworked other teams in evaluating the players in the portal and finding guys with great attitudes and talent who just needed a chance to show what they could do.
I think one thing we have done is to develop a relationship with guys that we are recruiting and then when we lost them to bigger schools we ended that relationship on a high note. That way those guys always knew that if things did not work out for them they would still be welcome at Miami. We have also gotten a couple of stars from smaller schools in Larvadan and McKee. I think we sorted through hundreds of lower division players and recognized how talented those guys were and what a good fit they would be. We have done all this much better than other schools.
It looked bad when it happened, but it was kinda overshadowed by Brett’s injury. Hope we get him back this season. Maybe we’ll learn more today at the presser
Chuck has stated that he prefers bringing in freshman and building that way over transfers, but the way he’s brought those transfers in has been very effective. Get players who fit his culture who can integrate seamlessly into the program and fill very specific on-field needs, not mercenaries. Considering that it took him some time to modernize his approach to playcalling duties, special teams coach, etc. during his Miami tenure, he and the staff deserve the praise above for being proactive on this topic.
I probably should not be looking ahead to next year, but I noticed this several weeks ago when I was looking at players who had transferred in, and, also looking at the two deep roster. (The two deep roster changes a little each week, but the following is from the most recent game notes for the OU game)
On Offence we only lose 3 players on the first team and none on the second team to graduation.
On Defense we only lose 3 players on the first team and none on the second team to graduation.
On Special Teams we lose none on the first team & only 1 on the second team.
Although we could lose underclassmen to the portal, 20 of the roster are transfers in & not likely to transfer again, and most are on the two deep roster.
I listened to Barrett Salee and Tom Luginbill coming back from Athens yesterday. They were talking about the portal. It seems from statistical evidence their research people have gathered the portal seems to be effecting the 3s and 4s far more than the 1s and 2s. The two deep guys are playing so they’re not transferring in large quantities. 3s at P5 schools are transferring to G5 programs and making big contributions. The 3s coming into the G5s are more than making up for the losses of star players in most cases.
I think that is right, but I wonder if it applies to QB’s. Since few teams rotate at QB, being #2 QB is similar to being #3 at other spots. You might not get to play at all. In our case, one #2 ( Mayer) transferred and one #2 ( Smith) has stayed.
Not to be a fatalist…but I hope we are giving QB #3 (HH) some reps and maybe even a few other guys just to see who is closest to being ready…just in case.
Aveon is very durable. I think once he takes over he’s the QB the next 2 years. I don’t see him getting hurt like Gabbert. AV is QB 1 from here out. Unless CM leaves. Then all bets are off.
Without knowing the extent of his injuries I could not accurately predict whether he will ever be medically cleared to play again. Having heard from at least one source that a rod might have been placed in his right leg, I would imagine it might be a difficult decision to play again regardless - particularly it the rod is permanent.