Monitoring the Miami Transfer Portal

Penn State and Ole Miss?! I knew he was good, but wow, shocked a bit

1 Like

Those offers came less than 24 hours of him hitting the portal- doesnt seem possible that Penn State and Ole Miss would already know enough about him since we didnt play either of them and not even an Ole Miss opponent

Miami has offered Paul Akere, DE grad transfer from Columbia with two years left. Obviously the staff continues to try to plug holes at DE.

2 Likes

I am trying to figure out how we gave 642 yards and 48 points to Kent State with 2 seniors invited to the senior bowl - a player good enough to transfer to Penn State/ole miss, one to Cincinnati and one to Kansas

6 Likes

Because Kent has one of the most explosive offenses in the MAC. And the talent gap between G5 and P5 isn’t what ESPN wants to pretend it is.

As for how do they know enough about him, they have assistants dedicated to the portal. They have all of his game film thanks to paid services they subscribe to. Combined, they know exactly how he plays and have seen everything they need within an hour of him hitting the portal.

It seems the recipient coaching staffs are looking closely at the physical measurements of the players. Performing in the MAC is one thing, but having P5 size and speed helps a lot.

Fair question. Yes, but on a limited basis to plug holes. When I said that I was anticipating those holes would be created primarily by graduation, a couple of portal exits by top players to P5 teams and a couple of portal exits for kids trying to get some playing time at FCS or D2. I wasn’t expecting wholesale transfers out for a 7-6 team like Miami. I certainly didn’t anticipate a near 15% exodus that would essentially decimate last year’s defense before the end of January. That situation- if it continues - means we will need to recruit a considerable number of one or two year players constantly just to maintain our competitiveness. Three months ago I’m not sure how many people expected to see schools like Indiana flush 20-25% of its roster by early January.

Good question!

I feel like your just arguing with me to argue- you dont think the p5 is much better than the g5 then why have we lost to every p5 team since 2007

Kent played 3 P5
Texas AM 10 points -336 yards
Iowa 7 points- 264 yards
Maryland 16 points- 458 yards

So 33 points in 3 games for Kent

2 Likes

The difference between a good MAC player and an average P5 player is negligible. That’s exactly why a part time DE got an offer to Kansas and a starter got an SEC offer. I’m not arguing, but if you want to, the offers themselves are proof enough.

And if you want to get into record, we can talk about how we only play the top end P5 programs dive they’re the only ones who can afford to pay 7 figures for a buy game. There’s a reason a MAC program has beaten a P5 program every year for the last however many years. And that’s playing on the road. With typically large penalty disparities. It’s those handful of 4 stars that make a difference.

Btw, Kent put up over 400 yards on a big ten program and over 300 on an SEC program. You can sneeze at that, but I wouldn’t.

Also the better P5 programs really stand tall over the rest of college football based on their depth. If your two-deep (especially on the D-line) has players at least as good as Pace you’re able to substitute at will and not lose a beat, whereas even a decent G5 program will see a significant dropoff most of the time between starters and backups (raw underclassmen or less talented veterans). If the MAC was full of scrubs we wouldn’t have a number of players drafted high by the NFL relatively often; the difference is that our rosters aren’t filled with the likes of Big Ben and Eric Fisher, it comes down to coaching in a conference so flat in resources.

3 Likes

AJ Mayer has entered the transfer portal. Not a surprise and I really wish him best of luck. He probably stuck around a year later than I even expected.

So the back up will lack experience. This hurts but can’t blame Mayer. wish him success.

1 Like

Something must have happened to lead him to believe he’ll be the #3 going forward. Otherwise, I would assume he would have chosen to stay given that Brett has dealt with injury a couple of times during his career. With AJ’s jump into the portal, there are currently 43 unplaced FBS QB in the portal looking for landing spots.

2 Likes

Great take. It’s really all about depth. The top 30 P5 teams can plug and play high level talent two-deep.

1 Like

I would be shocked if he lands D1. And honestly, if I was in his shoes and could go 1-AA or D2 and have a chance to win a national championship I would take it. No shame in that at all. Of course, conversely, if I was in his shoes, I’d probably stay and get my degree. But that’s just me.

1 Like

I’m almost 100% sure Mayer graduated this winter, so he likely already has his degree.

And no way was he going to be #3 if he stuck around another year. He wants to go be the #1 somewhere else instead of waiting to see if Gabbert will get hurt. I don’t blame him. What level he has to go to do that, I guess we’ll see.

This is also a reason that some of our guys are looking to jump to P5 are taking a big risk.

They were assured of a lot of playing time at Miami. That is not certain at P5. They could easily get sidelined and never see the field. There are a lot of guys with equivalent talent. For those who think they can play NFL that could be a career ender as the number of repetitions on the field of play is an important determinant of success. Talent is one thing. Knowing how to apply it situationally is another.

There is a good article on that in The Athletic today where Bill Cowher makes the point of why he likes Kenny Pickett the most of any QB in the draft. He has 5 years of college experience with 4 years being the starter. Compare with Dwayne Haskins.

He also cites Ben as an example where the college repetitions and experience were major factors in his success. He also pointed out that the other QBs in Ben’s draft class—Eli Manning and Philip Rivers were also 4 year starters. Ben had 4 years total at Miami (1 redshirt year and 3 years starting).

I would like to think someone is pointing out these realities to these kids. I know the grass always looks greener on the other side. However, sometimes it is field turf.

2 Likes

Or maybe he didn’t want to wait around to play only if Brett got hurt. He has the talent to start at other schools, he did not get much support when he did start at Miami. At Buffalo receivers were dropping passes all night, and at EMU he got no help with play calling. EMU was blowing past the OL so they kept calling long developing pass plays instead of quick hitters. Best of luck to him, he is a great kid.

2 Likes

If I were the new Akron head coach, I wouldn’t hesitate to offer Mayer. He has enough talent and knows the league. Plus he’s a strong leader to help turn things around.

2 Likes