Last night after the game ended, I was thinking of all the great transfers who have come to MU from big time places and played a role in our win: we have two RB’s from the ACC and SEC. A WR from Notre Dame. Another from the Big 10 (ok, Big 100). Guys on defense from the Big 10. An offensive lineman from the SEC. And a guy (Gage) who was a clear miss by all the big programs. All in addition to our usual under the radar athletes we bring in and develop who then get seen by other schools. Anyhow, this got me thinking: when we lost some of the games in the past badly to UC, maybe it’s because we didn’t have the transfer portal. But now that it’s here and we can give people from bigger programs meaningful playing time, who’s to say the gap will be huge against some of the supposedly bigger programs we play. Granted, the hill against top 20 teams may be too steep to climb as their depth is too great (Miami FL game showed that) but against the middle and lower teams in the bigger conferences, we might actually be better suited now. Never thought I’d feel that way but I’m starting to think the portal might be our ticket back to winning bigger games.
For sure. For football and basketball. I don’t think you can be successful playing football like it’s the 90’s or 00’s, and you definitely can’t recruit like it is now. Build your team with high school, fill the holes with transfers. I don’t think we’ve been great with developing receivers in Chuck’s tenure. I can only think of Sorenson. But we sure have landed solid transfers there.
Steele has mentioned he’s not a fan of building teams around transfers, but this year’s roster has 6 transfers on scholarship (2 D2, 1 Colonial, 1 MAC, 1 SoCon, 1 Horizon). All fill a temporary void as younger guys develop.
I will admit and I say I don’t really like overall how easy it is to transfer in today’s NCAA climate, but not going to be too hard on the process as we are starting to benefit from it with some of the guys we now have on the team. We can get some guys who are Big Ten, ACC, etc talent but yet will not start at any of those schools due to the very talented guys in front of them on the depth chart and can come to Miami and start quicker and really be very good players in the conference.
That can work not just for football but for all our other sports also, men and women’s.
My take on the portal is it’s a been a positive for Miami. My tweaks would be some restriction on transferring if the player gets x% of plying time in the previous season. I would add if the HC changes anyone could transfer.
This would benefit the G5 schools as we would keep our starters and could get some of the P5 guys that aren’t getting to play. Same would benefit lowers decisions with our players that aren’t playing and are not happy.
Even the way it is now, it seems like we get more than we lose, so I think it’s good. All though it hurts when we lose NFL type talent to the P5.
I’ve been thinking about our transfers from lower levels versus higher levels of college football. While we have a lot of solid players from P5 programs, I would argue our two best transfers are Gage and Frizz and they came from the FCS. I hope the coaches continue to find top talent from the FCS, as it seems to be working out well. Do we have any other FCS guys on the current roster?
In hoops, Bradley Dean and Bryce Bultman were top players in all of D2 and I am excited to see how they stack up at Miami.
Well said!
Gage, yes. But Ugwu, Dowell, Wise, and Amos might have something to say. A lot of transfer talent on that side of the ball.
No disrespect intended towards those guys. We have a bunch of P5 transfers who are studs and major contributors. I just find it interesting that we have only 2 FCS transfers on the roster and they are 2 of our biggest impact players.
Agree. Overlooked high performers at FCS are a gold mine. We had Brekke from Holy Cross last year. He stepped into the regular OL rotation. Look at the QB who have made the jump. Bailey Zappe at WKU and Cameron Ward, now at Washington State, come to mind.
( This is from a current FCS player when I asked what do you think about the portal ) “The portal seems to take away team chemistry and trust. This is my third year and I have lost my roommate the last two years because of the portal. One guy left, one was told to leave. I have noticed that we lose a lot of our back ups or future starters. We have picked up some talent in spots that help. I guess I like it if we win and don’t if we lose. Losing friends every year sucks though”
well said