With the advent of transfer portal windows there’s now two major rushes to the portal instead of late December and early January seeing the majority of names. This second window gives players time to think about where they should be and reassess after spring ball instead of throwing their name into the portal haphazardly and ending with no home. It’s also given teams the ability to really fill some holes on the roster after spring ball if players haven’t developed like the staff has hoped. Let’s jump into the most active teams since the second window has opened and discuss who’s the big winner so far.
Colorado and Deion Sanders
Let’s get one thing clear: the winner is not Colorado, no matter how you spin it. By my count, the team has lost 52 players (scholarship or not) since Coach Prime came to town. This number probably isn’t exactly right since I don’t have access to in-house numbers and maybe some of them weren’t scholarship players anyways but this is an asinine number of players leaving the program. The transfer portal has its uses to fill a small number of holes in your starting lineup and give you a few developmental prospects if your high school signings haven’t gone as planned. It is simply not a sustainable strategy to overhaul 50 spots on your roster through the portal, especially when your pitch to those kids probably includes something along the lines of “our team is horrible, we have no one, come here and you’ll get all the playing time in the world.”
Don’t get me wrong, Sanders has gotten some incredible talent from the portal and deserves praise for his recruiting efforts. I’m in the camp of people that believe if he gets Colorado to 4 wins this season they can consider it a success and if he’s hitting a 6-6 record by season 3 he’s doing his job. The issue is there’s no team chemistry, cohesion between different position groups, or clear-cut expectations when over half your roster is coming from a new school. Colorado isn’t going to springboard to continued success by grabbing every talented player in the portal with no consideration for scheme fits, locker room personalities, and a clear plan of who’s being targeted to be a starter and who will be sitting for a year or more. The idea that you can throw all of these kids into a fire and let them compete for the starting job sounds great but most players enter the portal looking for starting jobs, not to buy into the culture of a team and get developed into a starting role.
It’ll be interesting to see how many of these portal additions use all their remaining eligibility with the team. Until then, I can’t assume Coach Prime has put genuine thought into roster construction given it seems anyone who enters the portal is fair game for the team as if players aren’t in the transfer portal for a reason.
UNC Charlotte and Biff Poggi
Charlotte sort of earns a de-facto spot here just because they’re one of the few teams with more than one transfer addition since the portal reopened on April 15. New coach Biff Poggi has made recruiting a focal point of the new staff’s strategy and has been busy in the portal looking to get some talent while his roster is in a bridge period between the old staff’s personnel and his.
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Linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green leads their current commits, coming from Michigan where he did not play a snap in 2022 due to injury. He’s got some time as a rotational piece in Michigan’s defense with multiple years of eligibility between the COVID year and his injury redshirt. He knows Coach Poggi from their time together at St. Frances Academy in Maryland and I expect him to play a big role in their defense in the upcoming season. He doesn’t look like he took the next step athletically during the transition to college but he’s got good competitive toughness and solid play strength, both of which will help him be an impactful G5 player. TE Gus McGee is an interesting developmental prospect with 4 years of eligibility remaining that has very good size and can run crisper routes than most players his age. He lacks finesse in all areas of the game whether it’s blocking technique or knowing when to settle between zones. I like him long-term since most of his issues are about learning the game and he’s already a physical specimen.
Big Winners: Louisville and Jeff Brohm
Louisville is the clear winner to me and it’s not just the result of quantity- they’ve brought in high-quality players at important positions during a time when most of the portal prospects are looked at as an afterthought by their former teams. With any new coach, you’ll have lots of departures and Brohm and his staff have done an excellent job of rebuilding a roster that admittedly was lacking in talent. All their work has culminated in a second round of transfers that include DBs Storm Duck and Marcus Washington, LB Keith Brown, and OT Eric Miller.
It’s hard to imagine Duck isn’t at least CB2 for the team knowing he transferred out of PSU after transferring in during the first portal window because he’s looking for a starting role. He may not start immediately but Washington is a great pickup as the former #147 recruit in the 2022 class brings youth and plenty of athleticism to the team. He has very good speed, agility, and an elite vertical and should be in the rotation on the defense as CB3. Brown is an instant starter for Louisville coming from Oregon where he started 12 of 13 games. His good play strength and good mental processing will help bolster Louisville’s defense and provide them with a true leader. There’s no such thing as too many linemen and the additions of IOL Lance Robinson and OT Eric Miller give Louisville some rotational depth on their line with the potential for Miller to earn the starting role as someone familiar with Brohm’s schemes. Robinson has 3 years of eligibility and a good amount of FBS snaps under his belt and should turn into a star on the offensive line if he sticks around for all 3 years.
Honorable Mention: California and Justin Wilcox
Cal earns an honorable mention here between the additions of Matthew Wykoff and Patrick McMorris. I’m a big fan of both guys and think Cal found some rare quality in the second portal window relative to the other players that have entered. Wykoff gives the team a long-term answer inside as he has 3 years of eligibility and earned some starts as a freshman last season. His efforts earned him the lone spot on the Freshman All-SEC team as the center. His technique is more refined than you’d expect of someone his age and he’ll be able to help Cal whether it’s at Center or Guard. McMorris enters as a 6th-year senior and is one of the most decorated defenders that entered the transfer portal this year, let alone this window. He’s earned two All-MWC First Team selections in his time with SDSU while playing in a 3-3-5. He’s got all the intangibles a team could want and the athleticism needed to play anywhere in the secondary. His only downside is he’s a one-year rental. If Cal can grab another offensive weapon or two to help whatever QB they end up rolling with this season they’ll find their way into the discussion.
