2023/24 Portal Page

[catdaddyp]

On 2/5/2025 at 11:24 AM, Let'sGoZips94 said:

 

Why would any G5 schools recruit high school QBs? The off-chance they play - and have success - as a freshman before transferring to a P4?

I think it’s programs attempting to figure out what they have in the first few years and also trying to stock the room accordingly with one QB per class. If it’s a miss or if the QB is too good, he’ll likely move on. Need talented young guys to run the scout team as well. Taking a true freshman versus taking a redshirt freshman out of the portal gives one more year of development in the system. 
 

I don’t have any feelings one way or another if the guy is HS, JUCO, or Portal at this point as long as he helps us win.

[MarkWiley]

On 2/7/2025 at 3:01 PM, ZipsBBjunkie said:

This is for me the most disheartening outcome of the new era and where I find myself getting sentimental about the loss of the 'way it was' being a fan of a program and seeing the growth and maturity pay off with championships and the core/program stars basking in what those years of hard work delivered ... the Enrique experience for fb or bball is / will be few and far between. That's what many of us grew up appreciating and where the true fan experience came from, but alas...here we are. We root for a second year with Ben Finley. Go Zips!

HS level coaches, parents and kids need to start being honest in their own assessments.  Unless you are a 4-5 star national recruit, you need to go straight to D3-NAIA-JUCO-D2-FCS to a place you can build film, then transfer.  If you watch closely, you've seen countless kids who are on the traditional development path get leapfrogged by transfers when it's their turn.  Coaches are incentivized to give a transfer every opportunity over a long term recruit.  Too many kids are holding on to a dream of a path that doesn't exist anymore, they need to suppress their ego and take the path that is laid our for them.  I'm not saying this is right, or doesn't need changing, it just is so they need to adapt.

[MangoZip]

3 hours ago, MarkWiley said:

HS level coaches, parents and kids need to start being honest in their own assessments.  Unless you are a 4-5 star national recruit, you need to go straight to D3-NAIA-JUCO-D2-FCS to a place you can build film, then transfer.  If you watch closely, you've seen countless kids who are on the traditional development path get leapfrogged by transfers when it's their turn.  Coaches are incentivized to give a transfer every opportunity over a long term recruit.  Too many kids are holding on to a dream of a path that doesn't exist anymore, they need to suppress their ego and take the path that is laid out for them.  I'm not saying this is right, or doesn't need changing, it just is so they need to adapt.

I get the point but this is quite an exaggeration. So you’re saying a 3 star recruit should turn down a full D1 scholarship and head to D3/D2 or NAIA? That makes no sense. They have to have some confidence in their abilities and coaches to succeed at the D1 level. I’m sure there are plenty of players at the lower levels that have success but still never get that shot st D1

[MarkWiley]

1 hour ago, MangoZip said:

I get the point but this is quite an exaggeration. So you’re saying a 3 star recruit should turn down a full D1 scholarship and head to D3/D2 or NAIA? That makes no sense. They have to have some confidence in their abilities and coaches to succeed at the D1 level. I’m sure there are plenty of players at the lower levels that have success but still never get that shot st D1

Yeah you are probably more right than I am, but I'm even seeing 3 stars take the scholarship and keep getting passed over.  It's sad.

 

[Zipped Up]

On 2/13/2025 at 3:22 PM, MarkWiley said:

Yeah you are probably more right than I am, but I'm even seeing 3 stars take the scholarship and keep getting passed over.  It's sad.

 

No, you have the much better handle on this.  Mango is correct that a 3 star should have confidence in themselves and the coach to be successful. But since the establishment of the Portal, a 3 star (even at Akron) is going to have zero chance to win a job true freshmen year. There used to be a slight chance in the days when a school graduated a kid who had just held the job for two or three years and the freshmen could compete right away with another freshmen or RS freshmen and an upperclassmen who was really a long shot, those days are gone. As soon as a senior graduates, the staff has probably recruited a kid from the Portal the year before or are going looking for one immediately. As you said, the staff is overcommitted to every transfer they bring in. HS kids are still told “we really like you but you’re going to have to compete”, as opposed to the conversation with portal kids “ we liked you out of HS and now that you have a couple years with a program we are going to give you every opportunity to win this job as we like our QB room but JR Jonnie Doe is a true backup and our freshmen and RS freshmen have no experience”.  Mango is also correct that a 3 star shouldn’t go D3 because there is little chance he is moving up, but the more likely route now for a 3 star out of HS would be to consider FCS (if you are a good student) or D2 or JUCO (if you are academically challenged ) and you will have a better chance to move up some day to a G5.  I think I’m going to look at every MAC school since 2019 or ‘20 and see how many 2 or 3 star HS QBs ended up starting for a season, what year it was, how many stayed the duration and how many even played a down in their first two years before transferring. Off the top of my head, I believe Gabbert and Finn started as freshmen or RS and stayed there at least three years. Gabbert may be the only one to stay the duration. And 98% of every 2 or 3 star on every MAC team eventually had to look elsewhere for a shot. Some teams during this time frame like BG and Akron have played transfers exclusively.