This is NOT a forum for discussing actual games, one of you can start that one later. With the transfer portal, that's changed the game - maybe in a good way, but maybe not? As one coach said today, 'Money' has always been there - it never went away, but now you can (secretly?) recruit players from one school to another - there are no repurcussions like there is in the NFL, where you have to be traded or cut and then clear waivers. It's going to be super-easy for any player to say to a coach 'GFY' and go play elsewhere. If you come into a school like Alabama and get coached by a GREAT position coach, if you don't start after two years, or three years, you simply take that knowledge with you and go start anywhere you desire - someone will take you. I can totally see a kid getting playing time at a small school, then go to a big school to get a ring, just like some do in the NFL. I can see a kid playing for three years at some school in Nebraska or Kansas for two-three years and saying 'screw this - I'm going where it's nice and sunny' and he heads to the west coast, or down south. They are making a big deal out of the kid that bailed on Florida State and went to play for Deion at Jackson State, I see no issue with it. This isn't like it was 30-40 years ago, today the players will get noticed no matter where or who they play for, the fact this kid wants to learn from the best played into it I am sure. And I'm sure that now that it's 'legal' Deion probably paid him nicely. I also see a shift in coaching. I see coaches taking jobs at small schools just so they don't need to deal with all the BS, like boosters, college administration, social media, national media. Most of these coaches and assistant coaches have made 'enough' to survive OK, so why not take a job with less BS?
Im an FSU alum and still live in Tallahassee. I'll be honest, I'd probably do the same thing Hunter did and go to JSU over FSU. Why? Because he's a DB. Who wouldn't want to be coached by arguably the best DB of all time. The knowledge he gets will be invaluable.
I hope you are not steering this at me, because I know full-well, my local University played Jackson State in 1973 or 74 and got shellacked 75-0. I'm surprised Steelton has not pipped up with one of the Iggles all-time greats coming from JSU...
I would expect some changes to the transfer portal. It was put in place quickly to solve a particular problem, but if the point is to allow benefit to the player AND the school, it should have more restrictions. If I were NCAA god, I would push back early signing day and let the portal run from the last game of the regular season. The problem now is that the portal works fine for some players, but many -don't- get picked up and they lose their original scholarship. It's too easy for some hothead 19 year old to say "GFY" to the coaching staff and then get stuck in limbo. However -- after the last smackdown by the court system, the NCAA may be in trouble trying to restrict what is essentially college free agency. In the next 20 years big-time "college" football will be a semi-pro league with 64 teams. Directional State won't even be in the competition.
20 years? We are basically there now, have been for ~10 years. The top 7 schools had 61 guys drafted in 2021. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/nfl-draft-picks-college-2021-alabama/12rmhxvsydp6o11oxutrjwmb7q
Even all of the mouthpieces on sports radio are now calling it 'Unrestricted Free Agency'. Just as I said, these 'kids' will switch from team to team every season based on who will pay them the most. Some of the best players in the nation will swap teams on a whim, coaches will have no idea who or when... it's not going to be pretty.
