I remember watching Leroy Keyes and being amazed that he played on both sides of the ball. What an athlete.
XFL is definitely thinking about going after College kids not eligible for the NFL. They would clearly need to show stability before most kids would consider it, but if they do show stability I could easily see some kids opting for XFL. ____________________ Wednesday morning on the "Dan Patrick Show," XFL commissioner Oliver Luck said that teams in the league “have the ability to sign a college freshman or sophomore.” Luck added: “We haven’t dipped our toe in that pond, but we could in the future.” This is one area where the XFL could look to compete with the NFL to try to recruit and sign players who may be interested in foregoing their college eligibility to earn money while playing professional football shortly after graduating from high school. XFL's Oliver Luck: Teams could sign college freshmen, sophomores
Here's an example of a kid who was dismissed from West Virginia and decided to go to the XFL rather than try to find another college to let him play. He was not yet eligible for the NFL draft. Why St. Louis' Kenny Robinson is the most intriguing player in the XFL
Only 3 times, Gip. Freshmen couldn’t play back then. I was a freshman for that third win, in his and Keyes’ senior seasons.
I was reading an article about the Ohio State qb's the other day. Buckeyes have 2 really good freshmen who will compete for the backup position. The interesting thing is the talk about how to handle things so that you can keep them around and avoid the transfer. The article said the Day is likely to name a Sr who is on the squad as the backup so that he doesn't appear to have settled on one or the other, and that this fall they expect he'll try very hard to give each of the freshmen equal time in blowouts. The 2 QB's according to this article are very good friends. The whole point is in the transfer culture we have right now it is so hard to keep any decent depth at QB esp.
yep, I guess Alabama has an upcoming Junior (Mac Jones) that is the presumed starter. We have Taulia Tagavolua (Tua's younger brother) who will be a sophomore. We have Tyson (Coach Bryant's great-grandson) another sophomore and now Bryce Young the incoming freshman who is a highly regarded recruit. It seems to me something and maybe 2 somethings has got to give.
If the "everybody gets one free transfer" goes through I could see some schools not even recruiting QBs. You just go to the portal every year, and somebody is going to want a chance to start...
Just speculating here, but I seem to remember reading that Fields was frustrated that when he did get into a game at UGA that Smart just had him doing QB runs and handing the ball of, that he wasn't allowed to run the offense that Jake Fromm ran. I'm sure that he could see that Smart wasn't likely to go away from Jake Fromm as the starter, so that he (Fields) would sit at least till he was a Jr. All that time, over at Clemson Dabo was inserting Trevor Lawrence in to the game in spots where he ran the full offense and was able to show that he was a better option than Kelly Bryant and win the job. Smart never gave Fields that option. At Alabama, no doubt kp is correct. With 3 highly rated QB's in Taulia, Tyson and now Young, somebody won't be there next year.
ACC has joined the Big 10 in supporting a 1 time transfer exemption across all sports, I don't know when this will be come the NCAA policy, but it's coming and likely sooner rather than later. ACC backs one-time transfer across all sports
Given the number of kids who entered the Portal last year was around 1000 kids, you can bet that number will increase. It's going to have a profound impact on football especially.
Got a photo of myself with Coach Brohm and Shaun Phillips...and Mr. Keyes let me take a selfie with him. I'm not normally a "can I take a selfie with you" kind of a guy but he was right behind me in the brunch line and we were talking with each other.
This is from a paywall article on Irish Sports report. But I think this guy has a good point. That is that 1) there are definitely have's and have not's in CFB. 2) there is a reason for that, and the reason is recruiting and handling of those top recruits so that they succeed in your program. In this case he's talking about Clemson having an Army of individuals to take care of their players. We're not talking about having analysts on staff by the dozens who help the coaches coach. But people who keep track of players and help them succeed. __________________________ College football is about haves and have nots. It wasn’t that long ago that Clemson was in the have not category and they were even a frequent punch line of the Solid Verbal podcast. Things have obviously changed drastically for them and they are not just a blue-blood program. They are in their own tier with the cream of the college football crop. Coaching and recruiting have been a big part of that success, but not all of it. They also have plenty of other staff members who help the players off the field that make a difference for them. They have a Director of Football Player Development and Freshman Transition. They have a Director of Football Projects and External Affairs. They have a Defensive Player Development coach. They have an Offensive Player Development coach. This is all in addition to the analysts, graduate assistants, an executive chef, a nutrition expert, and more. Clemson has an army of individuals looking at every detail for their players. It’s impossible to not correlate that with their success on the field when they’ve proven to have a higher hit rate than anyone else in recruiting. They don’t sign a lot of players who end up being busts and there is no way that all of the resources they have used to help their players succeed hasn’t been a big reason behind that.
So here's a philosophical discussion point.... Does this benefit the player? Every need, option, consequence, schedule, thought is provided for/overseen by the army of advisors. Once the kid is done with school, that support system is obviously no longer accessible. Will the athlete have developed skills within this context to perform life's necessary tasks as a result? Although I can find arguments for the other side as well, my initial reaction is that this is the ultimate extension/conclusion of helicopter parenting.
Kes, I respectfully disagree. If my son was being recruited by multiple programs, and Clemson stood out as providing sufficient oversight and mentoring to point him in the right direction in all facets of his college experience, as a father I would favor Clemson. They're not providing "every need, option, consequence.....". They're not making his decisions for him. They're not sheltering him from the consequences of his decisions. They're not blindly defending him when he makes a mistake. That's what helicopter parents do. They simply are providing him with the tools for success in all areas of his life and leaving up to him to make the right decisions. That's what good, caring parents do. I admire their approach, understanding, of course, that most programs don't have the financial resources to provide these services. Case in point. I don't recall the offense but I believe it was drug related, when the 3 or 4 Clemson players were suspended two seasons ago for the playoffs, which began with the game vs. ND. Those players likely received the same mentoring services provided to all the players, but they made bad decisions and bore the consequences. Unfortunately, they didn't benefit from the mentoring program. I'm guessing they are the outliers in the "big" picture.
When my youngest daughter (no scholarship) went to college, when it came time to select classes, the students were directed to the counselors and the registrars to enroll in classes. Parents were not allowed to accompany them. Stressful for her, stressful for me, but definitely a good thing. I wonder if scholarship football players at Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State have to talk to counselors on their own and stand in line and hope they get the courses they need, like all of the other students?