First of all this is not trying to take away from today BUT,

the FUTURE of this game is all about the portal: who has ACTUAL proven success at the next level RIGHT NOW.

You can run the stats, watch film, and go get guys who have actually played snaps in CFB.

OR you can roll the dice on an 18 year old kid with ZERO CFB snaps.

You tell me which will be the future of the sport!

Jawn Dough said:

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Hambone31 said:

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Look where that got FSU

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And UNC.

And Colorado.

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No mention of Tceh or Ole Miss both laregly active in the portal in recent years!

It does matter.

-- Because you are managing a financial budget. Money is limited.

1. NIL dollars spent for High School recruits.
2. NIL dollars spent for Transfer Portal recruits.

Therefore you are balancing how much to spend with HS vs Transfer Portal.

1. You can spend most all of your money on HS recruits (like USC) .
Or
2. You can spend most all of your money on the Transfer Portal (like Ole Miss).
Or
3. You can have a balanced spending approach on both types of recruits:
like Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, etc. and Win National Championships

Tramp96 said:

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I disagree.

I think the right balance would be around 60-40 (60% players signed out of HS, 40% transfer). Maybe even 65-35.

Your UGAs, Ohio States, Alabamas will still continue to recruit and development talent that will be in their program 4-5 years. You can't really build a championship contending team without home grown talent (talent that's been in the program since high school).

Transfers can also be a crap shoot when it comes to locker room dynamics, leadership capabilities, etc.

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Don't forget how Bill Snyder recruited JUCO guys at Kansas State and was pretty successful at it.

aggiehawg said:

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Tramp96 said:

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I disagree.

I think the right balance would be around 60-40 (60% players signed out of HS, 40% transfer). Maybe even 65-35.

Your UGAs, Ohio States, Alabamas will still continue to recruit and development talent that will be in their program 4-5 years. You can't really build a championship contending team without home grown talent (talent that's been in the program since high school).

Transfers can also be a crap shoot when it comes to locker room dynamics, leadership capabilities, etc.

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Don't forget how Bill Snyder recruited JUCO guys at Kansas State and was pretty successful at it.

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Transfers have a role. They should be used strategically to fill needs and/or provide some backup depth. But I don't think any team needs to go huge % of transfers, nor should they go very tiny %.

It's not dissimilar to the NFL having to balance out draft vs. free agency. A good NFL team is able to build from the draft and meet needs through free agency. Same with college now. Build with HS talent, fill needs/depth with transfer talent.

It matters for 5 stars who will be getting playing time. Cheaper than transfers too

This is the new age of college football. As much as I miss the old days of recruiting and watching players develop, those days are gone when there's big money on the line and an open door with the transfer portal.

aggiehawg said:

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Tramp96 said:

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I disagree.

I think the right balance would be around 60-40 (60% players signed out of HS, 40% transfer). Maybe even 65-35.

Your UGAs, Ohio States, Alabamas will still continue to recruit and development talent that will be in their program 4-5 years. You can't really build a championship contending team without home grown talent (talent that's been in the program since high school).

Transfers can also be a crap shoot when it comes to locker room dynamics, leadership capabilities, etc.

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Don't forget how Bill Snyder recruited JUCO guys at Kansas State and was pretty successful at it.

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The JUCO players are the ones who are left out now. Schools are no longer looking at JUCO players, now that they can get experienced players through the portal from schools playing higher level football.

HS recruiting still matters a ton.

The best teams will be those that recruit HS players well and bring in game changes from the portal and fill gaps from the portal.

Trying to live solely off the portal is still a recipe for disaster.

This is a completely moronic post. 80%+ of our starters and 2-deep were recruited here out of HS.

Edited to add that the xfer portal is very important and increasingly so. Great to add experienced CFB players at position of need like KC and Craver vs signing a 17/18 year old kid and developing them for 2-3 years. Also helps to get experienced players like Cassius Howell you can take to another level.

But that will never replace the core of your team being based off HS recruting.

Elko plans to hit the portal hard, again.

True Championship Programs have Top HS Recruiting Classes!

Half of the starters in the SEC (looking at all 16 teams) are non-portal players. So both high school and portal recruiting matters equally.

JohnClark929 said:

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Half of the starters in the SEC (looking at all 16 teams) are non-portal players. So both high school and portal recruiting matters equally.

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I think this will start to change. The NIL and transfer rules have only been in place for a few seasons. It's a whole new game where teams can essentially buy the top talent instead of hoping to develop it.

Can't and won't speak about what happens elsewhere, however, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the difference from last year to this year was the retention of both players and staff. Shows they all bought in to what Elko is building. You take talent where you can find it whether recruiting high school or the portal. For every Concepcion there's a Reed, for every Craver there's a Moss, and so on. We need them all and it matters not where we find them. Why eliminate a significant source of talent? SMH

You can have 11 5* athletes on the field at the same time and STILL not be a good football TEAM

Depends on how well you do with HS recruiting. If you are really good at evaluating what HS players will translate into great college players and good at balancing needs, then probably need fewer portal transfers to fill in for the misses and gaps.

Georgia's roster is only 14% from the portal. Texas is similar.

The highest ranked team in the SEC right now is Georgia. Georgia has the lowest percentage of starters from the transfer portal, at 14%. While the portal is very important and neglecting it will make good coaches bad (Jimbo and Dabo), high school recruiting and player development is still the most important aspect of putting together a team.

Have you ever noticed how teams like Georgia, Ohio state, and Bama consistently have top 10 recruiting classes and are in the playoffs, while teams like Howard, Furman, and Florida A&M have almost no recruits and can barely win a game at all? What an odd coincidence…

75% of our 85 scholarship players this year were recruited out of high school. We just signed 29 high school players.

Go ask Deion how that's working out.

It's both man.

And I would be surprised if it turns out the high school recruits are the ones that form the cultural backbone of the program over time

It still matters a lot. You have to build a strong core and can't expect to recruit 25 transfers every year to start for you. Not a winning formula.

There was a post showing how most teams had about 55% starting from their Hs classes and 45% from transfers. It's a good combination of both. Georgia was on the low end and teams like Arkansas and ole Miss on the high end.

I think a good balance is key.

GenZagain said:

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JohnClark929 said:

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Half of the starters in the SEC (looking at all 16 teams) are non-portal players. So both high school and portal recruiting matters equally.

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I think this will start to change. The NIL and transfer rules have only been in place for a few seasons. It's a whole new game where teams can essentially buy the top talent instead of hoping to develop it.

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But it isn't happening. High school classes for most teams are still 25 ish and 10-15 portal guys. You won't see Ohio state, Georgia, bama, flip that and go 25 portal and 10 high school. You just won't

Wrong. Recruiting at the HS and local level is also about future possibilities in the portal. You need to create relationships as early as possible as they can pay off down the road.

Scourton is a great example of success in the portal after making relationships at a young age with local talent.

I think you have to have a good mix.

While true, that "had" to happen due to the mass exodus of players from Jimbo era....forget the numbers, but well over 25 departed and left some gaping holes that weren't solved immediately due to timing of hire / HS signing and Portal when Elko came onboard.

Think staff prefers roster to be HS classes across time with 'some' txfr portal pickups for a gap or two.

He had no other option