And you thought last year was crazy. Transfer portal crazy. Record-breaking crazy. When a multitude of college football players walked out on the diving board and did a triple-somersault into the packed portal you thought you’d seen it all. You were wrong. We were wrong.
Welcome to Transfer Portal 2022, which opened for brisk business on Monday. Talk about a crowded house. By noon Monday there were nearly 700 players in the portal. By Monday night, there were over 1,000, a vast majority of whom had declared themselves free agents via the use of fancy graphic designs on social media.
Instant mobility wasn’t limited to just players. Oh, no. Monday morning opened with the jaw-dropping news that Louisville coach Scott Satterfield was now the new head coach at Cincinnati. Louisville fans began writing thank-you notes to the UC administration. Cincinnati fans began scratching their heads.
Purdue fans awoke to “#BringBackBrohm” trending on Twitter. That would be former U of L quarterback and current Purdue coach Jeff Brohm. Back in 2018, the Cards took a swing-and-miss at Brohm, who led the Boilers to the Big Ten title game this season. Four years later, afforded a second chance, can new U of L athletics director Josh Heird hit a home run?
Meanwhile, out in Boulder, new Colorado coach Deion Sanders was telling his new players (a) that his son Shedeur will be the Buffaloes’ new starting quarterback and that (b) the current Buffs might want to get their portal papers in order.
Coach Prime: “So I want y’all to get ready to go ahead and jump in the portal and do whatever you’re gonna get because if more of you jump in, the more room you make.”
At last count, and always subject to change, nine Kentucky players have hit the portal. No real surprises among them. Most of the BBN portal attention has focused on possible incoming candidates, especially at quarterback. At that position, the portal overflows. Over 60 signal-callers have filled out transfer papers. Now-former Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz is believed to be on the Big Blue radar. Now-former North Carolina State quarterback Devin Leary is worthy of attention.
Then there’s the little item of Mark Stoops’ search for a new offensive coordinator. A Liam Coen 2.0 has received considerable buzz, but Stoops said Monday he has talked to several unnamed candidates. The UK coach said he was excited about the interest the opening has generated and the possibilities moving forward.
This isn’t Stoops’ first OC rodeo. His decade in Lexington, the former defensive coordinator has been through five offensive coordinators — Neal Brown, Shannon Dawson, Eddie Gran, Coen, Rich Scangarello. Dawson (2015) and Scangarello (2022) were both let go after just one season on the job.
I asked Stoops on Monday what he had learned from his extensive experience of hiring a play-caller.
“It’s a good question,” the coach answered. “I don’t know if there’s any one exact thing I could put my fingertip on, other than you have to trust your instincts and you have to make sure you stay true to them and what’s most important to you and what I believe in this current environment.“
Let’s face it, the current college football environment is chaos.
By Tuesday morning, there were reports 16 Texas A&M players had hit the portal after the Aggies’ 5-7 nosedive of a season.
At least three players — Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, Florida offensive lineman Joshua Braun and Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec — committed to new schools just hours after entering the portal. McNamara picked Iowa. Braun picked Arkansas. Jurkovec chose Pittsburgh, where quarterback Kedon Slovis, a Southern Cal transfer, entered the portal for a second time.
Tampering, anyone? Of course not.
This about sums it up: In February, Auburn boosters used allegations of an alleged affair to try and push out unpopular head coach Bryan Harsin. By November, Auburn had hired Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, who was previously fired at Ole Miss in part for allegedly using his company phone to calling escort services.
And we’re just getting started.
Pass the popcorn.
