STrib: Four seniors share how recruiting changes have affected their college football plans

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BleedGopher

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Interesting read:

‘It’s been frustrating'​

Armstrong senior running back Kevon Johnson is the Star Tribune’s 2024 All-Minnesota Football Player of the Year. He was also arguably the state’s best running back last season, with 2,143 yards and 35 touchdowns.


With such a résumé and statistics to lean on, it seemed Johnson would have his pick of college opportunities.
When Johnson, who stands 5-9 and 180 pounds, didn’t get the Division I offer he was seeking during the early signing period, he decided to wait, certain he would get what he was hoping for when colleges reassessed their situations.

But that didn’t happen.

“It’s been frustrating,” Johnson said. “I definitely expected more offers. I know I’ve got the talent to play.”
Johnson suspects the offers he was expecting have instead gone to players in transfer portal. No recruiters have directly said the portal is costing him opportunities, but Johnson believes that to be the case.

“I would say I’m currently getting underrecruited because of the transfer portal,” he said. “I’ve had coaches tell me they’re looking at guys with college experience. I know my talent, but it’s hard to compete with that.”

www.startribune.com

Where do good high school players go when colleges stop calling?

Four high school seniors share how recruiting changes have affected their college football dreams
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 

It's really interesting to see how the signing period goes now with early period and transfers.

Today is national signing day and the period last to April 1st. There is a lot of late movement with kids signing with FCS and D2 programs.
 

the chaos in college athletics is really impacting this years seniors in the non-revenue sports. Caps on roster sizes, the transfer portal, and general uncertainty means a lot of kids that would have had offers are not getting them. This impact is harder on kids who've worked so hard to get to this point that are Seniors because there is a flood of additional options in front of coaches right now. This will work itself out but the class of 2025 is getting screwed up and down the list of sports.
 


I am sure the portal has made it much tougher on fringe guys to get power 4 offers out of high school because teams are going to use those spots on guys with experience as opposed to someone that is going to need multiple years to develop.
 


MNVCGUY said:
I am sure the portal has made it much tougher on fringe guys to get power 4 offers out of high school because teams are going to use those spots on guys with experience as opposed to someone that is going to need multiple years to develop.
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correct, and potential portal candidates themselves within those multiple years required for development.
 


Some of it is that the new recruiting cycles and transfers are really impacting those that don't have their ducks in a row, academically. What you do in 9th and 10th grade matters for being ready. D1 programs want players coming in in January more and more.

Players are now committing early to hold a spot at the D2 level as a fall back plan. Kids that were signed yesterday are still hearing from other programs and I feel it will be fluid through the spring transfer period.
 

Maybe this is the thing now.

Unless you're a blue chipper, you're going to have to start out at a lower level of college football, do really well there, and then move up to the big leagues via the transfer portal?


From the perspective of Gopher fans, would that be bad thing?

I think we've done fairly well with, let's use an NFL analogy of "free agents" vs "draft picks"?
 



GopherGrit said:
Maybe this is the thing now.

Unless you're a blue chipper, you're going to have to start out at a lower level of college football, do really well there, and then move up to the big leagues via the transfer portal?


From the perspective of Gopher fans, would that be bad thing?

I think we've done fairly well with, let's use an NFL analogy of "free agents" vs "draft picks"?
Click to expand...
Koi was a solid draft pick
 


GopherGrit said:
Maybe this is the thing now.

Unless you're a blue chipper, you're going to have to start out at a lower level of college football, do really well there, and then move up to the big leagues via the transfer portal?


From the perspective of Gopher fans, would that be bad thing?

I think we've done fairly well with, let's use an NFL analogy of "free agents" vs "draft picks"?
Click to expand...
I know there will be many that will attack you for your take, but....just so you know...you are CORRECT! The Gophers are going to hit on HS players occasionally (especially local ones) but they have 'made hay' in the Transfer Portal the last few years. We lose some...but we get back FAR more than we lose! In PJ I trust!
 

Indiana Gopher said:
I know there will be many that will attack you for your take, but....just so you know...you are CORRECT! The Gophers are going to hit on HS players occasionally (especially local ones) but they have 'made hay' in the Transfer Portal the last few years. We lose some...but we get back FAR more than we lose! In PJ I trust!
Click to expand...
I agree with both of you. The only 2 recruits I care about are Kollock and Karmo.
 



Schnauzer said:
correct, and potential portal candidates themselves within those multiple years required for development.
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Feel bad for some of the players who might not be getting the same opportunities they maybe would have once had but from a coaching standpoint it isn't hard to figure out. As a coach would you rather bring in an 18 year old who might pan out but is going to need a couple years of development or a 20+ year old who has already had a few years of development at the college level? Seems like a pretty easy choice to me.

Recruits like Koi are in a different boat entirely from the guys in this story. And teams won't fully abandon high school recruiting.....but power 4 teams are going to be more likely to use the high school spots they have on guys they feel strongly can make it at the power 4 level as opposed to taking a flyer on those guys who would have been end of class or PWO signings in the past.
 


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