2025/26 Transfer Portal Thread

#10,929
#10,929
Carp said:
?

Am I missing something? Simmons is certainly talented, but he was the 35th rated QB in the 24 class.
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He signed with Ole Miss / Kiffin in 2023. He sat a full season under Dart and he was the heir apparent to Dart. Like I said, he wasn't some scrub. He had spent a full 18 months getting ready to be starter for Kiffin. He just got hurt early on.
 
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#10,934
#10,934
JMSqb11 said:
Austin Simmons wasn’t some scrub.
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Neither was Joe Milton but that's not even the point. Austin Simmons isn't taking that Ole Miss team to the playoff semifinals. Had he not gotten hurt, we likely never see Chambliss. Can't give Kiffin credit for Chambliss and act like Heupel couldn't properly evaluate QBs.
 
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#10,938
#10,938
Jack Burton said:
We do all that work in recruiting to get a guy like this then just let him portal out? Was he asking for the moon?
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Few things; 1-Doesn't really fit the ideal Knowles edge guy size wise
2 Do you think his stats this past season were good and warrant more $?
He may go to another school and ball out but there was some talk about not putting great effort into practice and his stat line was fairly poor for such a highly rated player. All my opinion
 
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#10,939
#10,939
Weezer said:
@Ericvol2096

Is that your opinion or is that what coaches are aiming for? My personal opinion, you need to add another DL and another Edge to that list. We lost all of our Edge depth to the portal. Gass and true freshmen are all that's left. And Gass isn't as big as Knowles likes his LEOs to be. I would be opposed to a third Edge just for depth, but we need at least 2, IMO. Still think we need some space-eating nose tackle type for the DL, plus another disruptor. You win in the trenches. Good DL play makes for better LB and safety play.
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I think they want bigger ends so I think we only and 1 traditional longer framed edge.

Then a bigger end as well as I think we play more “2 DE” lineups.

These are educated estimates. I could easily see the second DT turning into a second edge or DE.

Reason I think we could add another DT is I could see Hobbs possibly playing some end, so it’s definitely going to be fun to watch!
 
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#10,940
#10,940
JMSqb11 said:
He signed with Ole Miss / Kiffin in 2023. He sat a full season under Dart and he was the heir apparent to Dart. Like I said, he wasn't some scrub. He had spent a full 18 months getting ready to be starter for Kiffin. He just got hurt early on.
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Merklinger also sat for 2 seasons and was a higher rated prospect. Yet it was still clear this year that he wasn't the dude going into 2026. I feel comfortable firmly call Merk a scrub at this point.

Simmons didn't exactly play well this year either. More Ints than TDs and probably should have been benched vs UK. I just don't see how anyone can firmly say he "wasn't some scrub." He was a low rated prospect, didn't have much experience coming into this season, and then played terribly this year before he got hurt. There is certainly an aura of scrubness there, imo. The best thing you could say was that he was familiar with Kiffin's offense.

I realize he had some helium in the football world, but that was more related to Kiffin and his ability to develop QBs rather than anything anyone had really seen from Simmons.
 
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#10,949
#10,949
Ericvol2096 said:
I think they want bigger ends so I think we only and 1 traditional longer framed edge.

Then a bigger end as well as I think we play more “2 DE” lineups.

These are educated estimates. I could easily see the second DT turning into a second edge or DE.

Reason I think we could add another DT is I could see Hobbs possibly playing some end, so it’s definitely going to be fun to watch!
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DE was Hobbs natural position coming out of high school as well before we moved him inside. I know it was partly due to his frame being able to add more weight. I think he could be really good as a DE though.
 
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#10,950
#10,950
Carp said:
Merklinger also sat for 2 seasons and was a higher rated prospect. Yet it was still clear this year that he wasn't the dude going into 2026. I feel comfortable firmly call Merk a scrub at this point.

Simmons didn't exactly play well this year either. More Ints than TDs and probably should have been benched vs UK. I just don't see how anyone can firmly say he "wasn't some scrub." He was a low rated prospect, didn't have much experience coming into this season, and then played terribly this year before he got hurt. There is certainly an aura of scrubness there, imo. The best thing you could say was that he was familiar with Kiffin's offense.

I realize he had some helium in the football world, but that was more related to Kiffin and his ability to develop QBs rather than anything anyone had really seen from Simmons.
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Merk never got an actual shot. I still think we handled his time here poorly. But I'm moving on from the idea we had 4 games in 8 weeks of meaningless games to see if Merk or Mac had anything to build on to take to 2026. Because there was a world where Merk could have been formidable on the field. The mostly likely scenario is he was on the field who we all thought he was in practice and that's a scrub. We just never saw it.

Also regarding Simmons, Kiffin doesn't go all in on a QB over a 12-18 month stretch with the guy being a deer in headlights. He had a so so game against Kentucky where he messed up his ankle and Chambliss took over and never looked back. No one was expecting Simmons to replace Dart's production right away. But Simmons was going to be a 2-3 year QB for Kiffin. Kiffin made Dart one of the better QB prospects for the NFL over the 3 years he and Dart coached/played together.

Just like Heupel and this is my central argument on QB's going forward and that is a good QB developer like Kiffin or Heupel or Riley or Day or Sark should focus on trying to find portal QB's with multiple years of eligibility left so they can essentially secure the QB position for multiple seasons without having to worry about 4-5 star QB's right out of High School. Arch is the exception on this.

But the long term job security for these coaches get pretty much solved if they are having the same QB for 2-3 years. I trusted Heupel to turn Nico into a solid QB over 3 seasons because Heupel is a competent QB coach. Same with Kiffin and Simmons. Same with Sark and Arch. Same with Riley and Maiava.
 
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