2025/26 Transfer Portal Thread

#5,126
#5,126
Stoerner Fumbles said:
Just adding a couple of filters here from a conversation this morning:

Heupel (like Barnes) almost always insists on an in person conversation to understand alignment and fit before making an offer.

Knowles has full authority to offer players he knows prior to a visit. Many of these PSU/OSU players who are coming into the portal either have an offer from Knowles or don’t. That info is not getting to our beat reporters.

As I mentioned earlier, players will enter the portal with a perception of their value (right or wrong) informed by analytics. Deals will close quickly for the very top players who get offers above their perceived value.

I’d bet against us closing in many situations where dollars are the sole deciding factor. LSU and others are throwing absurd numbers. Arkansas overpaid by double on two players already. Our defensive staff is making the credible case that they are going to increase draft value dramatically and have the record to prove it. Right now we trail in NIL with Williams and probably won’t close that gap. If he comes, it’s on the development case and his relationship with Knowles.

Our early conversations with defensive players is going very well.

If early OL conversations prove to yield fruit, we could have a great class.

We’ve been letting some top players go at skill positions to avoid bidding wars, opting for better values after the first flurry.

There are approaching 5k players in the portal and many are not getting attention.

We have not pushed in any chips on a QB. Supposedly there is some behind the scenes discussion with Simpson. That’s riding on how finished his draft stock is. That’s speculative and very early, but certain boosters believe it’s real.
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Do they just not have the necessary funds to get the top players?
 
#5,127
#5,127
Pawleysvol said:
Do they just not have the necessary funds to get the top players?
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The ones getting paid double the position average for top players - yes we don't or won't

You guys need to be thinking more about the Nico's and Boo's of the world. Those types of guys are off our menu. We've done the game and it gets you knowwhere. Heard is the latest. We let him walk for the same damn reasons we should have let Boo.
 
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#5,128
#5,128
Stoerner Fumbles said:
You’re exhibiting something called “binary thinking”. The following three things are true and not in conflict with one another.

1- We significantly increased our portal budget. We remain in the top ten AND we have boosters who are on standby for special situations if we need more money.

BUT

2– The best portal teams from the last three years use analytics and are not in the top ten. We plan to be smarter with our spending AND bid high when it pays to do so. That doesn’t mean we plan to be cheap.

3– We have a talented but young team with very specific needs. The quality of visits we’re getting against those needs suggest we’ll do very well.

We did well in the portal last year, but did not cover our needs for safety and experienced DL. We now have one of the best defensive staffs in the country. They won’t make that mistake. In fairness, last year Garner requested more experience from the portal on DL, and Banks bungled that and Safety needs. It got him fired. Our biggest problem last year was age of roster. We weren’t experienced or strong enough to hold up against the best competition.

If you don’t like the roster in three weeks say so. It isn’t done yet.
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Best summary of the battle field i have seen so far. Thanks for putting up the good fight.
 
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#5,130
#5,130
JohnnyD1024 said:
I think some posters would rather have the bragging rights of out spending other schools for certain players than spending our money smart and getting the most good players that we can get and fielding the best team.
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I think some people just see how Ole Miss spent in the portal the last 3 years and how they’re now making a playoff run with a skeleton crew coaching staff and don’t see why we couldn’t at least make a similar attempt.

Obviously easier said than done, but currently we are struggling to build a roster that can compete for a championship and not just a playoff spot.
 
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#5,131
#5,131
JohnnyD1024 said:
I think some posters would rather have the bragging rights of out spending other schools for certain players than spending our money smart and getting the most good players that we can get and fielding the best team.
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We are in the position we are in because they refused to spend last year and barely touched the portal. I have news for you, the ones who spend the most on the impact players not just good players are the ones sitting in the CPF right now.

Indiana is the only exception but they are recruiting older players which is paying off for them, for now.
 
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#5,132
#5,132
The interesting thing about this year is that it was mentioned that Adidas is already involved in our NIL deals. With that increase in money, I expect us to target mostly proven D1 transfers.

Yes, there are good players at lower levels like Cam Cook, but I hope we’re not trying to go bargain shopping everywhere thinking they will all produce to the level of Aguilar. Would be a mistake.
 
#5,133
#5,133
Also let’s keep in mind everyone is getting worked up right now over comments from a poster who has less that 50 posts and most of them recent. May be true may not be true but let’s see some results from that “inside info” coming from Ok St before taking it as gospel.
 
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#5,136
#5,136
VolFanGBO said:
Are we just a poor school?
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I think that when we were told that Tennessee has a “top collective” it was referring more to the operation than the total cash flow. Yes, we may have the #1 collective in terms of organization and operation but only top 10 in funds. Just a gut feel though.
 
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#5,138
#5,138
Stoerner Fumbles said:
You’re exhibiting something called “binary thinking”. The following three things are true and not in conflict with one another.

1- We significantly increased our portal budget. We remain in the top ten AND we have boosters who are on standby for special situations if we need more money.

BUT

2– The best portal teams from the last three years use analytics and are not in the top ten. We plan to be smarter with our spending AND bid high when it pays to do so. That doesn’t mean we plan to be cheap.

3– We have a talented but young team with very specific needs. The quality of visits we’re getting against those needs suggest we’ll do very well.

We did well in the portal last year, but did not cover our needs for safety and experienced DL. We now have one of the best defensive staffs in the country. They won’t make that mistake. In fairness, last year Garner requested more experience from the portal on DL, and Banks bungled that and Safety needs. It got him fired. Our biggest problem last year was age of roster. We weren’t experienced or strong enough to hold up against the best competition.

If you don’t like the roster in three weeks say so. It isn’t done yet.
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Caan we sticky this, please?
 
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#5,148
#5,148
volfan411 said:
He is just bad in pass defense and other teams started taking advantage of that. Maybe JK can scheme him into good situations or coach him up to get into better position. Hopefully he can if not Perlotte and Spillman will pass him up.
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I fully understand his weaknesses but also think he has a lot of strengths. I just think the coaching staff put him repeatedly in situations that he wasn't equipped to handle. I think he has a role to help us and I think JK will make him look much better than the volnation narrative about him. Carter looked pretty bad in coverage and he's projected to be a pretty high draft pick. We will see how he develops but he's one of my sleepers to look dramatically improved next year because he will be put in situations that play to his strength.
 
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