Transfers - Outbound (8/1/22>7/31/23 cycle)

[Huskyforlife]

Best of luck to Nate. It’s gonna be tough watching UConn football if we’re just a feeder school for the P5, but I guess that’s how it works now. It’s gonna be hard to win more than 6 games per season if your best talent wants out every year.

 

[uconndogs]

Best of luck to Nate. It’s gonna be tough watching UConn football if we’re just a feeder school for the P5, but I guess that’s how it works now. It’s gonna be hard to win more than 6 games per season if your best talent wants out every year.

I'm wondering if this isn't going to narrow the field between the P5 bottom feeders and the G5 and indies. I don't see anyone competing against the BiG and SEC given the resources those programs will have. On the other hand, the WFs and BCs of the world are in a similar boat. If USC or Georgia or tOSU really want a kid, guess what!

 

[Hoophound]

I doubt it. Carter knows he was the #1 and performed. He was offered an opportunity in Lincoln instead of Storrs. If a coach he trusts thinks he can play in the Big Ten, he's not the only person who would go.

This is the new reality. At our current level of play, we risk losing our best players to the P-5, and substituting players leaving the P-5 who weren't starting and want to.

I’d like to think that we can stamp that out by putting guys in the NFL and promoting it relentlessly. I have no doubt Mora will do that.

 

[LetsGoUC]

Best of luck to Nate. It’s gonna be tough watching UConn football if we’re just a feeder school for the P5, but I guess that’s how it works now. It’s gonna be hard to win more than 6 games per season if your best talent wants out every year.

Counterpoint: talented P5 players who are backups and want playing time come here. It goes both ways.

 

[uconnbaseball]

UConn athletics, from football to baseball to basketball, has benefitted tremendously from the portal. This sucks but RB is a position of strength for us (although Carter was the best of the bunch)

 

[UCan3]

Best of luck to Nate. It’s gonna be tough watching UConn football if we’re just a feeder school for the P5, but I guess that’s how it works now. It’s gonna be hard to win more than 6 games per season if your best talent wants out every year.

Hmm… Seems like we benefit greatly from the transfer portal but now one of our better players leaves and we’re not in favor or the portal.

Without it we would not be going to a bowl game this year.

 

[BugsyCT]

That's kind of a gut punch but not all that surprising since the RB coach is heading to Nebraska. Wishing him well. Now we need more depth at RB.

 

[Jimdish255]

The grass isn’t always greener. Nebraska will get recruit alot of good RBs. There will be a competition nothing guaranteed.

Nebraska has been lousy and I don't appreciate our former coach raiding us on the way out. Wonder what the young man was sold about his future.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

This is a bummer, he's an extremely talented back and if he'd stayed healthy I think we eek out 1-2 more wins this year.

But it's hard to blame the kid if he can jump to a Big 10 school. That's bigger exposure, more chance at NIL deals etc.

It's just something we have to deal with as an Independent.

 

[UConnJim]

Best of luck to Nate. It’s gonna be tough watching UConn football if we’re just a feeder school for the P5, but I guess that’s how it works now. It’s gonna be hard to win more than 6 games per season if your best talent wants out every year.

I don't think you can draw that conclusion yet. Look at the kids entering the portal and you see kids of all abilities entering from P5s to G5s. NC State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, and Pitt just lost their starting QBs. Honestly, we should expect we could lose some starters to the portal every year for a wide variety of reasons as should every team. Fortunately, I think UConn is going to be able to get very good players from the portal and keep improving as a team.

 

[Sportsman5]

People need to calm down. There are several good reasons why Carter transferred, so it makes sense that he left for Nebraska.

There's no question that UConn benefited from the portal last year and will again have a net benefit from it this year. Ex. we could potentially get the Notre Dame starting QB from 2022 as our starter for 2023.

We still need to hire a running back coach and a defensive coordinator. Both of the coaches could bring high quality talent through the transfer portal. Ex. if we hire the linebackers coach from Penn State as the d-coordinator, then we likely poach a couple of LBs because we have open starting positions available for next year that will play alongside one of the best linebackers in the country.

 

[Coach J]

Mora, should not close the door on losing him and see if he can convince him to stay. I wouldn't say that for everyone, but definitely for him.

 

[gioff2323]

It’s not just the portal - it’s also NIL and the lack of a governing body as the NCAA has abandoned their post. And this is not a UConn issue, it’s systemic. I was talking to a P5 coach recently and he said “ it’s the Wild West right now”.

The irony is that kids just wanted a slice of the millions that came from their name on the back of a jersey. Now they change jerseys annually.

In time, they’ll have to turn the letter of intent into a 2 year deal. But I’ll let the SEC propose that first; then it’ll be deemed a brilliant counter.

 

[Palatine]

The portal is not designed to help UConn. It's designed to help power five schools. To expect the portal to be a net positive for UConn isn't realistic.

 

[Alum1620]

Hmm… Seems like we benefit greatly from the transfer portal but now one of our better players leaves and we’re not in favor or the portal.

Without it we would not be going to a bowl game this year.

The portal has its positives and negative and which has been seen throughout the athletic department. It’s going to be great but also sick for programs who aren’t towards the top of the pyramid in their respective sports

 

[Sportsman5]

It’s not just the portal - it’s also NIL and the lack of a governing body as the NCAA has abandoned their post. And this is not a UConn issue, it’s systemic. I was talking to a P5 coach recently and he said “ it’s the Wild West right now”.

The irony is that kids just wanted a slice of the millions that came from their name on the back of a jersey. Now they change jerseys annually.

In time, they’ll have to turn the letter of intent into a 2 year deal. But I’ll let the SEC propose that first; then it’ll be deemed a brilliant counter.

Correct. NIL is huge and will only get larger. We will lose out to the top 10-15 programs due to this.

HOWEVER, UConn has some major boosters that most schools don't have and UConn owns the state of Connecticut which is a very wealthy state overall. So we can out compete most programs in the P5 with NIL deals from local businesses and boosters once we get everything organized. Plus UConn is a brand name that national companies would want to include if they are sponsoring college athletes. Mora knows this and that is one of the reasons he came to UConn.

So we are in a great position overall, but we need to improve the quality of the football program on the field to maximize the NIL benefits. If we win 8-10 games next year, then we will start attracting the attention of the casual fan and everyone in Connecticut will start to take notice.

 

[businesslawyer]

The portal is not designed to help UConn. It's designed to help power five schools. To expect the portal to be a net positive for UConn isn't realistic.

Exactly. The power schools will take any of our players who they think can help them at their level, and discard for us to pick up in return players they don't think can help them at their level. Yes, we may be lucky or good some years and have net positives, but Palatine is correct -- the system is designed to help the rich take from the poor, and as we are a poor it is highly unlikely we will be net winners over a prolonged period of time.

 

[Sportsman5]

Really?

For example, the basketball practice facility that was roughly $40 million to build was funded entirely by private donations. I'm assuming the majority came from a small number of big boosters.

 

[uconndogs]

Couple of points to Palentine and businesslawyer, because I'm pretty much aligned with this thinking. UCONN may pick up some talent in the portal, but the elite (read monied) programs will almost always have their pick.

That said, I think this drives bifurcation of college athletics pretty soon. Imagine being a university president or trustee and somebody comes across with NIL deals (or whatever NIL morphs into) where some 18 year old recruit is going to be a millionaire many times over. Does that really align with the mission of most schools? Does the leadership of most schools want to go into that world of professional athletics? I don't think we're long off from many schools tapping out on this and that includes some of the P5. It's just going to get too costly and too risky.

 

[huskysupporter]

Exactly. The power schools will take any of our players who they think can help them at their level, and discard for us to pick up in return players they don't think can help them at their level. Yes, we may be lucky or good some years and have net positives, but Palatine is correct -- the system is designed to help the rich take from the poor, and as we are a poor it is highly unlikely we will be net winners over a prolonged period of time.

I am scared to see how many talented Huskies enter the portal this year.

 

[blue93]

Exactly. The power schools will take any of our players who they think can help them at their level, and discard for us to pick up in return players they don't think can help them at their level. Yes, we may be lucky or good some years and have net positives, but Palatine is correct -- the system is designed to help the rich take from the poor, and as we are a poor it is highly unlikely we will be net winners over a prolonged period of time.

You may ultimately be right, but it’s a little too soon to say, no? We were net winners in the portal last year with basically nothing but Mora’s name going for us. I’m intrigued by what they can do with some real momentum.

 

[Sportsman5]

Exactly. The power schools will take any of our players who they think can help them at their level, and discard for us to pick up in return players they don't think can help them at their level. Yes, we may be lucky or good some years and have net positives, but Palatine is correct -- the system is designed to help the rich take from the poor, and as we are a poor it is highly unlikely we will be net winners over a prolonged period of time.

The transfer portal rules can help us be competitive enough to get into a P5 conference and build a good fanbase within Connecticut. Then you never know what can happen.

 

[businesslawyer]

You may ultimately be right, but it’s a little too soon to say, no? We were net winners in the portal last year with basically nothing but Mora’s name going for us. I’m intrigued by what they can do with some real momentum.

We did not get an overwhelming amount of help from the portal. We were net winners because we had so little of proven quality to lose.

Obviously we'll see how this will play out, but this came from the power schools. YOu think they did it to help us or to help themselves? And if you think the latter, don't you think the odds are fairly good that they had an idea how to accomplish what they wanted to?

 

[UConnJim]

The portal is not designed to help UConn. It's designed to help power five schools. To expect the portal to be a net positive for UConn isn't realistic.

I disagree. Talent is being spread out in college football more than ever. It all started when the NCAA started reducing scholarship limits from 105 (before 1988) to 95 in 1988 and now to 85 in 1994. If you look at the flow of players in the portal, the majority is P5 to G5, P5 to P5, and G5 to G5 or below. G5 players moving to P5 are a relatively small % of the portal transfers. What the portal has primarily done is to take the P5 backups and moved them to other P5 or G5 schools. Yes, there are top players moving in the portal like Jordan Addison moving from Pitt to USC, but that is not the normal transfer.

 

[Palatine]

I disagree. Talent is being spread out in college football more than ever. It all started when the NCAA started reducing scholarship limits from 105 (before 1988) to 95 in 1988 and now to 85 in 1994. If you look at the flow of players in the portal, the majority is P5 to G5, P5 to P5, and G5 to G5 or below. G5 players moving to P5 are a relatively small % of the portal transfers. What the portal has primarily done is to take the P5 backups and moved them to other P5 or G5 schools. Yes, there are top players moving in the portal like Jordan Addison moving from Pitt to USC, but that is not the normal transfer.

Really? How come the same five or six schools are the in the playoff EVERY SINGLE YEAR?

Is that because the talent is being spread out?

 

[uconndogs]

What the portal has primarily done is to take the P5 backups and moved them to other P5 or G5 schools.

Right....so the best players in the P5 stay with the elite programs. Those same elite programs will have the ability to entice top proven talent away from the lower echelon P5 programs and G5 programs. So explain to me again how this drives parity?

 

[UConnJim]

We did not get an overwhelming amount of help from the portal. We were net winners because we had so little of proven quality to lose.

Obviously we'll see how this will play out, but this came from the power schools. YOu think they did it to help us or to help themselves? And if you think the latter, don't you think the odds are fairly good that they had an idea how to accomplish what they wanted to?

Biz, maybe they didn't put up big stats, they portal kids important for the turnaround. UConn has had a ton of help from the portal (this year and last year). Think about this:

First string on offense: LT, C, FB, (QB to start the year). Second string on offense: 2 WRs, QB

Defense: 3 DL in the rotation, 1 LB starter 1 LB in the rotation, 1 DB in the rotation

Special teams: P and LS

And, Mora was able to build up the OL depth with kids with some experience.

 

[UConnJim]

Really? How come the same five or six schools are the in the playoff EVERY SINGLE YEAR?

Is that because the talent is being spread out?

We were talking about the portal. The main playoff teams, Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Clemson, and Ohio St., rarely use the portal. They are getting their players from high school.

 

[ktuck911]

The portal is not designed to help UConn. It's designed to help power five schools. To expect the portal to be a net positive for UConn isn't realistic.

In the short term, it could... considering where we've been the last 10 plus years (save this now past season)... It will help get us back to respectability... anything extra is an added bonus/plus...

 

[Palatine]

Biz, maybe they didn't put up big stats, they portal kids important for the turnaround. UConn has had a ton of help from the portal (this year and last year). Think about this:

First string on offense: LT, C, FB, (QB to start the year). Second string on offense: 2 WRs, QB

Defense: 3 DL in the rotation, 1 LB starter 1 LB in the rotation, 1 DB in the rotation

Special teams: P and LS

And, Mora was able to build up the OL depth with kids with some experience.

All true. But this was really the first year we used the portal, coming off a 1-11 season.

Regardless, the portal was NOT built to help middle of the road non-P5 teams. At worse, our 6-6 season was just fatten the calf. At best, we get left alone. We just lost our top tail back. Not very reassuring.