The NCAA transfer portal is a blessing to athletes who need a fresh start.
It’s also turned into a nightmare for high school athletes just trying to keep their playing days alive.
Instead of posing for photos and eating cake with friends, family and teammates, two of Georgia’s most prolific quarterbacks spent last week’s National Signing Day reaching out to college programs in hopes of getting a late offer. What should have been a milestone moment turned into yet another day of frustration for seniors Owen Brooker and Seth Griffin — and, no doubt, dozens of prep stars across the country.
“The transfer portal is basically destroying high school recruiting, in my opinion,” said Northwest Whitfield High School football coach Josh Robinson, Brooker’s prep coach. “The great, great majority of high school players are not the real physical freaks of nature everybody sees on social media, but that’s what recruiting has become, the search for those kinds of players.
“With the portal, where kids are now 19 and 20 years old and have spent time in college weight rooms, college coaches are going to look there first if they don’t get those physical high school freaks. And it’s hard to blame them, and every college coach I talk to hates it because they know half the kids they recruit are going to eventually transfer.
“However, it’s killing the dreams of these kids who are left out, the ones who maybe don’t pass the eye test.”
Robinson has had a few of those. One, former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga star and current defensive lineman for the New York Jets, Isaiah Mack, visited Tunnel Hill recently to help present awards at the Bruins’ football banquet.
His story, Robinson says, is a prime example of the portal’s effect.
“I had to sell Isaiah Mack to college coaches,” he said. “He didn’t pass the eye test. He was 6-1 and then about 260, certainly not a typical college lineman. I told the UTC coaches that he could be a star for them, that he was so dominant that we often couldn’t let him practice because we couldn’t block him.
“They watched his tape and the rest is history. However, does UTC, or any school, take a risk on Isaiah Mack today? I don’t think they would.”
Every position has been affected — over 2,000 players entered the portal this recruiting period — but with quarterbacks, though, the portal has made an already-tough recruiting process nearly impossible for non-four and five-star recruits. College programs only carry a few quarterbacks on their roster and rarely take more than one in any recruiting period, so even before the portal it was hard to land a full scholarship, especially at the FBS level.
The numbers now are stunning at the position. Over 40% of FBS starting quarterbacks this past season were transfers. According to On3.com, which tracks transfer portal activity, 133 quarterbacks entered the portal this offseason.
Forty-three of those are still uncommitted. Of the 90 who have signed, only 13 did so with FCS or lower programs. That means 77 of the 133 FBS programs have new quarterbacks, and while many of those 77 schools also had QBs transfer out, the reality is the great majority of open spots are not being filled by prep kids.
“It’s had a profound effect on high school recruiting,” McCallie coach Ralph Potter said. “They didn’t increase the number of scholarships available. The temptation is to go to the portal to replenish your team quickly with experience. Instead of 25 high school kids getting scholarships, only half that many are getting offers now.”
This isn’t just an FBS issue. In fact, the trickle down effect of the portal has changed recruiting at the FCS level even more, where players become available that, as high school athletes, the FCS programs couldn’t have signed.
“We had tons of power-five coaches stop by, but we saw fewer than five FCS schools,” Potter said. “When I asked around, the word I heard back is that they’re saving money in their recruiting budget to bring in transfers to recruit. They’ll only recruit high school kids once they know what they’re getting in the portal, and that’s after power-five teams have sorted themselves out.
“It’s going to take years to sort it out and the NCAA is going to have to realize it’s an issue.”
Meanwhile, two players who combined for over 20,000 yards and more than 200 touchdowns in one of the country’s most-recruited states are unsure when and where they might play again.
“Quarterback is a tough deal these days with all the guys in the portal,” said Griffin’s prep coach, North Murray’s Preston Poag, who played the position at North Carolina State. “They take one, maybe two, but there are so many who have played in college and they are going to take them first. Seth has had offers, but most are partial offers from small schools or from schools that aren’t a great fit.
“I can tell you he’s frustrated with the whole process and I can also tell you he can play for a lot of the programs who have turned him down.”
Unless a late offer comes in, both QBs will likely take preferred walk-on offers at bigger schools, hoping to carve out whatever path to success they can find. Maybe they catch the eye of a coach who gets a new job, or impress so much in practice they get a shot at playing time.
Maybe they enter the transfer portal and end up where they always thought they belonged.
The cycle continues.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / Despite finishing his career with nearly 11,000 total yards, Northwest Whitfield quarterback Owen Brooker remains unsigned.
Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / North Murray quarterback Seth Griffin passed for over 5,600 yards and had 57 touchdown passes the past two seasons. The three-year starter, who also had more than 1,500 career rushing yards, is still looking for a college home.
Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / North Murray quarterback Seth Griffin passed for over 5,600 yards and had 57 touchdown passes the past two seasons. The three-year starter, who also had more than 1,500 career rushing yards, is still looking for a college home.