How many will we lose in the portal?

[Voyageur]

He isn't the first and won't be the last to flip on a decision to leave a school. Maybe someone offered him some NIL money to stay at WI? Probably a bunch of things, including a good sales pitch by coaches.

I also have to wonder if some athletes that "hit the transfer portal", do so because they know that they are failing academically and instead of waiting for that card to fall, they just enter the portal. Might save them from having to take finals.

I don't know how the academic end of it works. I'd think that they need to maintain eligibility to play, and can't wash out a semester of failing grades like that, but it is interesting. It begs answering.

I do think NIL money is part of it. In the case of someone like Trech, he has a shot at ending up in the NFL. He's a good enough receiver that brings good perimeter pass receptions to the table. So, I do believe that he's seeing it from the perspective of what's going to get him into the NFL. Of course, NIL could also be part of the equation. It's just the timing, right after Locke decided to leave.

If we saw one of the other receivers do the same thing, then we'd pretty much be able to say for certain, it was coaching more than anything else.

At this point, we've been hurt bad on losses in the front 7 on defense. Guys that gave good performances this year are leaving, and I don't know that we have the horses to replace them. I know the hype is that they do, but we heard how we had QBs that were coming in through the portal who were gonna set the world on fire. Ouch! We got burned instead.

How much of a help will Grimes be in recruiting? I just don't know for sure. If he can get into the Texas recruiting for us, that could bring us some solid 3-star players who can be counted on for depth. There's so many down here that a huge number of them are hidden behind the 5 and 4-star guys.

Then there's the question as to how players are utilized. Look at Guerendo with the Badgers. He was always a "second thought' player in the Chryst system. Good back up, nothing more. Now he's doing some solid things in the NFL, and his coaches say he's the most rounded player they have, but needed help in developing his skills to the level they could be. Kind of an indictment as to how poorly the Badgers coaching was under Chryst at times.

 

[Thirteen Below]

The elite programs, will have an easy shot to bring in elite athletes. The middle of the road programs will lose and gain athletes in both directions. The bottom dwellers, well, they may feel this the most.

And I see us in the middle bracket, with a greater likelihood of sliding down to the bottom with Northwestern than clmbing to the upper level with Michigan and Ohio State. Whereas just a year ago, I thought the opposite. But honestly, I don't have any idea what to make of this team right now.

When Fickel first got here, it seemed as though our days as a 2nd-rate recruiting school were about to come to an end. It was exciting to see how many good players he was bringing in with his first class, and we also seemed to be doing really well in the portal.

In his first season with the program, Fickell coached the team to a respectable 7-5 - and then in a New Year's Day bowl against the 13th ranked team in the nation, played a very respectable game right up until the last 3 offensive plays. 9 point underdogs, they very nearly came away with an upset win on New Year's Day with a national auidience.

It was the lead game on national TV, the first kickoff of the day, and you gotta figure half the high school kids in America watched pretty much that whole game. It was the biggest audience for a Reliaquest bowl in 7 years, and the most watched ESPN2 event since 2018. By the time the other two early afternoon games started an hour later, the underdog Badgers had controlled the first half, and were taking a 21-15 lead into halftime. The entire country watched the first hour of the game, because it was the only one on, and not many people turned away at 1 PM except Tennessee, Oregon, and Iowa fans.

Those people who stayed saw Tanner Mordecai play the game of his career; in the 1st half, he was 14/20, 219 yards, 3 TDs, no interceptions. He posted an NCAA passer rating of 211 in the first half, and 171.63 for the game (by comparison, the NFL rating for the same stats would have been 145.62 for the 1st half, and 122.71 for the game), with 378 yards in the air. Mordecai rocked in a marquee game on one of the biggest national stages in college football that season.

Everybody watching that game came away thinking that Wisconsin had finally taken the next step, and the 2024 recruiting class was ranked 23rd in the nation. The Badgers had turned the corner, and the future was very promising.

And then the wheels just came off. Everything that was going right last year seems to be going wrong this year. We flip from 7-5 to 5-7, break a 22-year string of bowl eligibilty, fire two coaches, and 20 players announce they're leaving the program (some of them complaining about at least one of the remaining coaches). The top 2 quarterbacks on our depth chart are among those who jumped over the side.

From a team that less than a year ago appeared to be making a breakthrough to another level, they look today like a program in complete confusion. I don't know what to make of this team right now, or what to expect for the future, but heading into this year's bowl season it's awfully hard to feel the same optimism a lot of us felt at the beginning of this year.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

When Fickel first got here, it seemed as though our days as a 2nd-rate recruiting school were about to come to an end. It was exciting to see how many good players he was bringing in with his first class, and we also seemed to be doing really well in the portal.

I agree and would say that the TP and NIL have 100% changed things for every NCAA program. I also don't think that we have seen the full impact of either just yet. I expect the TP numbers to continue to rise, as players in all programs begin to see just how it all works out. I also see NIL money more sharply focused and growing in volume.

Championships can now be bought and paid for in the NCAA. The top athletes will be lured by both money and brighter lights. In each NCAA Sport the historic top teams will have an edge for awhile, in name and money backing. The only way those top teams will fall from grace will be a scandal, a few bad years and a slowdown of the pipeline of money being funneled in. On the flip side, the only way the lower and middle tiered teams will ever climb up to the top will be an unexpected breakout of talent in a single season or an unlikely windfall of money to buy that talent for a season or 2.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Well, this is what the NCAA is now facing due to the Transfer Portal. Marshall has opted out of playing in the Independence Bowl, after 29 of their players hit the Transfer Portal.

Absent of 6-6 teams, officials are working to determine a replacement thru a ranking of NCAA APR scores of 5-7 teams. Hey, maybe the Badgers will make a bowl game yet!

Marshall opts out of Independence Bowl over transfers: report

On the first day of college football’s bowl season, one team has elected to skip the postseason, as Marshall has opted out of the Independence Bowl against Army

www.si.com

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Looks like 2 have been gained for the Badgers in the Portal.

- Louisville edge rusher Mason Reiger

- Ball State TE Tanner Koziol


Reiger had a breakout season in 2023: 22 tackles, six tackles for loss and five sacks. He then missed the entire 2024 season after a long recovery from offseason knee surgery.


247Sports ranks Koziol as a four-star transfer recruit, the No. 48 overall player in the portal and the No. 3 player at his position.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

Another Defensive Lineman picked up in the TP, as well as a QB.

DL Corey Walker, formerly played at Western Michigan, will transfer to Wisconsin.


QB Danny O’Neil, a second-year quarterback who started at San Diego State this fall, joined the Badgers on Monday after visiting Madison over the weekend. O’Neil started 11 games for the Aztecs this fall, completing 63.3% of his passes and tallying 2,181 yards, 12 touchdowns and six interceptions. San Diego State went 3-8 in O’Neil’s starts.

BREAKING: Wisconsin lands commitment from accomplished transfer defensive lineman

Wisconsin picks up another significant transfer addition on defense.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[Firethorn1001]

DL/QB room filled in nicely at least. DB group needs work.

 

[Firethorn1001]

And with Williams and Pauling leaving, looks like the WR room needs work.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

And with Williams and Pauling leaving, looks like the WR room needs work.

I'm sure Ball State South, Fresno Tech East, Detroit Acquaintance of Frocks, Nantucket Nuns, will have guys that will sign here!

The Transfer Portal Works this Way:

Top 10 Schools Get Top Shelf players from anywhere they can grab them from using NIL or the lure of being in a top 10 program.

Top 11-25 Schools Get the leftover Best players from the top 25-50 schools. Or top players that didn't start in a better program.

The Badgers and also-rands get the untested middle graded players from anywhere they can find them.