College recruiting may start in the homes of high school students, but it never stops more than once they arrive on campus.
Function 1: Recruiting. Function 2: Retention.
The players’ ready-to-transfer opportunities make it even more important for coaches across the country to devote plenty of time to them once they arrive, in hopes of keeping promising youngsters and rookies alike out of the transfer portal. Schools also want athletes to feel like they can earn a lot of endorsement money or compensation where they are.
“I think the most important thing is relationships,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said in a familiar refrain among coaches.
The days when blue-chip recruits patiently waited their turn on the field may be largely over. Even rookie quarterbacks like Ohio State’s Ryan McCord and Oklahoma State’s Dillon Gabriel and Texas A&M defensive lineman Walter Nolen, among many others, have entered the transfer portal.
The portal window is open until January 2, with another window running from April 15-30. It has become the main plug-and-play method for power plants and rebuilding programs alike. The top three Heisman Trophy winners — winner Jayden Daniels (LSU), runner-ups Michael Penix Jr. (Washington) and Bo Nix (Oregon) — were all quarterbacks who made it through the portal. Penix led his team to the playoffs.
Some transfers are looking for more playing time. Others get more money by name, image, deals and better fit. Whatever the reasons for players leaving, these coaches must focus more than ever on retaining them.
Washington State coach Jake Dickert highlighted the predicament facing his program in the decimated Pac-12 in November, noting how far behind his school is on the NIL front compared to teams like Oregon, Washington and USC. He believed December would bring a “target open season” for the Cougars.
“We need to provide them with as many resources as we have here to keep this team together, keep recruiting, and keep working,” Dickert said.
More and more coaches have spoken about the need to provide more financial resources for NIL deals. NC State coach Dave Doeren was just one of them, saying earlier this season: “I would like to see 5,000 people donate $1,000 to our NIL and get us to a point where we can recruit, retain, develop and have a program in a world of nothing where we can Players on our list take advantage of this.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said manipulating other teams’ players is a big problem. Swinney said the days after the season ended were spent meeting with his team.
“The rosters are not the same because of the gate, because of the trend of players not playing, and you can get to a bad place very quickly,” the Tigers coach said. He noted that his team was in dire straits at cornerback in the Gator Bowl against Kentucky after Nate Wiggins was among several players who opted out of the bowl to turn pro and Toriano Pride Jr. entered the Gator Bowl.
Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said the key is to prioritize current players over who might be available in the portal.
“I always want to pay attention and honor the people who were here first,” Rolle said. “If the players decide to leave, I’m going to go fix the problem because they left. I’m just not going to ask a guy here to leave so I can go get someone else. I want to be the guy I promised all the dads I’m recruiting to be.”
Rhule, the former Carolina Panthers coach, can count on advice from longtime NFL executive Bill Polian about maintaining a healthy locker room environment: Make sure you don’t bring in a free agent as the highest-paid player on the team.
The presence of a cohesive team and strong relationships between coach and player does not guarantee that some will not leave. But it couldn’t hurt.
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said there is an added focus on maintaining relationships, including with promising young players who may not get as much playing time as they had hoped. Once a month, Stoops asks his coaches to leave their offices and spend time in the weight room or elsewhere with their players.
“We’re constantly working on that relationship and making sure we’re communicating with those players in particular and all the players we have,” Stoops said. “This is a business relationship. As busy as we are, as much as we all have to do, spending time with the players, investing in the players, having the players at your house, having them host meetings. Maintaining that connection is, in my opinion, one of the most important things.
Marshall coach Charles Huff said portal options force coaches “to develop real relationships with every player in your locker room” not just rookies and seniors.
“I started a deal where I would call one or two people in my office a week just to say, ‘Hey, how’s my mom doing,'” Huff said. “It doesn’t take long for that friend you don’t call or write to to get carried away.
“That gap between the relationship they had with you in recruiting and the relationship they have now, when it started to widen, all the sudden homesickness started, a friend from another school calls you and says, ‘Hey, I’m playing, why’ aren’t you playing?’
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze has a staff specifically tasked with “developing relationships” with players.
“I don’t know that any of us are going to get to 100 people on this, and it certainly makes it very difficult to manage the recruiting and roster,” Freese said. “But it’s part of the game now, and it’s not the part that a lot of us like, but you better definitely pay attention to it because it’s here.”
AP College Football Writer Eric Olson contributed to this report.
College coaches are now facing new challenges in the world of recruiting and retaining players, as transfer rules continue to evolve. With the transfer portal making it easier for players to transfer between schools, coaches must now adapt their strategies to not only recruit the best talent, but also to retain their current players. The landscape of college athletics is changing, and coaches must navigate these new rules in order to build and maintain successful and competitive teams. This shift in the recruiting and retention process has college coaches across the nation reevaluating their approaches and working to establish new methods for success in the ever-changing world of college sports.