Win quick with transfers, or Develop your players

[Purpleglasses]

Age old question I know, but what does the board think?
At Furman, transfers in Football are not the norm although there have been some (Ingle Martin that worked out well), and until this Coaching Staff, they are not very common.

I am of the mind that your school can lose its academic reputation if your athletic departments take a "win at all cost" mentality and bring in FBS transfer after FBS transfer to win on the field.

I also think it is a true sign of the quality of your coaching staff that wins by developing their players over 4-5 yrs, and not by playing "ringers"

this is just me, but I want to hear what you think.

[DFW HOYA]

If you can't get transfers admitted, this becomes a moot point.

[Catbooster]

Develop your players from freshmen, but I don't think it's bad to bring in a transfer here and there. When it becomes a somewhat continuous or consistent trend that I think it's a problem.

[PaladinFan]

Age old question I know, but what does the board think?
At Furman, transfers in Football are not the norm although there have been some (Ingle Martin that worked out well), and until this Coaching Staff, they are not very common.

I am of the mind that your school can loose its academic reputation if your athletic departments take a "win at all cost" mentality and bring in FBS transfer after FBS transfer to win on the field.

I also think it is a true sign of the quality of your coaching staff that wins by developing their players over 4-5 yrs, and not by playing "ringers"

this is just me, but I want to hear what you think.

You aren't helping either.

[Purpleglasses]

yes in haste there was an extra "o" in the post...profuse apologies to my fellow Purple Clad Knight.
but, PF, care to give you opinion on the question?
I will not count off for misspellings, or grammatical errors either.

[VandalBasher]

You aren't helping either.

That is dam funny (misspelling on purpose).

[Daytripper]

With few exceptions (mainly NDSU) most FCS schools must take transfers in order to be competitive. Does having only players recruited as a freshman make for a more cohesive locker room? Sure. But they likely aren't going to win much. The key is to be very selective in the transfers you choose. Fill immediate needs with high character guys. There are a lot of FBS players who just want playing time. Just because they are a transfer, doesn't mean they are a problem.

[Professor Chaos]

Even though my team very rarely goes the transfer route I think it's a little misleading to say that schools that do take more transfers than normal have the "win at all costs" mentality and are destroying their APR et al by taking those transfers. If a school is taking a lot of transfers with shady pasts at larger schools that led to them having to leave that larger school (a la Last Chance U) then you could make that argument. However, I'd wager that the majority of FBS transfers happen because either the player isn't fitting in socially and wants to be closer to home or is getting buried on the depth chart by younger players (perhaps even to the point where his scholarship is in jeopardy) so he wants to go somewhere where he can contribute.

IMO there isn't a right way or a wrong way when it comes to doing one or the other. There's a right way for developing your own players and there's a right way for taking on transfers and there's also a wrong way for each as well. You can win at the FCS level with both approaches and you can also go down in flames at the FCS level with both approaches.

[PaladinFan]

yes in haste there was an extra "o" in the post...profuse apologies to my fellow Purple Clad Knight.
but, PF, care to give you opinion on the question?
I will not count off for misspellings, or grammatical errors either.

I don't think there is a "win at all costs" mentality. Rarely do you see truly impact players on the transfer market.

I personally think it is a bad idea to "supplement" your recruiting with transfers. The best situation, I think, is to identify a position of need on a good team and see if there is an available transfer that fits that need.

Ingle Martin is a good example. He was a stellar player, but he also joined a really good Furman team that was really only lacking a quality QB.

[ElCid]

We only get the odd 5th year eligible grad student so it isn't an issue. Not many sophomores or juniors want to transfer so they can be a knob. I think the most we have even had is 3 or maybe 4, but usually 1 or 2 which really just adds some depth here or there.

[KPSUL]

Develop your players from freshmen, but I don't think it's bad to bring in a transfer here and there. When it becomes a somewhat continuous or consistent trend that I think it's a problem.

This would be my personal philosophy; however, Coach McDonnell just doesn't go the FBS transfer route. We have one QB who transferred from Iowa coming in as a Red Shirt Freshman, but he was a preferred walk-on at Iowa, not a scholarship recipient, and seriously recruited by UNH as a HS Senior. The last FBS recruit we had was before the NCAA changed the rules to allow them to play without sitting out a year. During the past 5 years we've also had two FCS transfers (from Maine and Coastal Carolina) both NH kids who had been heavily recruited out of HS and were probably homesick. One never played much after transferring in, the other is a junior currently a two-deep offensive lineman.

If you look at the almost total lack of transfers, and the mediocre ratings of most of our recruiting classes, I'll put Coach McDonnell's savvy in recruiting the off radar HS kids, and the effectiveness of his player development against anyone in college football. Throw in the success as head coaches of a bunch of his former assistants and you may begin to understand why UNH has 15 consecutive years in the playoffs.

[Iridebikes]

Is there any program that perfers taking transfers instead of growing their program thru those kids that they recruit? To my knowledge, which is not extensive, most if not all programs take a transfer to fill a slot or as an exception, not the rule. I know the Beau and now Coach Best likes to have the kids for 5 or 5 years. At EWU we have three transfers on our roster at this time. One of them was a kid that we recuited the heck out off in HS but he went to Navy, stayed a year and has now transferred to EWU. Not many transfers at all except for kickers. We seem to have a pipeline from Washington State to EWU for kickers. I think we've had 3 or 4 over the last 10 years.

[BEAR]

Ask SFA and all 47 of their transfers....xcoffeexxlolx

[JSUSoutherner]

It's not a "Transfers or no transfers" question, it's about finding the correct balance between the two. NDSU may 'rarely' transfer players, but they haven't been "hindered" when they brought in a guy to fill a key needed role.

It's great to have a core of players you build from the ground up but, as long as you're selective, transfers can be valuable assets. And more often than not you can get transfers and keep them for 2 or 3 years rather than the "one and done" idea everyone thinks about when someone brings up transfers.

[KPSUL]

To my knowledge, which is not extensive, most if not all programs take a transfer to fill a slot or as an exception, not the rule.


If you think ALL ​programs take a transfer to fill a slot as an exception your not reading many of the threads here on AGS.

[WeAreThePride]

Wasn’t JSU’s whole defensive line SEC transfers in ‘15? I may be misremembering...

[jsualumnus]

Wasn’t JSU’s whole defensive line SEC transfers in ‘15? I may be misremembering...
Sigler and Landrum were Auburn transfers, Fanning was an Alabama transfer but got hurt before mid-season, but the others were home grown. One of those was Darius Jackson who is now with the Jaguars. Fanning may have been the biggest disappointment from an injury perspective. It kept him from getting more playing time for Alabama and at JSU. He was the guy who dropped the Mizzou RB on his back like a damn WWE star.

[PaladinFan]

Sigler and Landrum were Auburn transfers, Fanning was an Alabama transfer but got hurt before mid-season, but the others were home grown. One of those was Darius Jackson who is now with the Jaguars. Fanning may have been the biggest disappointment from an injury perspective. It kept him from getting more playing time for Alabama and at JSU. He was the guy who dropped the Mizzou RB on his back like a damn WWE star.

Could have broken his neck, too. There's a reason that is illegal.

Saban also indefinitely suspended him.

Not necessarily a guy I'd be clamoring over to get in my program.

[walliver]

The title is somewhat misleading. I am not aware of a program that has "won quick" with transfers. Programs which take a large number of JuCo's and FBS transfers generally don't don't have great teams. Transfers don't make poor or average teams great ... however, an appropriate transfer player or two can make a very good team into a title contender.

JuCo transfers can hurt a school's academic reputation as can FBS "problem" transfers. On the other hand, schools that care about their academic reputations generally don't accept those players in the first place.

[kperk014]

Terry Bowden brought a crop of transfers to UNA that "star" wise would have been a successful Power Five conference team. He brought in about 50 players in his three years who weren't just on the team in D1 but were starters and major contributers at Florida State, Florida, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Ole Miss, Navy, West Virginia, Miami, Pittsburgh etc. With the right coach, MAYBE they could have became a great team but there are very few of those around.