It would be nothing better for Prairie View coach Bubba McDowell than to focus the majority of his recruiting efforts on bringing aboard the best high school recruits he can find each year.
But that’s not how this college recruiting landscape works anymore.
The pressure to win now, mixed with players looking to either play immediately, play on a larger stage, or cash in on more lucrative NIL opportunities, has led to college coaches hitting the NCAA Transfer Portal as hard and oftentimes harder than they hit the high school recruiting trails.
“I still would love to go and get high school kids that I can develop, but in today’s game everybody has to win and has to win right away,” McDowell said to the Defender. “Now, these transfer portal kids are coming in and they are going to be the guys that a lot of (coaches) go to right away.”
But has high school recruiting paid the price for the ability to cherry-pick experienced and ready-to-play now athletes from higher or lower levels and sometimes from right in the same conference?
Coaches across the board say no. But when you look at recruiting classes and see more players coming from the transfer portal than the high school ranks it tells a much different story.
It’s been open season since the NCAA introduced the transfer portal in 2018. The portal virtually allows student-athletes to move around freely without losing any eligibility at any level, whether within the FBS or FCS.
This issue has been especially interesting in HBCU football, where high school recruiting has certainly seemed to have taken a hit. The high school recruiting classes seem to be shrinking at most schools while the portal additions continue to grow.
“You’ve got to be smart with it. I’m always going to recruit good high school players,” said Arkansas-Pine Bluff coach Alonzo Hampton, whose program signed 19 high school players this past recruiting cycle. “We’re south, you’ve got Louisiana, Texas right here, Tennessee, Oklahoma. So those are the areas we will hit.
“Really good high school players get passed over because guys are grabbing them out of the portal.”
Most SWAC coaches say they jump in the portal often to address immediate needs. If a team needs a playmaker at wide receiver or a seasoned offensive lineman, it’s easier to find a mature player who may have played a lot of football, either at the FCS level in the Division II or NAIA ranks.
Taking Prairie View as an example, McDowell and his staff signed 24 players this past recruiting cycle. The Panthers pulled in 14 players who either were junior college transfers or came over from the transfer portal.
With the transfer portal it can’t be a hit or miss. It’s got to be a hit because you aren’t brining in kids from the portal to sit around and not play.
Grambling State football coach Mickey Joseph
All but one of those players are on the Panthers’ two-deep roster to begin the season. Only one of the 10 freshmen, cornerback Eric Zachery, has seen playing time through the first three games of the season.
“If it’s a need that I have to have right away for me to win, to be successful, then absolutely I’m going to go to that older guy, if I can get the guy that I want from that portal,” McDowell said. “But if it’s a high school kid that I know I can have time to develop and he is that type of dude that I know is going to develop quickly, I’m going to go with him.
“At the end of the day, it’s about me developing these young men.”
Jackson State coach T.C. Taylor found himself in a difficult position last year after Deion Sanders left to coach at the University of Colorado, and many of his handpicked players, like his son Shedeur Sanders and the nation’s top two-way player Travis Hunter, left with him.
Taylor had to rely on the portal just to get his numbers up. But this year, Taylor says he was able to hit the high school recruiting ranks much harder.
“It’s about need,” Taylor said. “If we need the immediate impact guys sometimes we can go in that portal and find that. But I have no problem going out and getting these high school football guys.
“You can see now that guys like (running back) Travis Terrell can come in and play immediately for you.”
Coaches are cautious about high school kids because most usually want to play early. If you are an FCS school like most HBCU programs, kids who play early and have success could be poached by bigger programs with better facilities and big potential NIL payouts.
“You never know because you do have to recruit your own kids,” said Mississippi Valley State coach Kendrick Wade. “If we don’t play a kid enough he is going to get in the portal. If we play a kid and he is an All-American or All-SWAC he wants to move up. So we still lose that kid. You just never know. You just have to be prepared each and every day.”
