Cris Dishman was hired as Texas Southern’s football coach this past January, near the end of the recruiting season and less than a month before signing day.
Somehow Dishman and his forming staff were able to put together a 24-member recruiting class that consisted primarily of high school players with a few junior college transfers. The transfer portal was largely untapped.
But that doesn’t mean Dishman, a first-time head coach with little background in collegiate coaching, has anything against the transfer portal. He believes players should have the same freedom to move around as coaches.
“I don’t have a problem with the kids transferring,” said Dishman, whose program saw star quarterback Andrew Body leave for fellow SWAC school Alabama State prior to his arrival.. “We can’t be hypocritical and say kids are moving. Coaches move, too. Coaches don’t always stay for four or five years or until the end of their contract.
“If coaches are able to move, then we should expect that our kids are able to move. So if any of our kids decide to go in the transfer portal, I’m okay with it. I have no issues with that. That’s why we are called coaches, and we have to go out and get someone else to replace them.”
Dishman isn’t alone in his beliefs, but he also isn’t alone in having to navigate how he deals with the transfer portal, which allows student-athletes to transfer within divisions without losing any eligibility, versus recruiting high school talent.
In recent years, high school recruiting at the FCS and even HBCU levels has seemed to take backseat to the transfer portal. Coaches can pluck out of the transfer portal more seasoned players who need less development and are often ready to play now.
Dishman agrees with most coaches who say that high school recruiting is still critical, but he won’t shy away from pulling a kid out of the portal like defensive ends Stephon Wright (SMU) and Keelan Cox (Wyoming) or cornerback Jayden Williams (Miami of Ohio) if they can help right away.
It’s all about having a plan which Dishman clearly does.
“We have a strategic team over here and we all get our heads together to understand what we need,” Dishman said. “What is our need in the portal? What are our needs in high school recruiting?
“We’ve got a good group of guys who are high school freshmen and a good group of guys who were in the portal. So we were just basing it on what we need to make us win this year and the years beyond.”
However, with high school classes seemingly shrinking as a result of teams bringing aboard more and more players out of the portal, Grambling State coach Mickey Joseph says his desired recruiting classes will be 85% developmental through high schools and 15% from the portal.
“I still think at the FCS level you still have an opportunity to develop some kids through your system, but the transfer portal has changed the landscape of college football because now they can transfer after one semester and go to the next school and be eligible,” Joseph said. “You have to make sure you really do your homework on the portal kids and know what you are getting. And then once they get here, you’ve got to get to know them because some of them have to continue to be developed.”
Arkansas-Pine Bluff coach Alonzo Hampton said he signed 19 high school football players this past year and added four or five guys from the transfer portal to his roster. He said it isn’t so much about achieving a certain balance for him as it is about recruiting based on need at certain positions.
“It’s all based off needs. What do you need?” Hampton said. “If you need a guy at the receiver position that can play right now then you go get a guy in the portal.
“If you feel like he can help you, if you need a guy on the defensive side of the ball, you may think a high school kid may be ready to play faster. I’ve got three freshmen that are starting for us and they are pretty good players. So they are going to continue to get better. So it’s kind of a fine line and you have to decide what’s best for you and your program.”
The flip side of the transfer portal for HBCUs is that they are often raided by bigger FCS and FBS programs that have better facilities and more NIL money to dish out. SWAC coaches are often put into the complex position of being pleased when their players are performing well while knowing that under this new model, they might be looking to move on to greener pastures.
“It’s a good problem when you start losing kids that are productive,” said Mississippi Valley State coach Kendrick Wade. “We don’t play to feel sorry for ourselves so what we do is just be proactive and stay ahead of the chain as far as if something happens, if we lose a kid we don’t sit around and say poor Mississippi Valley or whatever. We just be proactive and not reactive to it. We don’t let it catch us slipping. That’s our biggest thing not to let it catch us slipping.
“We can’t control the portal, but we can control how we handle everything that comes with the transfer portal.”
