Not all of the transfers nor grads were scholarship players.
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Craig McDonald transferring
- Thread starter FeedBreece
- Start date
22 are in the portal? Didn't realize so many. Anyone bored and want to list them. Ha Ha.
Considering that he’s been posting highlights on Twitter today, that looks a lot more like someone trying to find a landing spot than someone who got offered a bag of cash. To me, at least.
21 actually, 18 were scholarship players. Hawk81 cant count.
We are gonna be seeing walk ons out there at times. You have to wonder what the impact on special teams, too. Specifically the coverage units on punt and kick off. A lot of the guys leaving were involved in that regard.
What a weird catch 22 it is, to have a great college DB like Anthony Johnson stick around for an improbable extra year, only to turn around and lose a projected starter at the same position.
Based on NFL draft CB is a highly compensated position. Maybe all this says is DBs have more opportunity for NIL than most positions and the players know it.
Nothing anybody cannot do, but made a guess, being generous to the kids:
2 starters, 7 on second team, 5 possible future depth and 7 probably never going to play.
5 CB, 4S, 4WR, 2QB, 2LB, 2DL, and 1 OL
Somebody made a great point, coverage teams might be the biggest loss. Although Young and McDonald really dent the safety room, especially since we play three.
Only NAIA for you bud. For NCAA stuff, your 5 years started when you walked into your first college class at ISU.
Maybe we go Portaling for a Safety, there's some out there, always other fish in the sea.
Agree to disagree.
I am not sure if Johnson moves to safety if we don't lose Isheem Young and other depth at safety from a year ago. Also, not clear to me if Freyler starts over Young / McDonald. But don't have snap counts by player, by game....
If we look at the depth charts at free safety all 3 guys from the Clemson game are in the portal:
King, Amos, Morgan
If we look at the other two spots the only guy remaining now is Freyler with two in the portal and one an NFL UDFA:
Eisworth, McDonald (both gone)
Isheem Young, Freyler
So, from the final 2 deep of the season we have one of 7 guys left. I believe Young, McDonald, Freyler, and Johnson are part of your starting group at DB. Then you add one corner from Tampa, Kyle, and Purchase to be your 5th starter.
But if you want to say Freyler, Johnson start and the 3rd safety is McDonald or Young and we start 2 of tampa/kyle/purchase at CB... that is fine.
The reality is all 7 of those guys play a lot this year if they are all here. Doesn't really matter too much who is #1, who is an "or", etc. They would all play a lot. Losing 2 key pieces and 6 of your top 7 from your final depth chart at safety is not ideal - especially when 5 of the 6 are leaving via the portal.
Finally, there were 15 DBs that played and recorded stats on Def last year. Six participated and recorded stats in 10+ games. One ran out of eligibility, 4 transferred, 2 return. Those DBs forced 10 turnovers. All 10 are gone, 8 are in the portal.
I am optimistic about the young guys and love Freyler. But a football team is about depth. You need bodies with experience and talent beyond the starters. Its not about the top 3 at safety. It's the top 6 or 7.
Didn't mean he left due to low participation in a camp...
I do wonder if there were concerns about the camp from the coaching staff. Did he clear it with them, etc. The camp advertised McDonald + Howard & "other ISU athletes". Now it is just McDonald.. could just be reworded, could be that coaches were well aware of this ahead of time, etc. Just interesting timing.
Announce the camp 4/20, delay the camp 4/28, transfer 4/30.
Could be nothing to do with the camp and just got an offer he could not refuse.
First off, I think that Anthony Johnson was either moving to Safety or moving on. There was no way he was coming back to play CB. My guess is that the NFL told him to get some film at Safety and if we weren't going to let him do it, someone else would.
Second, I believe that Freyler was going to start this year regardless of whether Young came back or not. Now, it could be that he'd be starting along side Young, but I 100% believe that he's the best player in our secondary (or at least 1B to Johnson) regardless of who came back or who didn't.
Fair enough. Doesn’t change the fact that we have more production in the portal than we do returning. We had 5 very productive players at safety a year ago. Three Transferred one graduated, one returns. We have two. We need 3 more (at least).
Got a juco. Hope he is great. Have some true fresh. Hope they are great. Have some young guys who did not see the field much (including Verdon). Hope they are great.
I am not trying to be negative. But some people act like we lost nothing. There is a lot of talent and depth that left the DB room through the portal. That’s all I am saying. Freyler may be the best DB on the team. I hope he is. He did not have the splash plays though. We return 0 of 10 turnovers from the DB unit. Eight of those TOs are in the portal.
We lost two starter quality guys who both split snaps (Young & McDonald).
We lost several depth pieces/rotational guys as well as some guys who strictly were non-factors on defense and got some special teams run.
The two I mentioned at the top hurt, no other way to put that. The rest, meh.
I’d venture to say we aren’t done adding to the DB room before fall as well.
