A Sea Of Red

Thought this might be a more convenient place to talk about everyone leaving.

Seems depressing. What about the upgrades coming (we hope)?

I expect losses at nearly every position but didn't think we'd need to replace our entire O Line. They were finally playing decent by the end of the season despite some injuries too.

I saw Cesar Carrasco is leaving (WR). He was buried on the depth charts and I don't even know if he saw the field.

Jointer's entering the Portal.

https://x.com/mzenitz/status/1864129146701422740

NCAA needs to eliminate portal. It's making a mockery of college sports.

Nobody likes change.

I'm really surprised by the Jointer news. He seemed the most logical replacement for Cooley next year.

I thought the same but this may be encouraging news that Caden Williams may be the bruiser back next year.

We have a lot of dudes in the unemployment line. For perspective, here is the list of WKU players on the way out:

Darrell Johnson OL
Jayden Loving DL
TJ Finley QB
Donovan Jones RB
Jarvis Hayes WR
LT Sanders RB
Darius Thomas LB
Moussa Barry WR
Hosea Wheeler DL
Deante McCray DE
Turner Helton QB
Marcus Patterson DE
Jalil Rivera-Harvey DL
Denzil Alleyne WR
Alexander Ford DB
Leavy Johnson OL
River Helms TE

Some early visits and offers for the outgoing:

Kaidon Salter
Visits: Syracuse, Colorado, Florida State
Other Notable Offers & Interest: UCLA, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Indiana

Jordan White
Visits: Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina, Miami, Vanderbilt

Bryce Dixon
Visits: Memphis

Xavior Gray
Notable Offers & Interest: Northwestern, Miami

Marius Landsfeld
Notable Offers & Interest: Wofford

At least we are not Marshall. While some of those leaving are high profile, at least we aren;t starting form scratch this spring.

There also remains the possibility of some who have netered the portal stepping back out. While I don't expect KSalt to repeat last winter, I do believe that some may discover that their stock isn;t what they had been told .

Sly Fox wrote: ↑December 10th, 2024, 2:22 pm At least we are not Marshall. While some of those leaving are high profile, at least we aren;t starting form scratch this spring.

There also remains the possibility of some who have netered the portal stepping back out. While I don't expect KSalt to repeat last winter, I do believe that some may discover that their stock isn;t what they had been told .

Unpopular opinion but once a player enters the Portal I’m not taking them back. They’ve signaled their desire not to be here so I wish them well. Yes, Salter is a prime example as to why

I was kind of surprised by Bryce Dixon and Jointer entering the portal. Dixon is a solid player, but he didn't light the CUSA on fire and there's nothing about him that stands out from a physical perspective like being 315+lbs or something. Leaving LU for... Memphis when you're already a starter? Doesn't make sense to me.

Jointer left Arkansas to come here and hasn't picked up a ton of playing time yet, due mostly to Cooley's success. The kid seems to have ability and decent size, and by the looks of it he seemed primed to challenge for much more playing time this upcoming year. It's hard for me to believe he's going to get a better shot somewhere else. Doubtful and P4s come calling with no tape.

I wonder if dixon got some bad advice and thought there would be more interest from P4 schools. Memphis isn't a bad program but I doubt that's what he had in mind when he entered the portal.

Jointer transferring was surprising but he went from being our RB with the 3rd most carries with 43 in 2023 to only getting 12 carries with blue passing him as the #3 RB this season. It's no secret we were going to bring in at least one more rb through the portal regardless so he must have saw the writing on the wall that he'll still be at best third string heading into next season. I do think he's talented enough to be getting plenty of snaps at a lot of G5s but we are bringing in so much talent in that room he may never get many carries here.

Bryce Dixon has pulled his name from the portal and is now back with the team.

Three more entered, more notably Eliyt Nairne who contributed a lot. Izaiah Taylor and Rod Daniel’s also joined.

Eliyt had a good looking future here, so that's unfortunate. He definitely flashed some this year, but was it really enough to have him hop in the portal for the chance at something better? Some of these are head scratchers.

ballah09 wrote: ↑December 12th, 2024, 9:17 pm Three more entered, more notably Eliyt Nairne who contributed a lot. Izaiah Taylor and Rod Daniel’s also joined.

Where are you seeing that eliyt nairne and izaiah Taylor are in the portal?

Ill flame wrote: ↑December 12th, 2024, 11:53 pm

ballah09 wrote: ↑December 12th, 2024, 9:17 pm Three more entered, more notably Eliyt Nairne who contributed a lot. Izaiah Taylor and Rod Daniel’s also joined.

Where are you seeing that eliyt nairne and izaiah Taylor are in the portal?

The site formerly known as Twitter

Ill flame wrote: ↑December 12th, 2024, 11:53 pm

ballah09 wrote: ↑December 12th, 2024, 9:17 pm Three more entered, more notably Eliyt Nairne who contributed a lot. Izaiah Taylor and Rod Daniel’s also joined.

Where are you seeing that eliyt nairne and izaiah Taylor are in the portal?

247sports. They’ve been on top of the transfer portal. So far we have 15 players in the portal, crazy high numbers.

https://247sports.com/season/2025-foot ... nkey=24138

In relation to most of our peer schools, we have actually done really well retaining players thus far. Welcome to the new normal in December unless changes are made at the NCAA level.

ballah09 wrote: ↑December 13th, 2024, 11:45 am

Ill flame wrote: ↑December 12th, 2024, 11:53 pm

ballah09 wrote: ↑December 12th, 2024, 9:17 pm Three more entered, more notably Eliyt Nairne who contributed a lot. Izaiah Taylor and Rod Daniel’s also joined.

Where are you seeing that eliyt nairne and izaiah Taylor are in the portal?

247sports. They’ve been on top of the transfer portal. So far we have 15 players in the portal, crazy high numbers.

https://247sports.com/season/2025-foot ... nkey=24138

At first glance, we look like we are getting hit hard. Zoom out and we are probably in the mild category. There are over 1,600 FBS players in the Fall portal and over 2,000 in D1. On average, 12 players per FBS school.

I hate it...but this is where we are at. It seems to mirror American culture. Narcissism + Social Media + NIL = Commitment issues. In some cases, it makes perfect sense for exposure and to flee a toxic culture.
What is sad is that 30% of those who left seeking a bigger bag will wind up either completely left out or taking a slot at a lower level. A plastic walmart bag holding the cleats their previous team let them keep will be the fruit of their search.

The only solution is for coaches to ban together and not let those who walk, come back. We already have one in this cycle and we celebrate when it happens. Could the '24 Flames season been less dramatic if 7 was not allowed back? Never know.

Well some enter the portal to get life changing money. They come back when their current team offers them some. Would be better if the teams knew the players intention and gave them some NIL prior to letting them hit the portal first and then paying it anyway.

The % of players entering the portal that will receive "life changing money" is extremely low. For us, we aren't losing that many comparatively speaking.