Spring Football 2023

[gotime909]

Thorne and Keon entering portal. Yikes

 

[JScottWriter]

Thorne and Keon entering portal. Yikes

Mel isn?t going to be able to finish out his extension. All the transfers and decommits isn?ta good sign.

 

[mhughes0021]

Thorne and Keon entering portal. Yikes

Think you should just play Hauser over Kim.

 

[Spartanmack]

I couldn't care less if Thorne leaves. I think if it was just him entering the portal on his own would actually be a good thing. He's nothing more than a serviceable D1 quarterback. The fact that Coleman is also leaving makes you wonder. Equally discouraging is the fact that from what I read today, it sounds like Kim is still ahead of Hauser on the depth chart.

 

[Spartanmack]

Mel isn?t going to be able to finish out his extension. All the transfers and decommits isn?ta good sign.

How? We committed to paying the guy $100mm over a decade (basically, for beating a mediocre michigan team). Where are they gonna find the money to buy him out and hire someone else?

 

[gotime909]

Brantley in the portal now too. Seeing Mel recruits already leaving is troublesome

 

[Spartanmack]

What are the odds Johnny identifies QB, WR and DB as positions of strength in his late summer update? I can almost see it now...'These were all plan A guys the staff brought in hoping they would transfer after 2 or 3 years to free up room for our newer better plan A guys that are now top of the list after our most recent plan A guys all decommitted - which is also of course, by design. My model indicates the floor/ceiling has gone from 7-5/9-3 to 8-4/10-2. If we can get a few more starters to transfer and maybe 1 or 2 more decommits the floor and ceiling should move to 10-2/NC...'

 

[gotime909]

Wierd that when good things happen he's here within minutes, but things like this he's a ghost.

 

[gotime909]

My thoughts on this is that I believe Thorne was beat out and it's a true reflection on his lack of leadership that he just bolts.

As bad as the secondary has been, any player that leaves from that group can't hurt much. Although his late pick to seal the UM game 2 years ago will always be remembered.

As for Coleman, that 1 definitely hurts.

It's nice seeing many of the players coming out with positive tweets about the program. So maybe these are just isolated situations.

 

[Spartanmack]

Agreed, Coleman is clearly the one that hurts and makes you wonder about what?s going on. But maybe he just wants to go somewhere he thinks is closer to winning games.

Brantley is pretty good but he?s way undersized - he came in at 160 and is currently listed at 170 but both those numbers are almost certainly inflated.

Thorn I won?t miss even if this is a team/coaching/morale issue.

 

[SpartyNash]

When this all broke yesterday I must admit in the moment I treated it kind of like the sky is falling a bit. Now that I?ve had time to settle down, it?s still a bummer for sure, but it?s not DEFCON 1.

Thorne really irked me much of last season. His touch was awful most of the year and I wanted Kim/Houser as the season wore on and there was nothing left to play for. Coleman leaving is a gut punch. That guy is a stud and will be sorely missed. Brantley too was decent I thought, but the whole defense is garbage so I don?t think that will break the camels back or anything by him leaving.

 

[byco42]

Overall, IMO, the flux in college football is/has affected programs trying to escalate to those who are higher in the ranks.

What portal entrent is interested in making a lateral move? I think, in time, this will be detrimental to college football.

 

[Michchamp]

Overall, IMO, the flux in college football is/has affected programs trying to escalate to those who are higher in the ranks.

What portal entrent is interested in making a lateral move? I think, in time, this will be detrimental to college football.

It can't really have made college football worse.

the fact that certain coaches and ADs whined about it at the time, well I took that as a good sign. Why make kids suffer for 4 years, because at 17 or 18 they believed the line that an asshole like Jimbo Fisher or Brian Kelly sold them? Or their parent or legal guardian liked the money his bagmen dangled in front of them?

I'm sure there will be some transfer cases that are bad, but given the kids more power served as a check on the power of the coaches & ADs and that's an unquestionably good thing in my mind.

Coaches who are basically decent human beings and work hard will do better in this more egalitarian environment

 

[byco42]

It can't really have made college football worse.

Future, not past-perfect tense. But we've seen the signs already.

the fact that certain coaches and ADs whined about it at the time, well I took that as a good sign. Why make kids suffer for 4 years, because at 17 or 18 they believed the line that an asshole like Jimbo Fisher or Brian Kelly sold them? Or their parent or legal guardian liked the money his bagmen dangled in front of them?

All I see is the process repeating with actual incentives promised by the highest bidder directly to the transferring player. And the promises to an incoming freshman more audacious to prevent him from transferring.

I'm sure there will be some transfer cases that are bad, but given the kids more power served as a check on the power of the coaches & ADs and that's an unquestionably good thing in my mind.

Again, it just repeats the process for coaches to repeat the same lies and promises.

Coaches who are basically decent human beings and work hard will do better in this more egalitarian environment

I don't think it's more egalitarian; it's less egalitarian. The "decent human beings" won't present offers that recruits can't refuse.

 

[Michchamp]

How? We committed to paying the guy $100mm over a decade (basically, for beating a mediocre michigan team). Where are they gonna find the money to buy him out and hire someone else?

Presumably (or hopefully for MSU's sake) their lawyers left the standard for cause right to terminate the contract in there, when Ishbia and the other guy were grandstanding on how important it was to give Tucker everything he wanted to keep him in East Lansing.

If your AD is smart, he's been quietly building a laundry list of sketchy things Tucker has done, to substantiate that for cause part. Then fire him and face down the lawsuit, settling for less than his buyout

 

[Michchamp]

Future, not past-perfect tense. But we've seen the signs already.



All I see is the process repeating with actual incentives promised by the highest bidder directly to the transferring player. And the promises to an incoming freshman more audacious to prevent him from transferring.



Again, it just repeats the process for coaches to repeat the same lies and promises.



I don't think it's more egalitarian; it's less egalitarian. The "decent human beings" won't present offers that recruits can't refuse.

Maybe, but letting kids leave (say) Kent State or MTSU to get $$$ to play a year or two for a better school is allowing them to avail themselves of the "free market" which is the same thing Walter Byers suggested when he left the NCAA in the 80's and publicly said the money had corrupted the sport. The only realistic lever for offsetting the power of corrupt ADs, coaches and boosters was to give the players the same right to negotiate. or as close to it.

I think the fact that he was Dr. Frankenstein to the monster, and publicly disavowed it later - when he was at the height of his power and didn't have to - gives more credence to his claim.

And maybe, yes, the coaches will still repeat the same lies and sales pitches to get kids to transfer, but at least then they have a year of experience in the "real world" or at least swimming with the sharks in college football.

There's a reason no (decent) court in the country will enforce a contract between an adult and a minor.

 

[gotime909]

Agreed, Coleman is clearly the one that hurts and makes you wonder about what?s going on. But maybe he just wants to go somewhere he thinks is closer to winning games.

Brantley is pretty good but he?s way undersized - he came in at 160 and is currently listed at 170 but both those numbers are almost certainly inflated.

Thorn I won?t miss even if this is a team/coaching/morale issue.

Brantley already got an offer from coach Prime and also Oklahoma. Speed got drafted. Maybe we had corners and our coaching really is the problem with the pass defense like many of us thought.

 

[Spartanmack]

Overall, IMO, the flux in college football is/has affected programs trying to escalate to those who are higher in the ranks.

What portal entrent is interested in making a lateral move? I think, in time, this will be detrimental to college football.

I think most portal entrants make downward moves to go somewhere that they can play. For every high profile player, there's many times more people leaving power 5 schools to go to AAC, MAC, etc.

I also think it and NIL have already had significant detrimental impact on the game. It's been 20+ years of chasing TV and corporate cash - the game is almost unrecognizable from what it was when I was at MSU. The Big Ten is going to have 16 teams stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.

 

[byco42]

I think most portal entrants make downward moves to go somewhere that they can play. For every high profile player, there's many times more people leaving power 5 schools to go to AAC, MAC, etc.

Displacing players from those schools to go ... where, exactly? Olivet? GVCC?

I also think it and NIL have already had significant detrimental impact on the game. It's been 20+ years of chasing TV and corporate cash - the game is almost unrecognizable from what it was when I was at MSU. The Big Ten is going to have 16 teams stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean.

And only a few of them will ever have a chance to win conference or national titles: the rest are at the kiddies' tables.

 

[Spartanmack]

Displacing players from those schools to go ... where, exactly? Olivet? GVCC?...

don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning or trying to justify it and this is another negative of the portal - displacing kids at the destination school. I was just making the point that outside of a handful of higher profile athletes who might trade up or laterally, the overwhelming majority of transfers are from what I can tell, a step down in program caliber.