I talked to more than two dozen Power Five coaches over two signing days to close out the 2024 class and with many of them we discussed how they balance high school and transfer portal recruiting to build out their class.
No one made better points, and gave everyone more to consider, than 33-year-old Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham.
Some love the portal. Some manage through it. For Dillingham and how he views rebuilding the Sun Devils back to national relevancy, he poses a question – and that answers what I was asking.
“College football nowadays, what is signing day?” Dillingham said. “It’s a commitment to go somewhere for a year. It’s completely changed. This is a new era. Kids who are committed from the portal, they’re not actually committed until they step on your campus. It’s not over, it’s never over. It’s just a way of life.
“Signing day is not what it used to be. Signing day is just a process and a step to give these kids recognition for all the work they’ve done. But the way college football is now it’s a way of life, it’s a way you treat everybody. It’s not just a recruitment process and a de-recruitment.
“That era is dead. That whole era of ‘We’re going to recruit you and the day after you sign, you’re ours, we’re going to de-recruit you, good luck,’ it’s called the portal. You have to trust you’re a good person, trust you don’t lie to people, trust you’re honest, trust you didn’t trick somebody to come to your school and trust that they want to be there. If you do that then you’re going to build a consistency, you’re going to build a culture that is sustainable.”
For the coaches who accept that responsibility, they’re all millionaires. While compensation has never been greater for college coaches (just look at Texas coach Steve Sarkisian’s new deal), so are the demands.
Recruiting is a year-round activity, err, headache for some. Now there are added demands in the NIL era where a college coach (always considered something of a CEO) has to now become a politician to pool money to get the best players. Yeah, we know, that all goes through the collectives and the coaches have nothing to do with it, wink, wink.
Throw in the transfer portal which is essentially Recruiting 2.0 and it’s enough for people to retire or leave for the pros.
One has to wonder if the confluence of all this (and the loss of total control that comes with it) drove 72-year-old Nick Saban to retirement. There’s almost no doubt that tons of assistants left the college ranks for NFL jobs so they could actually coach football and not bow down to teenagers on endless road trips and more endless junior days.
Jeff Hafley left his head coaching job at Boston College to become a defensive coordinator in the NFL. Former UCLA coach Chip Kelly was reportedly shopping himself to numerous NFL teams after begging for his job after another disappointing season and then left the Bruins to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State in one of the most peculiar moves in recent memory.
Kelly disliked recruiting. Imagine how he felt about transfer portal and NIL. Washington State coach Jake Dickert said in a recent interview that the insane demands on coaches’ time will drive some out and he predicted he has maybe 10 years left. He’s only 40.
There are grinders in college football who love this world – or at least accept it as their new reality. But coaching and recruiting have always been part of the job. Coaching, recruiting, NIL, fundraising and dealing with the transfer portal with more than 1,000 names in it each year while also recruiting your own roster so other coaches don’t poach your good – or mildly disenfranchised – players … who needs it?
The changes are coming faster than ever.
Louisville went to the ACC championship this past season; the Cardinals signed 26 players so far out of the transfer portal. In two years. Colorado has completely revamped its entire roster by mainly utilizing the portal. Ole Miss has become a legit national title contender by landing elite players mainly from the portal. NIL deals are flying around like hot cakes in a desperate attempt to win now, not three years from now.
The list goes on and on.
There are a million quotes about accepting change, but the one from Greek philosopher Heraclitus hits home most. He lived around 500 BC, before the transfer portal really kicked into high gear in college football.
“There is nothing permanent except change,” he said.
“It’s always going to change,” Dillingham said, the coach-philosopher trying to run Arizona State’s football program. “As long as the rules change, how you build your roster changes.
“It is constantly changing so I would say anybody who has this plan of how they want to put it together is being really naive because the greatest plan is adaptability to the rules. Two years ago, or nine months ago, you couldn’t go over a 25-signing limit. They made a waiver and now you can sign 40 guys.
“Right now, you combine and say how do I get the best players on my team? The rules can change tomorrow that say you can only sign 30 guys or you can only replace a portal guy once he goes in. You have to be willing to adapt heavily but the best model is to get the best players on your team whether they’re a high school guy or a portal guy.”
Dillingham has accepted this changing landscape. But he’s 33 years old. Should we check back when he’s 43, or 53? When is enough enough?
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Adam Gorney, National Recruiting Director
