The spring college football transfer portal window was open from April 16 through April 30. Graduate student-athletes have until May 1 to enter the portal. (Photo by GreatBigCanvas.com)
By Dan Verdun
With the NCAA-allowed 15 spring practices now complete, there is still work to be done for the four Illinois FCS programs.
The calendar has once again entered a key transfer portal period. Players had through Tuesday to enter the portal; graduate students get an extra day to file.
The four head coaches – Brock Spack at Illinois State, Nick Hill at Southern Illinois, Chris Wilkerson at Eastern Illinois and Joe Davis at Western Illinois – met with their players individually as spring practices wound down.
“We are in the process of vetting and adding some student-athletes to our roster, and we’ll have to wait and see how this all comes out,” said Wilkerson, entering his third season in Charleston.
Davis, who spent the last two seasons as EIU’s offensive coordinator, took over at Western in December. He and his staff are working to rebuild a program in the midst of the nation’s longest FCS losing streak.
“The reality at this level of football is that the transfer portal is very significant,” Davis said after his team’s April 19 spring game. “Our focus now shifts to that. We have some areas on our team that we need to address via the transfer portal.”
Despite inheriting a roster already pockmarked with portal departures from last fall’s second straight 0-11 season, Davis and his staff are ready for the challenge.
“I think we can get better,” Davis said. “I mentioned many times at Eastern I thought we attacked the transfer portal uniquely, and it helped us quickly and I think we can do the same thing here at Western.”
Transfers indeed had an impact at EIU. Quarterback Pierce Holley and receiver Eli Mirza, for example, were key players in the Panthers’ six-win improvement from the 2022 season to last fall’s 8-3 record.
Looking down to go up
In recent years, FCS programs also have looked to lower divisions for quality players in addition to traditional FBS transfers.
Illinois State got tight end Cam Grandy from Division II Missouri Western. Grandy wound up as a consensus All-American last season and signed with the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals as an undrafted free agent.
Eastern got receiver Justin Thomas from D-III Albion (Mich.) two seasons ago. He went on to earn All-Big South/Ohio Valley Conference Football Association honors.
“The guys who have shown they can do it at the smaller levels … well, football is football,” Davis said. “If a young man catches a lot of passes at one level, he shows a knack to get open and catch passes at this level. A young man completes a high percentage of passes and doesn’t turn it over at a lower level, there’s probably something innate about him to do it at this level.”
As with any successful trend, once the word is out, many doors are open.
“We’ll search for those guys,” Davis said. “Those guys are harder to get now. In the last two or three years those guys kind of flew under the radar.
“Now everyone is saying, ‘Hey, those guys can help us,’ whether they’re at Iowa State, Illinois State or Western Illinois. We’ll be searching for those guys.”
Some pieces already in place
SIU’s Hill and his staff have used the portal as well as anyone.
A year ago, the Salukis landed receiver Vinson Davis III (FCS Charleston Southern). He made 12 starts and landed on the Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Newcomer team.
This year, SIU’s receiver room boasts four new players, led by former Tennessee Tech transfer Bradley Clark, who nabbed a team-high four receptions in the spring game.
“I feel good about the overall talent we have on the roster,” Hill said on SIUSalukis.com. “We may add a piece or two during the summer where we may need to add some competition, but it’s about making sure we stick to doing the little things right and keep growing as a team.”
ISU has added quarterback Jake Rubley and receiver Xavier Loyd from FBS Kansas State.
“We’ve got a lot of depth, a lot of old guys, a lot of veterans,” Rubley said. “We’ve been trying to have them go easy this spring to get a lot of the new transfers and new guys up and going. It’s been a lot of fun.”
New guidelines
Last month, the NCAA ruled that student-athletes can transfer an unlimited number of times and be eligible immediately.
“We still don’t have the depth that we need to compete in the OVC and even from a skill position standpoint we’re just not long enough and fast enough yet,” Davis said. “Those are things that we’re going to focus on here with the portal. We’ve focused on it already from a freshmen recruiting standpoint with this class in the fall. They’re going to be bigger kids, that’s just my philosophy in building this program.”
A veteran coach of more than 20 years, Davis embraces the power of the portal.
“Any coach or staff or program that shies away from that is not living in reality,” Davis said.
Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.
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