Analysis: Why a quiet spring transfer portal season is a good sign for TCU football
Aside from a few stragglers much of the movement during the spring transfer portal has come to a halt after the spring portal closed on April 25.
There was some concern nationally about how teams would hold themselves together with a second portal window, which led to many programs canceling or altering their spring football games.
But aside from Nico Iamaleava’s shocking decision to leave Tennessee for UCLA, there weren’t as many fireworks as anticipated.
TCU was one of many teams to have a quiet spring portal. The Vols did make a run at Josh Hoover after Iamaleava left the program, but other than that the spring went about as well as the program could’ve hoped.
The Horned Frogs only saw four players enter the transfer portal and none were expected to be significant contributors this season. Those that left include reserve safety Kollin Collier, reserve offensive lineman Mitch Hodnett, reserve tight end Cole Snodgrass and defensive lineman Avion Carter.
Carter is the most significant loss as he was a former four-star recruit in the Class of 2023, but even during spring practice Carter had yet to crack the two deep. Eventually potential must turn into production and Carter had yet to make that jump.
The Horned Frogs replaced Hodnett by grabbing Abilene Christian transfer Dylan Kinney, who started 12 games last season for the Wildcats. Collier’s spot was filled by Cal transfer Ryan Yaites, a former four-star recruit that played under safeties coach Tre Watson while he was at Cal.
There was also the signing of Michael Teason from Missouri State. Teason was a freshman All-American at the FCS level and provides immediate depth to a linebacker room that has talent at the top, but needed more experienced bodies.
The 12 transfers TCU will bring into the season opener at North Carolina on Sept. 1 is the fewest of the Sonny Dykes era. There were key additions during the winter like Washington State defensive lineman Ansel Din-Mbah, who should contend to start at defensive tackle.
The Horned Frogs also signed two plug and play receivers in Joseph Manjack (Houston) and Jordan Dwyer (Idaho). But for the most part, Dykes and the staff focused on building depth, which is a good sign of where the program stands.
As Dykes enters year four, it would be a troubling indicator if the Horned Frogs were forced to rely on the transfer portal to constantly find starters.
The best programs use the portal to enhance weak points on a roster like TCU did by bringing in two experienced receivers to help negate the loss of Savion Williams and Jack Bech. But the best programs don’t use the portal to try and build a foundation for their program, that still starts with high school recruiting.
Dykes was more than pleased with how the Horned Frogs have performed in that area.
“We’re here in year four, if we’re doing what we’re supposed to in recruiting and developing the right players then we ought to continue to get better,” Dykes said. “We ought to have more players, we do. We only took eight players in the transfer portal (before the spring window), I think that shows how comfortable we feel about our roster and where it’s at.
“We feel like we’ve recruited the right guys, we feel like they’re on track to develop into guys that can compete for a conference championship. That’s the standard here.”
Year four has always been viewed as a crucial season for a college football head coach. If a coach is lucky to make it to year four, at that point the program should be molded completely into his vision.
His first batch of recruits should be upperclassmen and any tweaks that needed to be made to the coaching staff like a coordinator switch should already be completed.
TCU is now at point with players like Josh Hoover and Namdi Obiazor emerging as the leaders of the program. From a coaching standpoint, TCU should have continuity in the third season under offensive coordinator Kendal Briles and the second season of defensive coordinator Andy Avalos.
Year four will be a pivotal one for the Horned Frogs and the program knows it. You might think the smartest thing to do would be to grab as many players from the portal as you can, but the fact that TCU didn’t shows how optimistic the program is about its core group of players.
In an approaching season with high expectations, Dykes is betting on himself and his staff’s ability to recruit and develop talent internally. It’s an approach that works for the teams at the top of sport and we’ll find out soon if it was the right one for the Horned Frogs.
