5 star QB Malachi Nelson to Boise State?

See this is the thing. We are bemoaning the departure of talent like we are going to be a farm team but I don't see the transfer portal really shaking out that way.

5 star prep talent gets stocked and shelved at schools like USC. I've never been able to understand why playing time is not more important to these blue chip guys, I guess they just buy into their own hype so much that they think there's no way they can be kept off the field.

Getting these guys who spent a year redshirting and developing is even better than grabbing JC transfers was back in the day. There is a one-time transfer exception, but you can transfer a second time if you're a grad student. What that means is that if you find your first school is going to keep you buried on the bench, you are looking for a spot where you are essentially guaranteed to play, because that's where you're going to stay until you graduate. Remember, there is only one penalty-free transfer for an undergrad. You want to transfer a second time before you graduate, you sit out a year.


Functionally I think this results in more top-level talent seeing the field sooner and they will leave a school like USC to get on the field NOW at a Boise State, this right here is Exhibit A. Once you get a guy who has already been through the portal once, you have a lot more confidence that he isn't going to bounce for a bag - because nobody is paying him to sit out a year.