For Penn State, the Transfer Portal Isn't 'Fantasy Football'

Penn State coach James Franklin accepts, understands and employs the NCAA Transfer Portal but isn't its biggest fan philosophically. The Lions try to be "very strategic and calculated" in using the portal to find players, Franklin said.

New defensive coordinator Manny Diaz, the former head coach at Miami, said he values the transfer portal in a similar way. Now, Franklin and Diaz are working together to make the portal work best for Penn State.

"To have success in the portal, you have to know why [players are] leaving, know what they’re looking for," Diaz said, "because you don’t want to bring a problem into your locker room. So there’s a lot of homework to be done.

"... It’s not fantasy football. You just can’t get anybody to do something somewhere. You’re not just bringing in a player, you’re bringing in a person, and they have to be able to match our culture and want to be successful here."

As college football grapples with what the portal has become, coaches blur idealism and reality. Ideally, as Franklin has noted, players would work patiently, wait for their opportunity and seize it. In reality, players turn to the portal when those opportunities don't materialize, and coaches turn to the portal to find experienced, perhaps better, players.

For instance, Penn State returns a starting defensive end in Nick Tarburton, a projected 2021 starter (before his injury) in Adisa Isaac and several other talented young players at the position. Yet Franklin shared openly during spring drills that his staff is looking in the portal for an edge rusher.

So the process flows both ways. According to Sports Illustrated, more than 3,400 football players across multiple divisions entered the NCAA Transfer Portal in a three-month span this past winter. Several were Nittany Lions.

Meanwhile, Penn State so far has brought in two transfers: receiver Mitchell Tinsley from Western Kentucky and offensive lineman Hunter Nourzad from Cornell. Both could play significant roles in Penn State's offense this season.

The Lions have had targeted successes in the portal, notably with punter Jordan Stout, defensive end Arnold Ebiketie, and defensive lineman Derrick Tangelo. They've also lost significant players, including quarterback Will Levis to Kentucky, receiver Juwan Johnson to Oregon and most recently running back Noah Cain to LSU.

Nature of the portal, right? Still, Franklin intends to continue prioritizing high school recruiting over portal recruiting.

"You talk about programs that say they're going to sign 12-15 players out of the transfer portal," Franklin said. "And those guys probably have a better chance to come in and impact right away compared to the long term of recruiting a high school player and letting them develop.

"The other thing is, you hope [high school players will] be patient enough to develop. If you recruit the high school kid and they decide to leave after a year because they're frustrated and think they should be playing, then obviously you should go more to the transfer portal. So hopefully our culture here provides an opportunity for both: for us to solve problems in the transfer portal and being able to develop long term as well. But I know from talking to a lot of coaches, they're not going to take the risk. They're not going to take the chance They're going to go get immediate impacts [in the portal]."