2024 Football Portal News

tommy said:
Yawn.
Because it’s all a yawn at this point. Wake me when next years roster is set, whoever’s on it. I guess.
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I would agree with you if we were not about to play a playoff-caliber team in the biggest bowl that Duke has earned in years. Ole Miss has a top shelf defense, and we are going in with a fairly inexperienced back-up QB and without our top running back.
Mike Petrik said:
this stuff is ridiculous.
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Amen.
 
OldPhiKap said:
I would agree with you if we were not about to play a playoff-caliber team in the biggest bowl that Duke has earned in years. Ole Miss has a top shelf defense, and we are going in with a fairly inexperienced back-up QB and without our top running back.
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Yeah but with all the portalizing, the results of these bowl games are meaningless because usually neither team resembles the ones that earned the bid in the first place and everyone knows it. Fans will have to be content to brag about making a bowl like the Gator. The winning and losing of it has essentially been invalidated as a measuring stick or a point of pride.
 
Is it a given that he wouldn't play in the bowl game? Didn't some of the transfers out after last season (Waters, Peebles, etc.) play in the bowl game? I know this year that Arizona St.'s coach offered to allow his players to be with ASU through the playoff games even if they are in the portal.
 
With Jacques Moore back it is not surprising that Star Thomas chose to move on. After being the starter most of this season he probably didn’t want to go back to a timeshare or being the backup next season. I would imagine Duke could not offer him starter NiL dollars either (as that is what Moore is likely getting — assuming Duke does not go after a starting RB in the portal).

I wish Star all the best. Good kid who gave his all and fought for every inch this past season.

I am fairly sure Moore will be able to play in the bowl game. Bowl games do not affect redshirt eligibility.
 
Donald Fagen sang about the "New Frontier" and while it's certainly exciting at times, it sure is a bit jolting at times. I enjoyed watching Star make some pretty nifty moves on the field for us, so you'll be missed by this Duke fan. Best of luck for helping us achieve a 9-3 record this year (so far), and here's to your continued success.
 
CameronBlue said:
I remember when coaches were concerned about getting prospects past the Admissions Office. Is admissions even involved in the conversation anymore?
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I would imagine most of the transfers are coming in as grad students (lot of these guys graduate in 3 years at this point, especially when considering they take summer classes). There are so many Duke grad programs with widely varying admission standards. You can find a home.

But for high school prospects and young transfers, I’m really hoping and assuming it’s because our admissions office is supportive of football. Stanford has moral-high-grounded themselves into a rough situation because they refuse to lower their admissions standards enough (basically destroyed the ability to transfer in, making the portal a one-way street off the Farm).

Dean Guttentag, if you’re reading this, keep doing what you’re doing on the football admissions front. We love you! Don’t kill our football program!
 
OldPhiKap said:
I would agree with you if we were not about to play a playoff-caliber team in the biggest bowl that Duke has earned in years. Ole Miss has a top shelf defense, and we are going in with a fairly inexperienced back-up QB and without our top running back.

Amen.
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The portal has made me have zero interest in most of the bowl games, including Duke’s. The only ones I plan to watch are the CFP ones. I just don’t see the point of the other bowls.
 
RoseBowl1942 said:
I would imagine most of the transfers are coming in as grad students (lot of these guys graduate in 3 years at this point, especially when considering they take summer classes). There are so many Duke grad programs with widely varying admission standards. You can find a home.

But for high school prospects and young transfers, I’m really hoping and assuming it’s because our admissions office is supportive of football. Stanford has moral-high-grounded themselves into a rough situation because they refuse to lower their admissions standards enough (basically destroyed the ability to transfer in, making the portal a one-way street off the Farm).

Dean Guttentag, if you’re reading this, keep doing what you’re doing on the football admissions front. We love you! Don’t kill our football program!
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We all know that the Duke admissions standards are very tough, just as we also know that plenty of young men and women who don't meet those standards would, if admitted, do well at Duke and graduate. We should never admit an athlete who we believe will unfairly struggle academically, but there are plenty of athletes who would thrive and who would not meet normal admissions standards.
 
I wish Star well, but honestly did not think he was a top tier ACC running back, did not run especially hard, and he ran a lot horizontally (I made these comments before he portalized, so I'm not piling on)...again, best of luck to him, I still think it's amazing we won nine games...hopefully we have better run blocking next year...we have some promising young backs, but they all need competent blocking.
 
To address a few points from above:
1. Duke’s NIL doesn’t mean our guys are not student athletes. They’re going to classes and graduating. I’m irritated that we’re condemning 85 guys because some are getting significant paychecks.

2. Tampering rules are vague and toothless. The NCAA is reeling from its own greedy ineptitude, so it seems that it’s okay to freely flirt as long as you don’t do it publicly/embarrassingly and don’t engage in (financial) intercourse; I know some marriages like that.

3. If I were writing the 2-year Mensah contract, I’d want to back-load the payment if I were Duke; if he’s as good as touted, I want him back for that year before he’s eligible for the draft.

4. The NIL money might come from some billionaire or selling lots of novelty t-shirts, but the money could come straight from Duke as part of a decision to do what it can to win the next musical chair conference realignment. We can’t win the SRO Big Ten Stadium sweepstakes, but we’re a unique national brand that could be appealing if the football team is nationally competitive.

5. Stanford’s football admissions are clearly the toughest among P5 schools, but they’ve been historically very successful. In the last decade, they’ve almost always out recruited Duke, and have had multiple years where they were ranked about #15 overall. Transfers haven’t been as good.

In the next decade, Duke will vastly out recruit everyone (or almost everyone) by combining NIL with shrewd talent evaluation and the reality that many excellent football players would love a Duke education.

6. Colorado yanked scholarships from hard-working players. That strikes me as unethical. Duke may have told some guys that they weren’t going to get as much NIL as they’d gotten last year, or told them about the recruitment of a competitor; that strikes me as reality. I don’t think Maalik could have beaten out Mensah, though that would have been a nice problem for Duke to have.

As for Grayson, he did manage games successfully for us last year, but he didn’t show me he could be a successful ACC qb. I don’t see the problem. We’re going to recruit a freshman qb every year, and I’m sure we’d try to get the best one possible. Hasn’t that always been the case?
 
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