2024 Football Portal News

Can you say “ bubble screen “?
A good time to repost a poem I wrote several years ago:

Ode to the Bubble Screen

Oh bubble pass, bubble pass,
Your beauty doth shine!
Turn our first and ten
Into second and nine.

Why throw the ball downfield
When lateral will do?
Or maybe a swing pass;
Third and long is due.

If only we ran strong
Or stretched out the field
By tossing the long ball
With vigor and zeal

But bubble again, boys
That’s just like a bunt!
So fourth and five cometh
I guess we should punt.
 
A good time to repost a poem I wrote several years ago:

Ode to the Bubble Screen

Oh bubble pass, bubble pass,
Your beauty doth shine!
Turn our first and ten
Into second and nine.

Why throw the ball downfield
When lateral will do?
Or maybe a swing pass;
Third and long is due.

If only we ran strong
Or stretched out the field
By tossing the long ball
With vigor and zeal

But bubble again, boys
That’s just like a bunt!
So fourth and five cometh
I guess we should punt.
A modern day successor to 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Brilliant.
 
A good time to repost a poem I wrote several years ago:

Ode to the Bubble Screen

Oh bubble pass, bubble pass,
Your beauty doth shine!
Turn our first and ten
Into second and nine.

Why throw the ball downfield
When lateral will do?
Or maybe a swing pass;
Third and long is due.

If only we ran strong
Or stretched out the field
By tossing the long ball
With vigor and zeal

But bubble again, boys
That’s just like a bunt!
So fourth and five cometh
I guess we should punt.
I tend to only read the forums and rarely actually log in, but I had to just to put the laugh emoji on your post. This was brilliant and made me laugh out loud.
 
ESPN has a good article out that summarizes the portalfest so far. It's a Plus article, so it's paywalled, but here are a few highlight quotes.

Getting to 2,095 transfers in this portal cycle by Jan. 6 represents an almost 30% increase in transfers year-over-year.

Transfer recruits don't always pick the school that offers the most money, but make no mistake: According to sources, it's all pay-for-play recruiting at this point with parties operating with little to no fear of NCAA penalties.

The number of Group of 5 scholarship players moving up to Power 4 schools keeps increasing, and we're on pace for another record year in the 2024-25 cycle.
We've already seen 260 G5-to-P4 transfers this offseason with more coming every day. That's a nearly 40% increase from this time last year.

Tulane star running back Makhi Hughes joining quarterback Darian Mensah in hitting the portal was perhaps the most high-profile example of the talent drain in this cycle, as was Washington State's inability to hold onto quarterback John Mateer and its most coveted players before coach Jake Dickert's departure for Wake Forest.

The death of the one-time transfer rule has helped lead to more than 660 FBS scholarship players re-entering the portal during this cycle to move on to their third, fourth or even fifth school of their career. That's more than 30% of all scholarship players in the portal.

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia's eligibility lawsuit is certainly having an impact on this portal cycle. The NCAA's blanket waiver that allows former junior college transfers whose eligibility was expiring to return in 2025 has opened the door for a lot of players to benefit from an extra trip through the portal.

It's a lengthy article, but well worth the read.

 
No too long ago there were many who felt Duke could not compete in the era of Portalization. At this particular juncture, your Blue Devils are doing pretty well, adding needed pieces and (thus far this year) not losing anyone they didn't want to lose....
 
No too long ago there were many who felt Duke could not compete in the era of Portalization. At this particular juncture, your Blue Devils are doing pretty well, adding needed pieces and (thus far this year) not losing anyone they didn't want to lose....
This is key... and a credit to Manny and his staff for this outcome.
 
Lessee... not to get too giddy with predictions of being the leading athletic program, going way beyond the ACC...

Landing top QB, who committed without visiting elsewhere, and -- IMHO (Hubristic, for the curious) -- received assurances he would have (i.e., Duke would pay for) an excellent OL and corps of receivers.

Having a very savvy NBA commish as chair of BOT, who can help assess the future directions of college athletics and help ensure adequate funding fir academics AND athletics. Surely Adam Silver wants to preside over his own dominant sports franchise.

Having our AD team plus Fuqua savants provide their own assessments.

Being rich, with a $12B endowment that can help fund our drive to the top.

Boasting loyal Iron Dukes to help with financing the rise.

Having a strong university brand and an improving Duke athletics brand. Being the preferred destination for best hoops talent is evidence.

Hmmm.... Just waking up. What did I post?
 
Was hoping for more news at RB and TE, and possibly more. Has been very quiet of late. Any scuttlebut?
Don’t forget, the undergrad portal is closed. Graduate transfers can enter at anytime. Thinking of how active Duke was last spring leads me to believe the same will hold true this year.
 
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