The transfer portals impact is leaking into spring practice decisions, according to coaches across the Lone Star State.

Shrinking scholarship numbers in the spring are the main reason why teams are forced to adjust. The normal attrition of graduation is exaggerated by an exodus of players into the portal after the season. Even with an influx of new transfers and early enrollees, most teams don’t have enough bodies in the spring to conduct old-school spring practices, and even games. 

Take Houston. Over a dozen players entered the transfer portal as the Cougars improve the roster heading into the Big 12. Dana Holgorsen and defensive coordinator Doug Belk are replenishing the ranks and believe that the 2023 roster will be the most talented for Houston top-to-bottom, but nearly 20 players they’re counting on in the fall don’t arrive until the summer. 

“Spring used to be a blood bath,” Belk said. “It was more about competition and toughness. It was a huge evaluation period because there wasn’t a bunch of new guys coming in the summer that needed to make an immediate impact. The older guys were already on campus. Now, we have upperclassmen arrive in June.” 

Houston cancelled its spring game. Weather played a part, but a lack of scholarship offensive linemen would’ve made a true game impossible. The Cougars have five open spots for offensive linemen, and that’s not for the 2024 recruiting cycle currently going on. That’s for the summer. The transfer portal opens again on April 15. 

Houston concluded spring practice earlier than most programs, finishing on April 7. That allowed Holgorsen to meet with every player on the roster prior to the transfer portal opening. He wants to gauge who is leaving and who is staying. 

“I’ll know what my roster is on June 1st,” Holgorsen said. “If we finished on the 14th, we probably wouldn’t even know who was putting their name in (the portal) until it appeared. This way allows us to gather information and start basing our decisions on those conversations.”

Some programs are moving in the opposite direction. Most spring games are taking place this weekend, but some are pushed back to April 22nd and beyond. A few coaches across the state believe this change is the direct result of the transfer portal. The idea is to keep players engaged while the portal opens, providing less opportunity to visit other schools.

“I don’t know if it’ll work, but that’s why a lot of spring games are on April 22nd,” one FBS coach said. “If a kid wants to leave, he’s going to leave. He’ll just jump in on April 23rd. Or hell, he’ll jump into the dang thing right after a practice. That’s happening across the country already.” 

The portal allows college athletes freedom of choice. Coaches move around all the time, and even if they won’t admit it on record, most of their agents are working on new deals or speaking to new schools before the regular season ends. That freedom does put programs in a bind, however. Roster management is tougher than ever in college athletics. The best remedy is a solid culture and a recent history of winning. UTSA just lost its first transfer to another FBS program in the Jeff Traylor era this cycle, and that is because Traylor’s older players keep using their extra year of eligibility from the COVID season to stick around San Antonio. 

“The guys who transfer into this program tell us how good we’ve got it all the time. The main thing that we do is just keep it fun,” UTSA safety Rashad Wisdom said. “Another thing is that everyone plays. We all get a lot of snaps. Nobody came to college to sit on the bench. Here, you’ll play, even if you’re not a starter. That keeps guys engaged.” 

College football is evolving at a fast rate. NIL, conference realignment, the COVID exemption, and the transfer portal converged on the sport over the last five years, and the programs that adjust quickest to the changes will flourish. Ones resistant to that evolution will die off like the dinosaurs. 

Spring remains an evaluation period. But now, that evaluation consists of a follow-up question: Where can we improve? Coaches now watch spring practice to find critical spots to go address in the transfer portal after spring. New coaches can turn a roster over faster than ever before. Rhett Lashlee did that at SMU over the past 18 months. First-year coaches can now use that opening spring as a way to identify problem areas. 

“Rosters are so fluid these days,” North Texas head coach Eric Morris said. “You’re going to lose some people, and we’re going to gain some people. I don’t have the energy or the time to worry about kids who don’t want to be here. We’ll feel some holes in the roster in the second cycle that starts on April 15th."