hiway44 wrote:Didn't know the list was that long. If we could have kept these players would we have been further ahead in the program? Did most of these players leave during barbers or Jinks tenure? Transfer rule is going to help and hurt non power 5 conferences?
Could be interesting since Ohio State is down to only 1 qb.
Well, guys like Dieter and Valdez hurt that season because they only had one year left and were key starters. IMO, the loss of Dieter was the biggest losses via transfer we've had since I've been following BG football (the past 25 years). Jefferies and Morgan were both starters and graduated and left with two years of eligibility remaining, but the Jefferies loss was bigger because Doege had already passed Morgan and became the starter, whereas Jefferies was going to start here last year and this season (and the DB unit is way thin on experience again this season). The DL losses this year are huge, because DT's Junior and Croslen were both starters and it was already a position of concern and need, and then DE Johnson was one of our highest rated recruit from last year's class, so the loss of that trio was a major blow to the DL. Then, couple that with DL Rouse and Jackson who both left after their freshman seasons a couple years ago, and the DL is nowhere near where it could/should be because of the defections. WR's Wyatt and Clater could certainly have provided help now because there are a lot of questions marks with the WR unit heading into 2019.
In general, nationally, the transfer rule has benefitted the Power 5 way, way, WAY more than they Group of 5. Power 5 teams are "losing" guys who weren't playing or were buried on the depth charts - which means they weren't really "losses" at all, whereas Group of 5 schools are losing veteran all-conference players and starters to Power 5 schools. BG has lost guys like Dieter, Valdez and Junior to Power 5 teams and they were all-conference starters here for us. We got a guy like Hardy from Notre Dame a few years ago and Dorris this year from Indiana, but both were depth chart guys at their previous schools who were bypassed by guys. Neither or these guys were starters and key losses for Notre Dame or Indiana. Hardy only started 2 games in his entire Notre Dame career and Dorris only started 1 game and had just 4 catches in his entire career at IU and that all happened last season. What's happened at BG with the transfers for and against essentially mirrors what's happening nation wide with it.
There's no question that all the coaching turnover - both good (Clawson and Babers) and bad (Jinks) at BG - has had an impact on some of these transfers. And let's not forget it it often means turnover for the coordinators and assistants as well. But another major issue BG is up against right now is with the recruiting classes over the past three seasons (2016 - 2018). The one thing Jinks could hang his hat on what he was a solid recruiter while here....HOWEVER.... - and this is an extremely important point - recruiting players and RETAINING those very same players are two very, very different things. When you look at the previous three recruiting classes prior to the one signed two months ago (2016, 2017 and 2018), many of the top guys that helped makes those classes one of the higher rated classes in the MAC are gone. Thus, they go from BG logging upper-tier classes in the MAC in those years fielding lower-tier ones. The defections and transfers from those 2016, 2017 and 2018 classes were crippling to BG, to the point where Loeffler right now is essentially dealing with what Clawson dealt with in his second season here at BG after all the defections in the recruiting classes from Gregg Brandon's final few years (Clawson actually inherited a solid group of seniors his first season before the bottom fell out, in large part to the holes in those final two Brandon recruiting classes). Then, you add to it that this year's 2019 recruiting class was rated at or near the very bottom of the MAC and was nowhere near our MAC peers' classes based on what they brought in, and it's another chunk of the foundations that's been washed away. Which brings us to where we are today, at the bottom, looking up at everyone else, and probably a few years away from that changing - IF- things take a turn for the better and start going well again.
