A Transfer Of Power At Notre Dame, And Elsewhere
‘Tis the season for transfers.
Within the past month, transfer news has taken center stage in Notre Dame athletics among its most visible athletic teams.
It began when 6-8 sophomore three-point marksman Matt Ryan departed the men’s basketball team shortly after the NCAA Tournament, continued in football when sophomore reserve rover Spencer Perry, an early entrant last year, chose to depart halfway through spring drills, and reached a crescendo yesterday when women basketball players and former McDonald’s All-Americans Erin Boley and Ali Patberg also opted to pursue individual greener pastures.
In the meantime, Clemson graduate transfer/defensive tackle Scott Pagano, who took an official visit to Notre Dame March 3-5, has decided the Fighting Irish are no longer an option.
The humbling aspect with Pagano is even though he was a strong figure in the rotation for the Tigers while averaging about 25-30 snaps per game, at Notre Dame he might have been perceived as possibly the best and most proven interior lineman on the 2017 roster.
While news of any transfer often elicits myriad emotions among the fan base — surprise, disappointment, exaggeration or even the “hey, this opens up another scholarship” glee — they will be an inevitable aspect of collegiate athletics the way trades, contract disputes or waivers are in the professional ranks.
According to ESPN research, last year alone among 351 men’s college basketball teams there were more than 700 transfers, or about two per team.
The Fighting Irish basketball teams have either addressed those departures, or are trying to compensate, by landing their own transfers.
Head coach Muffet McGraw’s women succeeded proactively this past winter by signing Stanford graduate transfer Lili Thompson, a two-time All-Pac 12 selection, for the 2017-18 season as the point guard buffer between the graduating Lindsay Allen and 2018 top-10 verbal commit Jenna Brown, plus top-25 combo guard Katlyn Gilbert (possibly hastening Patberg’s exit).
At yesterday’s postseason men’s basketball awards dinner, Blueandgold.com’s Matt Jones learned the Irish staff will visit Connecticut’s 6-11 Juwan Durham this week. A former top-50 caliber recruit who is leaving the Huskies after one season, Durham has had to bounce back from a couple of ACL surgeries.
With Notre Dame inking only one recruit this year (swingman D.J. Harvey) when it needed at least three, the collegiate version of the waiver wire is being explored intently by head coach Mike Brey and his staff, who benefitted greatly with past transfers such as current assistant coach Ryan Humphrey (Oklahoma), Dan Miller (Maryland), Ben Hansbrough (Mississippi State) and Scott Martin (Purdue).
Back in his era, Irish basketball coach Digger Phelps (1971-91), and Notre Dame overall, had philosophical opposition to taking transfers. Phelps for one thought it was unfair to players already on the roster who had made a four-year commitment to the Fighting Irish.
Of course, back then student-athletes were less apt to leave for the NBA after one or two seasons in college, and the rise of AAU basketball since then has created more of a “me first” culture among some players.
Eleven-time national champion Geno Auriemma has seen numerous star recruits leave his Connecticut dynasty — including all three members of his decorated 2003 recruiting class — but that’s part of the coaching gig, especially at top programs that recruit elite talent. This year he had only nine scholarship players available. (And he can fight fire with fire too when former Duke star Azura Stevens and ex-Kentucky player Batouly Camara are eligible to play for him next season.)
“It is just a reflection of the society that we live in,” Auriemma told the New Haven Register a couple of years ago. “Kids play AAU basketball and if they don’t like the team that they are on because they are not getting the ball enough, not getting the recognition they want, they change AAU teams. So they go to college and for whatever reason they decide that they are not getting what they want, they change.
“I am sure we are as susceptible as anybody else. That’s why I laugh when they talk about the kids who transfer from our place like it is the end of the world. I don’t begrudge anybody if they go to a school and say, ‘look, I made a mistake.’ That’s not a negative. We make mistakes in recruiting, kids make mistakes in picking schools and I think what has happened is we have a little bit more access to these kids earlier and one of the results of that is kids commit earlier. Maybe the coaches and players haven’t gotten the chance to know each other very well through the recruiting process.”
A major job description of coaching is to not allow individual aspirations to supersede team objectives. Like a marriage that looks happy on the outside yet ends in divorce, the two people might be decent, quality individuals, but just don’t mesh as a team or in future outlook and plans.
One of the more lasting impressions I have of the seven-year Brian Kelly era is the spring of 2012 when he announced that freshman defensive end mega-star Aaron Lynch was leaving.
At the moment, many a Notre Dame follower and yours truly believed it could be a crushing blow, because seldom do the Fighting Irish have such a pass-rushing terror on their roster. Yet what resonated with me at the time was the look on Kelly’s face that said, “Yeah, I know he’s a great talent … but my God, it’s just not worth it anymore for the health of the team.” It sounded like the elderly millionaire who married the much younger trophy wife and discovered the costs outweigh any benefit (or vice versa for her).
The Irish defense, even without Lynch, proceeded to have the school's greatest season on that side of the ball in about three decades while spearheading a stunning 12-0 regular season march. There is a lot to be said for esprit de corps.
In 2015, Irish quarterback Everett Golson wanted assurance that he would be The Man at his position. Kelly couldn’t make that guarantee, so the two-year starter bolted to play his fifth season at Florida State. Yet on the final day of the regular season that year, the Irish were in the running to be in the four-team Playoff despite having to use a third-team quarterback most of the season. All teams at various points have to close rank and march forward.
There are always rumors, innuendo or speculation about what went on behind the closed doors that prompted a transfer, but departures are going to be a part of any collegiate program.
‘Tis always the season for transfers.
Football Scholarship Count
With the departure of Perry, Notre Dame is still, by our count, at 86 scholarship players for 2017, or one over the NCAA limit of 85. It will need to be pared down to 85 by August. Yet it tells you something that the Irish were still going to add Pagano had he wanted to come.
Here is the current breakdown
• Three fifth-year seniors (offensive linemen Mike McGlinchey and Hunter Bivin, and tight end Durham Smythe).
• 18 fourth-year seniors, including Michigan receiver and graduate transfer Freddie Canteen, who will join the Irish in the summer after graduating from UM.
• 22 juniors.
• 22 freshmen with the departure of Perry.
• 21 incoming freshmen.
Notre Dame actually is “ahead of schedule” from last year.
After 2016 Signing Day, Notre Dame’s scholarship number stood at 87. Yet by the start of the season, it was down to 83 — and that was after adding sophomore walk-on receiver Chris Finke to the scholarship chart, plus the return of tight end Tyler Luatua, who had been planning before the spring to transfer to Brigham Young but changed his mind.
That’s because the Irish lost six players from February into August for various reasons: seniors Corey Robinson (receiver) and Doug Randolph (defensive end) had medical issues that precluded that from playing, thereby transferring their football scholarships to a University-paid medical expense. Another senior, starting guard Steve Elmer, opted to graduate after three years and move on to a career beyond football.
Reserve defensive end Grant Blankenship, suspended from football activities at the time, decided to transfer to Oklahoma. Finally, safeties Mykelti Williams (now at Syracuse) and Max Redfield were dismissed from the team.
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