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The BYU Cougars are headed for the Big 12 Conference.
But first, Signing Day. [Well, Early Signing Day.} Yes, there ARE two signing days; why, I have NO idea.
This year:
By the time BYU played in the New Mexico Bowl this past Saturday, seven of its players had already entered the transfer portal.
After the bowl game, another four hopped into the portal.
However, is this insanity taking its toll on players, coaches and staff? Greg McElroy of Always College Football on YouTube said he thinks it’s “too much.” I got into what the Cougars were dealing with, here:
In my second segment I talked about how the Cougars overcame that noise and knocked off a solid SMU team, 24-23! [You can read about that game and the emegrence of freshman redshirt quarterback Sol-Jay Maiava, below.]
But: look at crappy performances from other teams [Florida, in particular] in bowl games and you can see HOW a program can be spread too thin. In McElroy’s view, “the portal and signing day are open at the exact same time.” His proposal: Have a Signing Day Jan. 4 [the same day of the national championship game] and open the transfer portal that first weekend in February after the signing period closes to “shore up your reinforcements”.
The third segment on this podcast was all about the players themselves—for whom this day is very special. For that very reason, I’m not going to belabor whether or not the Cougars hit or missed this Signing Day.
I’d rather focus on what was a day of celebration for the 17 signees and transfers who inked those one-year commitments to play football and attend school at BYU. So let’s focus on this class that was headlined by tight end Jackson Bowers—capped by the surprise late signing of Timpview High’s Jared Esplin.
In the meantime, the talk about who the Cougars might sign at quarterback can be left to debate for another day, in my view.
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BYU Football Signing Day Was Okay Despite Many Transfer Portal Player Exits | x Hatch Family Chocolates