As you guys know, I was worried about potentially significant portal losses for the last 3 months and cautioned several of you, including @KevinWerner @buttaball , not to celebrate prematurely until the April portal window was formally closed. I also said that if and when it closed with minimal attrition, I’d celebrate and give credit where credit was due for a tremendous accomplishment.
Well, the window closed 2 days ago and at this point, everyone who’s in the portal is in. Our final loss tally was extremely light when it came to players who mattered, as we lost only one sure fire contributor for 2024 and potential starter in Keon Sabb. And the only reason his loss stings is because of the unfortunate injury to Rod Moore just a few weeks later.
So all in all, just a tremendous job by Sherrone and company navigating through an extremely risky landscape, trying to retain all the key players on defense despite experiencing 100% coaching turnover on that side of the ball and generally having to fight off large financial offers from competing schools while simultaneously trying to build up a new coaching staff.
There will continue to be roster and financial challenges to deal with because that’s the new reality in CFB, but for a first time head coach thrown into the fire, Sherrone did a hell of a job keeping the band together despite circumstances beyond his control.
This at least gives a us a shot to put forth a competitive team in his first season (depending on QB play), and hopefully will set the table for his future success at Michigan.
It’s a reason to celebrate, and certainly an outcome that fellow CFP participants who experienced coaching changes like Washington and Alabama should be envious of, compared to their portal losses this offseason.
In closing, I’d just like to say
Well, the window closed 2 days ago and at this point, everyone who’s in the portal is in. Our final loss tally was extremely light when it came to players who mattered, as we lost only one sure fire contributor for 2024 and potential starter in Keon Sabb. And the only reason his loss stings is because of the unfortunate injury to Rod Moore just a few weeks later.
So all in all, just a tremendous job by Sherrone and company navigating through an extremely risky landscape, trying to retain all the key players on defense despite experiencing 100% coaching turnover on that side of the ball and generally having to fight off large financial offers from competing schools while simultaneously trying to build up a new coaching staff.
There will continue to be roster and financial challenges to deal with because that’s the new reality in CFB, but for a first time head coach thrown into the fire, Sherrone did a hell of a job keeping the band together despite circumstances beyond his control.
This at least gives a us a shot to put forth a competitive team in his first season (depending on QB play), and hopefully will set the table for his future success at Michigan.
It’s a reason to celebrate, and certainly an outcome that fellow CFP participants who experienced coaching changes like Washington and Alabama should be envious of, compared to their portal losses this offseason.
In closing, I’d just like to say
