Purdue WR/TE Maliq Carr in the portal; MSU bound
Mel Tucker is putting together quite the transfer class over in East Lansing.
detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state-university/2021/04/15/oak-park-purdue-maliq-carr-transfer-portal-michigan-state-spartains-football/7235511002/
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Carr was a Michigan lean for sometime in 2020 until he was offered the opportunity to become a 2-sport athlete at Purdue.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:09 PM ^
I tried posting a Detroit News link and also failed, so here's a non-Freep/non-Staee link with the story:
Yeah, 2 sport athlete. Haha... that worked out great. ???
If you include playing in the portal a sport, then yeah, he did play two sports!
April 15th, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^
Seems like he’s also going to play basketball for Izzo. Gotta give credit where credit is due, Tucker has been doing a heck of a job finding impact transfers through the portal.
Well, "impact" is yet to be determined.
Fair. Better to say players that fill holes on their teams and have talent to elevate the ceiling of their program for the next season
April 16th, 2021 at 11:12 AM ^
Will probably turn out about as impactful as Shane Morris, Drake Harris, Derrick Green, Drew Singleton, Jordan Anthony, & Joe Milton :/
April 15th, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
I think there’ll be another round of kids in the portal after Spring practices start ending, but I think the best quality ones already have picked schools.
We need a few transfers to beef up the roster IMO.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:23 PM ^
What happens to those kids who don't find a new home?
{Cough} *Milton* {cough}
He has multiple offers. UCF is pushing the hardest.
Cheers
Seems like he’s passed right over most of the offers so far...
He wants to compete for a starting qb job, and not too many teams are offering him that. Moving to TE or other is not something him or his coaches/mentors want.
Cheers
He just posted on Instagram last night he's going to a school somewhere in Ohio, so my assumption is a mac school
So much for Cam Newton 2.0.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:22 AM ^
He's actually right on track if he goes to a JuCo
April 16th, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^
Not really... Cam didn't go to JUCO because there were questions about his ability... He went there because he broke into someone's dorm and stole their laptop before trying to ditch it while running from the cops. He also cheated at Florida and faced expulsion for several instances of academic dishonesty if he hadn't transferred.
I have never seen any accusations like that on Joe Milton. He just doesn't have the playing ability at the QB position that another P5 team currently wants.
April 16th, 2021 at 12:32 PM ^
I was mainly joking. Joe seems like an outstanding dude. Wish it would've worked out for him here.
April 16th, 2021 at 11:13 AM ^
"He wants to compete for a starting QB job."
Uh...
April 16th, 2021 at 12:39 PM ^
I wish him luck wherever he winds up but I do wonder if he's getting the best advice from people around him. I just think about Zach Gentry, who similarly was a raw passer coming out of HS who ultimately made the jump to TE and is now in the NFL.
April 16th, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^
I c what you did there
April 16th, 2021 at 10:29 AM ^
He can head right on over to Ferris.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:32 PM ^
The transfer rule/portal is changing the college football world rapidly, not, in my opinion, for the better. These are dangerous and sad times for institutions that care about the whole idea of student athletes.
ESPNU has been good on this discussion. Check out the numbers-4000 players in the portal with less than 10% finding a home. Lots of guys walking away from scholarships for what? Not a better outcome, certainly fewer degrees for guys that aren’t NFL worthy. The idea of effective free agency for college athletes seems to be heading to a result that fewer athletes will end up with a degree. How is that a good outcome?
April 15th, 2021 at 11:48 PM ^
I wonder if there won’t be a market correction here post COVID where kids start staying out because the transfer portal isn’t yielding them better outcomes. Elite players will still use it for a ticket to playing time but if you are not going to the NFL anyways finishing your career at a good school may become valuable again? Or not - maybe it’s just a free for all. But between the free one time transfer and NIL stuff college football is going to be a very different in a decade
April 15th, 2021 at 11:50 PM ^
The good outcome is that players can make those decisions for themselves. None of them have to walk away from their current programs. The answer is to give the kids a reason to *want* to stay, not to tell them they can't leave.
April 16th, 2021 at 12:51 AM ^
I remember when Bo would tell a recruit something like: "Son, you have a chance to compete for a job on our football team. You'll also have the opportunity to get a top-notch education. Your mettle will be tested. You may earn a position on the two-deep; you may not. But if you stick with your commitment, your experience will assist you immeasurably in life as you face hardship. Only two percent of NCAA football players are drafted by the NFL, and being drafted is no guarantee of success." This is not what most want to hear today. Tom Brady was going to leave Michigan because he felt he should have been the QB in 1997. Instead, he decided to stay and work harder. Now he's the GOAT. Most of the kids entering the portal are running into the cold reality of competition at their new destination. I don't know what you can tell them to make them want to stay when they're not used to facing adversity. Either you like to compete, or you don't.
I hear those words in Bo's voice all too easily.
I wish we could find another coach like that.
April 16th, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
That's funny, because I was hearing him say it in my head as I wrote it. I especially heard him emphasize certain words like "compete" or "tested." He used to say that he would never take a kid who accepted extra benefits because they would quit on the field when the going got tough. I don't care that he didn't win a national championship. He was awesome. Stubborn, but awesome.
I don't know what you can tell them to make them want to stay when they're not used to facing adversity. Either you like to compete, or you don't.
----If someone is leaving a known place for an unknown location, I wouldn't paint them as "unable to compete". YMMV.
Putting up Tom Brady staying back as an example for everyone is also... not quite right. Everyone's situation is different. Most of the things that happen behind the doors do not come out as to why someone leaves a program to go somewhere else. (Chances are I am not aware of the truth and everyone else is. That could happen.) Anyway, have a nice weekend. College sports are just sports. Not a touchstone to measure people's worth.
There are some things about Michigan football that have long driven me crazy, but this (the sense and understanding that there will be much more to life than football for the players) is one of the best features of the Schembechler (which extends to Moeller and Carr) and Harbaugh regimes. I'd include Hoke, too. I don't think Rodriguez is a bad guy, but he was another animal culturally (not on the wavelength as the others).
April 16th, 2021 at 12:34 PM ^
A classic example is Eddie McDoom. How many schools has he played for?? Yes, that didn't work out too well for him.
The issue with the portal is the supply far exceeds the demand.
“I remember when Bo would” has kept this program from adapting and growing over decades...
Would love for our school to evolve from ways of thinking, coaching and mentoring that don’t reach or appeal to current players and their families.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:36 AM ^
Yeah, because no one is more mature and able to make life alternating decisions than college athletes.
Will be very interesting to look back at the portal come this September. I agree with many, a lot of kids are going to get screwed. Think that'll lessen how many kids jump in in future years, but who knows. It's all new.
April 16th, 2021 at 11:35 AM ^
I agree with many, a lot of kids are going to get screwed.
Of the kids who end up out in the cold after entering the portal, the vast majority are screwing themselves—only a tiny number are truly being forced off their teams.
April 16th, 2021 at 12:04 PM ^
This is true...very few were likely forced out.
I read that about 1/3 of the players in the portal were walk-ons.
60% went down a level, ie P5-->G5 or D2
Also, apparently many are having to become walkons in order to continue to play.
I think the numbers will probably go up for a year or two and as there is more data on how the portal is playing out for most, kids will have more information to make better decisions.
Maybe in the long run it’ll put young men’s expectations back in order? Maybe it will help them become more academic oriented? That is, after all, the original purpose of scholarship students. Provide them an education in exchange for playing a sport and Briton the school some revenue. That has gotten consistently lost in all the $$$ discussions, where players feel like their athletically financed degree is not enough.
April 16th, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
I would like to know how many of the kids in the portal are grad transfers, especially the lower-rated ones. That's different than kids leaving for a better spot. I'd also add that in a lot of cases these guys are being "encouraged" by schools to leave that will profess to care about the student-athletes. I mean, there was a run not too long ago where Saban's Alabama teams had 8+ guys got medically retired (opening up scholarship spots) despite some of them then playing elsewhere and stating they were told they were encouraged to do so by the school.
April 16th, 2021 at 12:55 AM ^
MSU's roster turnover this year is bonkers. They're losing SIXTEEN players to the transfer portal, but they just picked up their fifteenth incoming transfer.
Portal is perfect for new coaches that are hoping to quickly reshape the roster w/ their own players. MSU likely will flip nearly half of their roster this offseason (Quavaris Crouch appears to be headed there as well).
Guessing after spring ball we'll see even more turnover all over the country with kids entering the portal. Crazy times.
Are we in on Quavaris Crouch? or is this a typo. This is from 2 weeks ago.
I was asking the same thing, but it seems like he's already committed to MSU and it's just not public.
This 1 time transfer rule is going to be a game changer for new coaches. Tucker has been on it more than any other coach and the timing was fortuitous for MSU, it's basically year 1 for them and he needed to rebuild that roster and because of the portal he's been able to do it very fast. Half their starters could be transfers this Fall. And it's a different type of transfer now too, a lot of guys with 3 and 4 years of eligibility left. And a lot of their transfers joined the team for Spring practice, that's also huge for them
If they add Crouch, they'll have added several 4 star talents, plus a couple 3 stars that performed like 4 stars for their previous teams. They landed that RB from Wake Forest who led the country in rushing TDs last year and is a stud. They got a group of 5 offensive tackle who was on the Outland watch list. It's a totally different game now.
I'm of the opinion Michigan has some talent, but it's not as talented as it usually is. Bowman was a huge pickup to compete at QB, wish he would have been here for Spring Ball. Going to a new system on defense means we will probably need some different players over there. Hope we hit the portal hard as I think we could use 3 or 4 defensive starters who are made for the 3-4. Could be a rough transition without the right personnel. Switching to a 3-4 notoriously takes 3 years to get right.
I am curious where this Crouch to MSU rumor is coming from since I can find no articles even mentioning MSU as an option.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:31 AM ^
MSU is bereft of talent. Even with these additions they are a bottom half Big Ten team.
April 16th, 2021 at 10:41 AM ^
Agree, but this makes their 2021 roster easily better than the 2020 roster that beat us.
April 16th, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^
So are we, Sal.
April 16th, 2021 at 12:36 PM ^
Not even remotely close to where MSU stands. Their recent recruiting classes compared to the rest of the B1G:
- 2021: 10th
- 2020: 10th
- 2019: 7th
- 2018: 6th
When they were peaking under Dantonio they were consistently 3rd-5th. Now they're regularly hanging out with Indiana and Rutgers. They need to make a splash in the portal if they want to avoid a huge dropoff. During that same time, Michigan was 2nd, 2nd, 1st, and 3rd.
Have you missed where we've had 18 in the portal?
https://247sports.com/college/michigan/Season/2021-Football/TransferPortal/
Not Apples to Apples but feel free to push whatever narrative you want. I am not an expert on the MSU roster, but I do not think any of those kids from MSU were walkons or grad transfers while M has 4 or 5 walkons (Shibley, Reynolds, and at least one name I don’t even recognize) and also at least 1 grad transfer (punter).
However, as users have noted the transfer portal is something Tucker is using effectively to very quickly replace bodies on his roster to make it closer to what he wants.
Teams like M and others have been using transfers - almost exclusively out - for years as a needed way to shed players that weren’t a fit / good enough to create room for larger incoming recruiting classes.
As for Carr specifically— wasn’t he also the kid that wanted to play WR even though he seemed destined to be a TE due to speed and body-type....and only Purdue would “promise” to let him play WR?
One last thought ........ Last I heard the NCAA (or at least the B1G) are still maintaining the “max” number of new players on a team to 25 per year - (with same backdating exceptions as before with just recruits) - so the huge roster turnover at MSU is probably maxed once they fill 1 or 2 more openings, and they will be unable to do a similar scale of changes via the portal next year unless it comes at the expense of traditional HS recruits.
April 16th, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
Huh, I didn't realize it was that high, even when accounting for the six walkons. I guess I didn't realize Dylan, Turner, and Villain counted toward this year since they transferred so long ago.