Portal Target DLineman CJ West to...Indiana.
Hopefully a sign we are in good position for Suggs from GVSU to give Graham and Grant some experienced depth behind them at d- tacke, ala Cam Goode. Not sure if he was a take or not, but I believe he visited and had a strong offer list. https://www.si.com/college/group-five/mac/transfer-portal-kent-state-defensive-tackle-cj-west-commits-to-indiana
Perhaps the IU basketball NIL had some leftover cash since they missed their opportunity on Dusty May...
From what I could gather he was initially a take, but he wanted to be a starter somewhere which definitely wasn't happening here so good luck getting crushed at a year zero Indiana I guess.
that is a tricky bit when trying to get depth from NIL, kids are transfering for playtime typically. A good depth guy for us is a starter at a lot of schools.
Depth is definitely a casualty of NIL and new transfer policies unless you're paying players so much (looking at you OSU) that players are willing to sit for a year, take the NIL money, then transfer if playing time doesnt materialize.
The conundrum.
If a player is good enough to play 2nd string at Michigan (and hence provide depth) he's undoubtably good enough to start for 90% of other schools. And that player will want to start, not sit on the bench. So your depth either leaves or wont transfer in.
On the other hand, Michigan likes to rotate players on defense more than other schools if the depth is there.
So, would you rather be part of a rotation at Michigan or play more at Indiana?
Play more at Indiana, apparently.
It’s definitely an interesting dichotomy.
Play a role and or set yourself up to be a part of a championship program. Or go start somewhere else right away. Teams like Michigan benefit from players that can plug a gap and become a part of something special of notoriety
Winning is much more fun.
Michigan kept several Olineman like El Hadi that could've started and gotten paid elsewhere but chose to stay.
I think our oline will be excellent this year because of it. This isn't happening much elsewhere.
Then that was sublimely short sighted by him, because if he did his homework, we rotate a ton and to play with the others he would improve his skill, vs extra playing time. Cam Goode got a ton of run, and we still had Jenkins.
Strong offer list.
Commits to Indiana.
Do the math.
Do the math.
If I go to Michigan,
I get paid half.
Remember that we are transformational not transactional.
Pretty close to being a haiku…
If he has NFL aspirations and wants PT to showcase his abilities, we probably were not a good fit for him.
On the contrary...he would be rotating with surefire NFL players and would see what it takes...
I don’t think it has anything to do with Suggs. Starting at Indiana was probably preferable to being a depth DT at Michigan
I thought West seemed a closer fit to the size the previous staff seemed to like (was basically Cam Goode size), but even with all the rotation, being DT # 5 is probably not an easy sell. Suggs, listed at 286 lbs, would be the lightest DT on the team, and my impression is that he's not as highly regarded as West. Still good to have another experienced body in case of injury.
I'm sure he was a take a Michigan for depth. The kid was going to be fighting to be 3rd or 4th DT at Michigan. He's an Indiana starter right now. It's hard to blame him for that
He was definitely a take but didn't think he'd get enough PT.
Ending up at Indiana is a clue as to whether we missed out on a dude or not.
He didn't want to come to Michigan because he wasnt going to get the playing time he wanted
It's gonna be hard to show a guy transferring (presumably looking to actual get significant playing time) when the DL is Stewart-Graham-Grant-Moore. You're basically trying to sell a transfer on being 2nd string with maybe the hope of being a starter in '25. Tough sell