As The Regular Season Wraps Up, Transfer Portal Season Begins

The newly created transfer portal window is set to open on December 5th, creating a wave of departures and additions for many college football programs.

First-year LSU head coach Brian Kelly dug deep into the transfer portal in the offseason and signed 15 players to help build up a depleted roster. The Tigers signed just 15 high school recruits last year.

Kelly previously explained how important the portal was to fill immediate holes this season but said they will lean heavily on high school recruits to build up the roster going forward. LSU currently has 25 commitments for the class of 2023.

During his press conference on Monday, coach Kelly was asked how they will handle the transfer portal...


Q. Kind of in some ways building off of this and looking ahead. The transfer portal window will up pretty soon after the SEC Championship Game. Especially with y'all playing that game, how do you manage those kinds of conversations with players and just as a staff getting ready for that window to open up?

BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, those are ongoing. You have to kind of balance them accordingly through the season. We used a lot of the bye week to kind of get ahead of some of that stuff. Some of it is you have to react, but you are hoping to be less reactionary and much more proactive in that.

But I think everybody knows what those dates are, and some of those conversations will have to take place once the window does open up.



Q. Given that you didn't really need to have to be as aggressive in the portal when you were at Notre Dame, what sort of lessons do you take from this past season when you had to be more aggressive in the portal that you can take into this year?

BRIAN KELLY: Well, it's kind of what I have alluded to. I think any time that you go in and take transfers that have been in other programs, you have to make sure they're not carrying a lot of baggage, and you have to make sure that they understand the standards within your program, what your expectations are clearly, that there's no promises other than the things that you want accomplished within your program. And it's just clearly communicated as to what the things that you are looking for in making this transfer.

As you know, a lot of them were from the state of Louisiana. And so if we can continue down that road where there is a connection to LSU and the state, we want that as well.



Q. You mentioned Noah's intelligence. We interviewed Greg Brooks after the game, Noah as well. I was really struck by how well they carried themselves throughout the interview, answered the questions that were asked, those kinds of things. How underrated is intelligence in football, and how much has it been a key to this year's success?

BRIAN KELLY: Well, you bring up both those guys. They were guys that we brought in from the transfer portal as well, and I think many people have asked us many times about the transfer portal.

I think it's one of the areas that can really get you in trouble or really can get you out of trouble. And I think it got us out of trouble because we took great character kids that could represent our program in a positive way both on and off the field. I think you bring up the point that both of those guys immediately helped us build the right standards in the program and have obviously been real consistent performers for us. In particular, Noah down the stretch here for us.

I think when you go into the transfer portal, you better know what you are getting. If you don't, then shame on you. I think we knew what we were with getting with those two kids.