College Football

'We'll take you as a transfer': College coaches play the long game in portal era

Updated Jun. 26, 2023 10:32 a.m. ET

College Football and College Basketball Writer

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. — When four-star prospect Dante Reno received an invite to this year's Elite 11 Finals, his phone quickly buzzed with a torrent of congratulatory messages. Streams of texts poured in from family members and friends giddy to learn that Reno, who stars for Cheshire Academy in Connecticut, would be participating in the nation's premier quarterback competition for rising high school seniors. The Massachusetts native had received his first scholarship offer in eighth grade, gave a verbal commitment to South Carolina before his junior season and eventually, after years of hard work, earned the chance to cap his journey at an exclusive showcase in California.

Scattered among the adulation were supplementary messages that peeled back the curtain on an increasingly common phenomenon in the sport's modern recruiting landscape, particularly for coveted quarterbacks like Reno. Even though Reno has been committed to the Gamecocks since July 2, 2022, and has shown no signs of changing his mind, he got a slew of texts heaping additional praise on his latest achievement from coaches at schools not named South Carolina.

The reason? They're playing the long game in case Reno, who is the No. 350 overall prospect and the No. 21 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite rankings, ever enters the transfer portal.

"I think now, especially with NIL and the transfer portal, people are way more lenient (when it comes to) holding grudges on kids and kind of moving on (if they commit somewhere else)," Reno said in an interview with FOX Sports. "So obviously they're keeping relationships with every kid they recruit, still texting kids. I made the Elite 11 and like 10 coaches texted me, ‘Hey, congratulations!' and stuff like that. So it's just protecting those relationships you build with those guys, because the transfer portal is insane."

In conversations with a half-dozen prospects at the Elite 11 Finals, all but one of them said they continue to receive overtures from numerous programs despite being firm in their respective verbal commitments — a concept that, in and of itself, is not unique. For decades, coaches have recruited players committed to other schools in hopes of securing a flip.

But the proliferation of the transfer portal in recent years has given coaching staffs another reason to shift more resources than ever toward extended pursuits of prospects unlikely to sign with their teams out of high school, and none of those long-term investments have more potential upside than a talented signal-caller. Exactly half of the 80 quarterbacks ranked in the top 20 of the 247Sports position rankings from 2019-22 transferred at least once in their collegiate careers, according to FOX Sports Research, including 18 quarterbacks who participated in the Elite 11 Finals. That coaches are now maintaining relationships with elite prospects long after they've committed elsewhere is as much about positioning themselves for future transfer portal activity as it is about landing an old-school flip on National Signing Day.

"When I committed," Reno said, "I called everybody that offered me at the time. They're like, ‘All right, if nothing goes well or whatever, we'll take you as a transfer.' And as the schools kept offering me and stuff like that, I called and would be like, ‘Thank you, I appreciate it.' And they'd be like, ‘All right. If you wanna transfer, we'll take you.'

"You don't want to burn any bridges with anybody. Coaches come and go, and the one that offered you (a scholarship) could be your OC (offensive coordinator) in three years and could be in the NFL one day. All that stuff happens. But I've been locked in with South Carolina."

Georgia is the only school with commitments from more than one player at this year's Elite 11 Finals, having landed No. 1 overall recruit Dylan Raiola last month and four-star prospect Ryan Puglisi in October. Raiola's decision prompted college coaches to view Puglisi (No. 139 overall, No. 12 QB) as being particularly worthy of their time in a prolonged recruitment. Puglisi said he fielded call after call from programs that believed they could inspire a potential decommitment or, if he winds up signing with the Bulldogs later this year, make it known that they'd avail themselves to him should he decide to enter the transfer portal down the road.

Despite the commitment from Raiola, and despite a scholarship list that includes additional offers from Alabama, Miami, Michigan, Ohio State and Ole Miss, among others, Puglisi repeatedly informs coaches he plans to enroll at Georgia. He took an official visit to Athens earlier this month and has turned down the chance to explore other campuses.

"I think I kind of put my foot on the breaks," Puglisi said. "I don't want to go anywhere else besides Georgia, and that's where I'm gonna go. I think when I continue to say that, they kind of back off a little bit because I'm not going anywhere else. My answer to (them) is, ‘Thank you for reaching out. I'm super grateful. Thank you for taking your time to reach out. But I committed to the University of Georgia in October, and I'm not changing my decision.'

"(But) if I was a coach, I would probably do the same exact thing. Nowadays, you're right, you don't know what's going to happen."

Aside from the quarterbacks for whom the event was designed, no prospect in Redondo Beach sparked more discussion or captured more eyeballs than five-star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, whose commitment to Ohio State last December was the latest triumph for then-position coach and ace recruiter Brian Hartline. He caught 58 passes for 1,073 yards and 20 touchdowns as a junior at Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School in Hollywood, Florida, while climbing into the top 10 of the national rankings.

In California, where Smith was the most dominant skill player at the Elite 11 Finals, it wasn't just his spinning, one-handed grab on Day 3 that ignited the masses with more than 152,000 views on Twitter. Nor was it his connection with four-star quarterback Air Noland, a fellow Ohio State commit, that foreshadowed what could be one of the Big Ten's most dynamic connections in the years to come. Rather, it was the impish charm with which Smith discussed his meandering and high-profile recruitment that spawned headlines across the college football landscape — in part because he's being wooed with the same kinds of promises most commonly doled out to quarterbacks.

The 6-foot-3, 198-pound Smith was open about Florida State head coach Mike Norvell and Florida head coach Billy Napier both referring to him as "a program changer" in their respective pitches. He twisted his face and waved away any suggestion that Raiola could entice him to flip during their time at Elite 11 because the Bulldogs "really don't throw the ball like that." And when asked if he's connected with any of the elite receivers to pass through Ohio State in recent years, Smith said ex-Buckeye Garrett Wilson — the reigning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year — assured the prospective Buckeye that he'd develop into a surefire first-round pick if he ultimately lands in Columbus.

"He said I'm the No. 1 player in the nation," Smith recalled of his conversation with Wilson, which took place at Ohio State's spring game earlier this year.

The 247Sports Composite rankings nearly agree. Smith is rated the No. 1 wide receiver in the country and the No. 3 overall recruit behind Raiola and five-star defensive lineman Williams Nwaneri. His prospect score of 0.9986 is the highest for a wide receiver in 12 years and the seventh-best rating for a wideout since the recruiting service began collecting data in 1999, trailing only Dorial Green-Beckham of Missouri (0.9997 in 2012), Julio Jones of Alabama (0.9992 in 2008), Patrick Turner of USC (0.9992 in 2005), Percy Harvin of Florida (0.9990 in 2006), Whitney Lewis of USC (0.9990 in 2003) and Charles Rogers of Michigan State (0.9988 in 2000).

All of that explains why Smith, who some evaluators believe is a generational prospect, has fielded transfer portal offers identical to some of the quarterbacks at the Elite 11 Finals.

"USC definitely talked with me about that saying, ‘If you think about transferring from Ohio State, we'll definitely take you quick, fast and in a hurry,'" Smith said. "So I'm definitely going to build my relationship with coaches. I mean, that's going to help me in the long run for sure."

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.