Is the Transfer Portal the Answer for Northwestern Football?
In college football, your season can be won or lost long before the first snap of the season. How a program recruits can often make or break their season as they look to bring in talented players to maintain success. However, recruiting goes beyond just scouting high school players in hopes of securing a commitment, as these days the transfer portal has become a valuable resource for programs across the country.
The transfer portal has become just as important to high school recruiting in college football with some of the most notable players in recent seasons having transferred from their initial university. From Joe Burrow to Baker Mayfield, transfers have shown they can have a huge impact on the program they decide to move to.
For the Wildcats, the transfer portal has become just as crucial in their recruiting. Head coach Pat Fitzgerald is aware of the importance of the transfer portal in their recruiting process and is happy with the players his staff has brought in.
“Now the transfer portal is real and you’ve got to take advantage of that to fulfill your roster,” Fitzgerald explained. “Our staff did a phenomenal job of identifying the right young men.”
“I’m not ready to speak yet about their fit overall to this year’s roster and where they are going to play but they are all great young men,” he continued. “They’re all grinding and working their tails off and I’m excited. They’re all here and they’re all going to have a role and make a difference in some way.”
While there are transfers across the roster there is no more important position being contested by transfers than the quarterback position. Incoming South Carolina transfer Ryan Hilinski is battling former Clemson transfer Hunter Johnson, as well as senior Andrew Marty, for the starting position this fall.
For Hunter Johnson, who had a rough 2019 season, Fitzgerald touched on his growth as both a player and as a person in the last two years. Johnson has gone through several offensive coordinators over his career but has rarely complained about his circumstances.
“He’s grown and become more comfortable with the guys,” Fitzgerald said. “He knows the guys and they know him and we know how he operates now and how he ticks.”
“I think if you go back to a handful of guys who we have had transfer here, that outside noise was a little unrealistic of setting expectations,” he continued. “He’s handled it well though, which I think is a byproduct of him growing more comfortable.”
The winner of the starting quarterback position is yet to be determined and will likely not be revealed until closer to the start of the season. Whoever does win the job though, it will continue to confirm a new reality in college football. An ever-evolving landscape will see the continued rise of the transfer–especially the transfer quarterback– coming into new programs and making an immediate impact.
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Connor Zimmerlee is a writer and reporter for Wildcats Daily. Zimmerlee received his Bachelor's of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin as part of the class of 2021 and now attends the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.