Scrolling the football roster of Northwestern State, Cal Poly’s upcoming opponent, revealed something interesting.
Several of the Demons’ key contributors are transfers, including several from Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) schools. Altogether, their roster heading into the season had 14 transfers — six from the community-college ranks and eight from four-year institutions (including SEC outfits like LSU and Ole Miss).
Cal Poly’s roster entering the year had 12 transfers — seven of them from four-year schools (the highest-profile of which being Utah and Fresno State), but Mustangs head coach Rich Ellerson has said in the past the program generally tends to shy away from overly pursuing transfers, due at least in part to the school’s comparatively stringent academic standards.
What are your thoughts on a transfer, generally, particularly one stepping “down” a notch from the FBS into the Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA)? A few of the FCS’ most heralded quarterbacks (like Sam Houston State’s Rhett Bomar, Texas Southern’s Bobby Reid and Jacksonville State’s Ryan Perrilloux {see the link above the previous two}) are such transfers, as was Joe Flacco, who left Pitt and parlayed his stardom last year at Delaware into being a first-round draft choice of the Baltimore Ravens, for whom he currently starts.
For the most part, however, the Mustangs don’t seem to pursue those who’ve had their names widely thrown around up in the FBS. Would they be better served if they did?
Or are most of those kinds of transfers leaving those schools for a reason, and thus, should be looked at with extreme caution (not to mention potential academic troubles)?