FWIW....
So far, I count 6 Rockets following Crandall to UCONN. I find it very entertaining to look at the current MAC players in the portal and see if they end up anywhere.
If you were to tell me Texas Tech would throw money at a Defensive Lineman from Akron, I would immediately think "How in the hell did Akron get him in the first place?" Non-qualifier?
BG has 6 players already signed with other schools. 5 of those schools are decent P4's.
Julien Laventure. Talk about a whirlwind. From Akron to Texas Tech and their new oil money.
I think whats happening these days are P4's aren't investing as much in HS OL/DL development, outside those Top 100 type guys. It's so hard to get to weight and even harder to maintain it, there aren't a ton of 300 pound high schoolers with skill and good feet. Those guys head to LSU and are earmarked for the NFL as freshman. Laventure was a 230 pound DT in HS. These type of tweeners end up at the Akron's of the world, put on weight, work on their skills and THEN get cherry picked off G5 rosters once they've proven they can play with and maintain skill at much heavier weights.
Weaver came to OU at a svelte 235. Was up to 267 by the time he got to Rutgers.
Crable was around 200 in HS. He's up to 240 now. Off to FAU.
I wonder if anyone like ON3 has done any research around that, if there are fewer HS lineman recruits on P4 rosters.
We've been the beneficiary of a couple of those types all across the OL who started small at D2 and/or JUCO.. Heidecker, Trent Allen, Maldanado, Waite, Manarino.
Hopefully they can do some digging and find some gems on the DL, cause we're getting decimated this offseason.