It's behind a paywall -- TLDR: It's bleak...

https://www.espn.com/college-football/insider/story/_/id/...

Honestly, with the amount of turnover for most teams due to the portal, who knows? If Albin was able to pick up good talent, then we may be competitive. If he wasn't... this season may be rough.

But it does seem obvious that Toledo and Miami will be clear favorites this season, with everyone else fighting it out for everything they can get.

I really don’t think morale issues LC. These kids are getting paid big time compared to what Ohio can pay them. If Ohio had 1.5 million in the collective then most of these players would still be in Athens.

The super cool thing about life is that there are always exceptions to the rule; however, let’s face it, if you are a young athlete and not already part of the Power 5, your chances of eventually making it into the Pros are not good. That’s why being part of the other 27 Conferences gives you at least a chance to gain some exposure, which might lead to a second chance when it comes to accessing the Power 5 or even bypassing that altogether and going straight to the Pros.

I feel that things like being a YouTube Influencer these days have misled a lot of youth into thinking that hitting on something and making it big are accessible to everyone, when, in fact, it is more the exception than the rule in life. After all, isn’t this based on the same concept of throwing away good money in the hope that you can win a State Lottery. That said, why wouldn’t a young person become a bit full of themselves when people are throwing money and bling-bling around in order to land them in a certain place? The insane thing here is that schools, like Ohio, are out of their minds to think that they can even compete for a moment in a market such as this.

I suppose that if Southeastern Ohio became the next Silicon Valley, we could expect a couple of Billionaires to throw some of their wealth at the program, if, for nothing else, to make the product that they are closest too interesting enough to watch in person and thus get a personal rush out of the fact that they had personally turned an otherwise unremarkable athletic program into a National Powerhouse. Shoot, if I had that kind of money, and having graduated from Ohio and all, I would do such in a minute. Not only would I be wined and dined at Ohio University, but I would certainly be receiving prime seats and exposure to the program. That’s win/win, Baby.

I would go further and say that the athletes that are not staying here at Ohio are only interested in pursuing their fantasy that they can be another sports star, when, in fact, that ship has probably already sailed. I was watching some promotional videos about Ohio University, and I was struck with the amount of diverse interests that some of the students showcased in them had when it came to enjoying their experience at Ohio University. In that scenario, while playing sports is great, it is not the only reason they went to college, and that they stick around Ohio for such things as they like the area of study that they are involved in, the friendships that they have formed, and that they even dig the natural beauty there too.

I sometimes wonder if the real problem here is that the coaching staff themselves is biting at the bit to get into a Power 5 conference themselves rather than enjoying other things about being in Athens, Ohio. I remember going to school with a couple of talented Athletes that were wise beyond their years and realized that there was more to life than being a sports hero. (Can you imagine that?) Cool if it happens, but they were not willing to put everything else on hold in order to make that dream (or is it a delusional fantasy) a reality. In their cases, they chose the diversity of experience over the possibility that they might hit the big time elsewhere.

You must mean head coach. From where we are, almost any FBS school outside the MAC is a step up for our staff. We’ve lost several coaches including one just a few weeks ago. How about Derek Mason ?

There was a report on here from a former athlete that there was an issue of some kind with the team last December I believe . Must have been serious.

This season will boil down to 5 things in my book:
1. Can Parker Navarro be a starting quarterback regularly in Division 1?
2. We know what we're getting in Hunt. Can Tyus be a "Jaylin Hunter" type of transfer who comes in having played well in the Big 10 but is ready for a star turn?
3. We have some great defensive pieces. How will some of the guys mentioned like Leake, Dustin Johnson, Michael Mack, Doggette and a host of others, look for us?
4. How will our Big 10 receivers do (Dennis and Pugh) along with Hartzup?
5. Can our O-line stay healthy?

Bruno was FCS. In fact, St. Francis has both Kent and EMU on the schedule this fall.

The simple fact is that we have the second most incoming transfers in the MAC, after EMU. We talk about all the transfers in football these days, but NIU, CMU and Miami together have less incoming transfers than we have ourselves. Our situation is way more challenging than most on here are acknowledging IMHO. we had no choice with all the transfers out, but it’s not ideal or exactly the norm elsewhere.
I guess I didn’t make it obvious that I was talking about incoming transfers-not outgoing.

I don't think you get a feel for losses by counting transfers. You want to count how many transferred up and then how many transferred laterally. Counting transfers landing outside of the FBS doesn't tell you all that much.

Except Spence left in April and had nothing to do with all the earlier defensive transfers out( unless they all thought he would be gone like most of us on here thought)