Jedd Fisch: Transfer portal era in college football 'not where it needs to be by any means'

College football’s free agency is officially in full swing.

The 30-day transfer portal window officially opened on Monday, and over 1,000 college football players entered their name, which is the most in a single day in the new era of college athletics.

Eight of those transfer portal players are from No. 12 Oklahoma, the 14th-ranked Arizona Wildcats’ upcoming opponent in the Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. Among them, two-year starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who is eighth all-time in career passing yards. Gabriel will be replaced by former five-star quarterback and freshman Jackson Arnold.

Arizona head coach Jedd Fisch addressed the transfer portal — and its flaws — during his news conference. Here’s what Fisch said:

With the transfer portal opening on Monday, how do you approach that?

A: “In regards to players that have gone into the portal from other programs, there’s certainly been some people I’ve had to evaluate and make decisions on. You have to make very fast decisions. In recruiting, you can make long decisions. You might know them when they’re a sophomore in high school, a freshman in high school, a junior in high school. Here now you have a decision you need to make if you want to use one of your spots on a guy that you evaluated for seven minutes. Things are very, very different in that regard. You then have to start doing research, but while you’re doing research, another team is trying to get him. So it’s a more challenging deal for a head coach. There’s a couple meetings here or there. I haven’t had any with our own roster.

“I didn’t have to do that, but a year ago we did. But there’s always going to be people trying to take your players, so you have to avoid that and make sure that these players understand their value to this program. ... If you just go down the list of guys that played that were a part of that class of 2022, there should be an ESPN ‘30 for 30’ (documentary) done about it. If we all stay together and the amount of games that I think they can win this year and next will be a story of college football.”

What is your strategy when scouting players in the transfer portal?

A: “When you look at the portal, the first thing you have to do is — if someone is bringing them to me, it’s (because) they have a prior relationship. If we don’t know anything about them, I’m not interested. We just can’t do it. So now it’s a matter of, ‘Alright, well, let’s turn on his film, let’s look at his production, let’s find out the background of how many years he has left. Is he coming in as a (graduate) transfer or is he coming in as a one-time transfer, undergrad transfer? Are there any things that we need to know?’

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“Then we turn the film on, watch the film and we see, ‘Where does this person fit in?’ And then I ask our position coaches and our recruiting department to inform me on, ‘Where do you see this player playing on our team? Are we bringing him in to add depth or are we bringing him in here to start?’ To pass the start test with me is a very hard test. It’s one thing to say, ‘Hey we’re bringing in Jayden de Laura to start.’ I get that. ... And then, ‘We’re bringing in Jacob Manu to compete.’ He became a starter. ... We don’t really have a lot of starting spots open, and that’ll be a very tough one to crack.”

Do you recruit your own players to stay with potential poachers lurking, like last year?

A: “Last year’s group is very different than this year’s group. We all learned from a year ago and what the results are and what that looks like. Usually, they don’t come to you, they come telling you, but I don’t envision that with the team that we have. I have challenged all of our players, ‘Ask all of the guys that have transferred in here, ‘What do they like about it here?’ versus ‘What do they like about the other places they’ve been?’ And where would they choose to go if they could do it all over again? And then research all the guys who aren’t here that have made decisions for the wrong reasons. Now there’s a lot of people that have transferred because of the fact that it’s the right thing to do for that person. ‘Hey, I don’t think I can be a starter here. I don’t think I can be in the two-deep (rotation) and I want to go play football.’

“If that’s the case, that’s why a lot of people transfer. There’s the few that everyone likes to talk about that made decisions for financial sake. In that case, is that really a wise decision? I can tell you that if we were only making decisions based on money, there would be a lot of different scenarios occurring out here. There’s a lot more that has to go in it besides money. I think that is really the key.”

How do you navigate preparing for a bowl game while simultaneously managing the transfer portal opening up and the early signing period for high school recruits approaching later this month? Would you change the recruiting calendar?

A: “It’s certainly unique. It’s a unique time in college football to balance it all out. We had our end-of-the-year banquet (on Sunday), then the transfer portal opening (Monday), and we have all of our coaches out of the road on home visits. ... Yet, you’re still trying to monitor what’s happening back here. I’ve got Oklahoma film on my computer, because I don’t just recruit and be Mr. Positive, I also have to call an offense and run the offense. To do that, that takes a lot of work.

“So there’s been a lot of different things that are happening. At the same time, there has to be a better way to regulate the roster from the NCAA perspective. What that means, I don’t know. I’ve always said a salary cap would be a great thing to have, so your roster isn’t dealt with in a piecemeal and you just have a better idea on how to do it. Maybe it’s a better way to have an early signing period. Maybe you can sign at any time and that commitment has to stay firm unless there’s a coaching change. Maybe there’s a way to figure out a way that you can open the transfer portal up after bowl games, not before.

“So let the CFP finish and then open up the portal. If you’re coaching a team like us, playing in the first bowl game since 2017, that’s a big deal. And the last thing you want to do is start losing players to the portal. You’re asking donors and alumni to come support the game and they’re like, ‘Well who am I supporting?’ It would be a nice thing if they said, ‘Hey, your team is your team. When the football season comes to an end, that is the day of the national championship game. That is when the season comes to an end. At that point you can enter the portal.’ ... I think a lot has to change. It’s not where it needs to be by any means.”