I have never argued against pursuing portal QB's when there's a need. ****, I gave Mario credit for waiting on Ward because he was a much higher upside option than the alternatives that were available. My stance, which has been consistent throughout, is to vehemently oppose anyone who would advocate for punting on recruiting premier HS QB's altogether because of the existence of the transfer portal.
My stance is that no serious program considers HS recruiting and the transfer portal as an either-or situation when it comes to acquiring talent at the most important position in the entire sport. None of the big boy programs we're regularly competing against for Top 100 overall talent on the trail would dare consider signing mid-3* project QB's with weak offer lists in back-to-back classes to be a viable strategy.
As
@Rellyrell stated above, top programs stack chips at QB by any means necessary and they let the cream rise to the top. I wasn't seeing any anti-QB recruiting arguments on the board until, despite our best efforts to the contrary (Rashada in '22, Noland/Sayin in '23), we only managed to sign mid-3* project QB's with weak offer lists in back-to-back classes.
I do recognize that we've been fighting an uphill battle with QB recruiting lately, some of which is likely attached to our coach's reputation and some of which is connected to our two-decade stretch of ineptitude. We've sucked for 20 years and we've had just one late-round QB drafted in that time span with no QB currently in the NFL representing our program. The direct correlation there is obvious.
Hopefully Ward stays healthy and he helps lower or completely eliminate the suck tax.
I was hoping this would have been a lesson learned.
