Thousands of college football players have already entered the transfer portal. Among the reported 4,500+ Division I players looking for new homes: Kennesaw State corner JeRico Washington, nickel Five Hamilton, and strong safety Isaac Paul.
You know who’s not planning to leave, at least as of Monday afternoon? A promising foundation from Marc Mattioli’s defense, including first team All-CUSA pass rusher Elijah Hill, starting DE Marcus Patterson, nickel Kody Jones (if he’s eligible), and both starting linebackers, among others. I’m officially buying stock on that side of the ball if (obviously a massive if) the rest of that unit stays on board and we don’t see any mid-window swerves. For all I know, though, this entire post might be hilariously out of date by the time you read it.
As a long-winded thought experiment, let’s say the season started tomorrow and nobody currently in the portal was allowed to play.
The Owls defense would look something like this:
