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Portal Class Contributions

Hawkangler

Hawkangler

All-American
Mar 16, 2014
2,344
5,054
113
The staff's moves to fill gaps in the roster seem to have been very solid.

You have to start with Tony (the boogey man) Diaz. He is lightening in a bottle who stretches the field. He, VanderZee and Vonnahame are a solid trio of targets for Brown.

Evan James has made contributions as a punt returner and third WR. Solid contributor.

Phillips is getting better after overcoming an injury. Over a 100 yards rushing last week was impressive.

Depth at safety position because of the portal. Xavier Styles keeps getting better with Hawkins as a backup. Brown was the best of the three before his injury.

Khamari Brown is contributing more every game as an edge rusher

Ozick, although not kicking FG's has done a very good job on kickoffs

Wilson was in the two deeps on the offensive line before his injury

I may have missed somebody but this portal class has been very good. I like the fact that many of them have several more years to play.

Edit: Hank and Heck cane from the portal also
 
Last edited:
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R

Ripcord

Senior
Aug 30, 2016
472
623
63
concur.

I am really hoping that LJ Phillips is kind of a Mekai Sargent type of back. It took Sargent into his second year to produce, but I am hoping that the NW game is a good preview of what Phillips can and will bring to the table and was not just a one-off. We shall see.

Diaz has been good, and I really look forward to what Ty Brown can do when he finally gets healthy.
 
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Raymond K Hessel

Raymond K Hessel

Senior
Nov 21, 2006
295
421
63
Agreed, the staff did really well finding the correct talent and making upgrades. A high impact DT was about the only position that we didn't locate.

I still do have hope for our DT transfer, just hasn't made the plays yet.
 
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H

HawksRule73

All-Conference
Jun 26, 2025
939
2,330
93
Raymond K Hessel said:
Agreed, the staff did really well finding the correct talent and making upgrades. A high impact DT was about the only position that we didn't locate.

I still do have hope for our DT transfer, just hasn't made the plays yet.
Click to expand...
I was skeptical as well about the DT position coming into this year, but Hawthorne and Gaffney/Hubert have played great. 2026 is shaping up to be, by far, Phil's best year in terms of stopping the run. 2022 was the benchmark year at 101.3 ypg, but unless something goofy happens, they are going to shatter that by about 20 ypg and finish right at 80 ypg.
 
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U

uihawk82

All-American
Nov 17, 2021
3,527
5,178
113
Hawkangler said:
The staff's moves to fill gaps in the roster seem to have been very solid.

You have to start with Tony (the boogey man) Diaz. He is lightening in a bottle who stretches the field. He, VanderZee and Vonnahame are a solid trio of targets for Brown.

Evan James has made contributions as a punt returner and third WR. Solid contributor.

Phillips is getting better after overcoming an injury. Over a 100 yards rushing last week was impressive.

Depth at safety position because of the portal. Xavier Styles keeps getting better with Hawkins as a backup. Brown was the best of the three before his injury.

Khamari Brown is contributing more every game as an edge rusher

Ozick, although not kicking FG's has done a very good job on kickoffs

Wilson was in the two deeps on the offensive line before his injury

I may have missed somebody but this portal class has been very good. I like the fact that many of them have several more years to play.

Edit: Hank and Heck cane from the portal also
Click to expand...
Hawthorne was a huge addition coming from SD STate iirc, a beast
 
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JerseyCityHawk

JerseyCityHawk

All-Conference
Jul 6, 2025
1,551
2,573
112
Hawkangler said:
The staff's moves to fill gaps in the roster seem to have been very solid.

You have to start with Tony (the boogey man) Diaz. He is lightening in a bottle who stretches the field. He, VanderZee and Vonnahame are a solid trio of targets for Brown.

Evan James has made contributions as a punt returner and third WR. Solid contributor.

Phillips is getting better after overcoming an injury. Over a 100 yards rushing last week was impressive.

Depth at safety position because of the portal. Xavier Styles keeps getting better with Hawkins as a backup. Brown was the best of the three before his injury.

Khamari Brown is contributing more every game as an edge rusher

Ozick, although not kicking FG's has done a very good job on kickoffs

Wilson was in the two deeps on the offensive line before his injury

I may have missed somebody but this portal class has been very good. I like the fact that many of them have several more years to play.

Edit: Hank and Heck cane from the portal also
Click to expand...
Khamari Brown is a scary athlete the dude has 6 MAC Truck engines in him … he can get to the ball carrier fast and usually knocks heads off. I hope he’s only a junior eligibility wise?
 
85Bears

85Bears

All-American
Aug 31, 2019
6,265
6,903
108
HawksRule73 said:
The exciting thing is when you look at the roster and figure there’s 29 starters (11 on O, 11 on D, and 7 ST), we return 25 of those 29 starters next year. We lose only Dotzler, Gaffney, Montgomery, and Lee.
Click to expand...
IF this team finishes 10-2 and returns 25 of 29 starters, I’d say we should be ranked in the top ten to start next season.
 
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G

Grayhair1981

All-Conference
Sep 3, 2006
1,240
2,340
113
HawksRule73 said:
The exciting thing is when you look at the roster and figure there’s 29 starters (11 on O, 11 on D, and 7 ST), we return 25 of those 29 starters next year. We lose only Dotzler, Gaffney, Montgomery, and Lee.
Click to expand...
We can hope none of those guys will test their market value in the portal.
 
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