A depleted roster is pretty irrelevant in today's professional era of absolute & unlimited Free Agency with 4500 Free Agents in the Marketplace as demonstrated by this year's Playoff where team after team's starting roster had a large proportion of Free Agents.
'25 (in-season) - '26 CFB Portal Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
A depleted roster is pretty irrelevant in today's professional era of absolute & unlimited Free Agency with 4500 Free Agents in the Marketplace as demonstrated by this year's Playoff where team after team's starting roster had a large proportion of Free Agents.
We can easily survive losing Grunk. He is ranked what #19 in QBs in the portal. He didn't fit the Campbell system and Campbell was not overly impressed with his skill set versus the trust and fit with Becht. Not a huge surprise and certainly not bad news.
Not only did Campbell like Becht more than Grunk - he liked his backup Manske more than Grunk. And Manske has all his eligibility left.
Grunk is gone, let it go. I’m sure Danny O’Brien has it all figured out!
Grunk is gone, let it go. I’m sure Danny O’Brien has it all figured out!
GMs are so important . Those portal dollars add up fast . Starters are on the high end of the scale . HS players cheaper cause most are not plug n play . In house guys developing usually less dollars than a portal player. Here’s a salary scale . The money adds up rather quickly.
Nice pick up
seems pretty clear to me that CMC thinks that we were too small up front defensively… something many fans had said for a while now
Penn State is being turned into Iowa State -- East. Last season Iowa State finished tied for 7th in the putrid Big 12 conference. So far I'm not happy with Campbell. Maybe this is Kraft's plan. De-emphasize football and turn PSU into a wrestling school and volleyball school.
No I am. I have seen posts which don’t think everything is peaches and cream but none that said we’re doomed.
Read the post right above yours.
Sooooooo Glad we didn't get Matt Ruhl, That would have been a disaster. Glad Nebraska threw more money at him to continue to destroy that program. They have worst recruiting class in the BIG for 2026 and now losing commits from the portal is a new low.
I think its pretty simple...Grunk while a good QB is 1 guy and if something happened to him PSU would be in a very desperate position as no backup was in house and ready. By moving on from Grunk Campbell added Becht for next year and Manske who will be in year 2 of this offensive system and was a very high qb recruit in 2024 and got minimal playing time last year. So, 2 QB's is better than 1
In all fairness Campbell’s depleted roster was self-inflicted unlike the depleted roster Franklin inherited due to the unjust sanctions. His first 2 seasons were the two worst years of the four year sanctions and he won a Big Ten Championship in his third season for those of you who forgot. I think it was time for Franklin to go and like Campbell but given that Campbell has all this NIL money to spend; the other facilities improvements which (blasphemy) Franklin fought for and Kraft proclaiming that the standard at Penn State is winning Big and National Championships when he fired Franklin because the fans deserve a National Championship winning at least a Big Ten Championship by 2028 should be the minimum expectation not? What did I juxtapose here Big Guy?
Funny Cignetti was impressed enough with Grunk that he said after the Indiana game that it looks like Penn State found its QB of the future but what the hell does he know about identifying QB talent? Claiming that losing Grunk is not bad news is unbelievably stupid.
What he actually said was "MAYBE they found their quarterback too"
No disagreement. I'm 100% behind Campbell bringing in his guys. Also, have zero faith in Grunk's decision making ability with him following BGJ. Good luck to him though.
and we finished 12th in the Big Ten. Campbell is taking pieces from his team and merging them with pieces of our team. I am excited about next year.
Grunk is obviously a very talented quarterback. When his position coach moved on, there is a strong chance that the player moves on as well. To a lot of players, the position coach is like a personal trainer at the gym. It seems apparent Campbell saw the Grunk was moving on. He had known commodities at ISU, and chose to pursue them.
ISU has more than 50 players in the portal. Naturally, one would expect some of them will move to Penn State with the coach. I'd be more concerned if the players didn't want to follow their coach to the new school.
In the coming days, after the portal players do some visits, I expect to see more players from other teams transfer to Penn State.
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This is probably more right correct than anything. While Grunk could be exceptional, if you keep him, Campbell is stuck with him for 3 years. This way he starts over with a one year Senior and essentially three freshmen in the wings learning the system.
Part of me still thinks though that Grunk was exceptionally accurate and we should have rolled with him. But for all we know Grunk made up his mind a long time ago. Maybe it was his decision. Campbell wasn't handing him $3 million to stay based on 5 games or whatever it was.
Keanu Williams to PSU from UCLA...There we go Big DL ...320LBS!! Great Get for Coach Campbell
My problem is that we are losing our best returning players from this year's team and we are taking many players from lowly Iowa State. Our QB next year is Brecht and all we hear about him is that he is a fine "game manager". He is good at handing off, rarely fumbles, and can throw a nice 7 year pass. Gronk is gone. Next year we will probably have an 8-4 type record because the schedule is the weakest in a decade. The year after next will tell the tale.
Not surprising that programs are creating a more formal compensation plan and strategy to assist in the management of NIL. The ”labor market” and each teams specific needs will influence the pay ranges they establish on a per position bases and how much they are willing to pay above the going market rate.
You need to educate yourself. Maybe watch some video.
But not impressed enough to get him to Bloomington.
Your eyes didn’t deceive you. He departs PSU holding the season completion PCT record.
In all fairness to people not loving this, he brought in 18 players from Iowa State so far who was 8-4 last year in an average conference. Unless a lot of them are just depth pieces not promised anything, and this Becht kid tears it up (and I have doubts) that is a concern that can only be alleviated by bringing in some big pieces from other schools.
Maybe it's the players that he isn't bringing with him that led to the 4 losses and the players that he is bringing are the ones who got the 8 wins!
Maybe we should just sit back and see what happens instead of criticizing a guy who is trying to make the team better and knows way more about what he is doing than any of us.
Big pick up with WIlliams, hopefully a couple more DL coming.
People need to stop looking at this as bringing over too many ISU guys. Not all of them are brought over to play this year. He has been able to keep 25 or more (we still haven't seen yes/no from everyone yet) that we know are solid players and would have been starting/playing big roles no matter if MC or JF was coach.
Some of these kids are to replace the young guys who we were going to lose anyhow or to bring young depth to replace some of the lost recruiting class. The QB deal sounds like getting a 2 for 1 as MC didnt necessarily like anything behind Grunk that was here.
The RB is a proven Katron type runner (albeit not as good), thats a trade up from Smith/Wallace. The TE's are equivalent to Reynolds and Henderson, giving them a year to recruit the next one while still having Finn. The WRs are a couple Fr and a soph to replace the ones we had leave who weren't able to see the field like Exinor and Brown, even swap there. On the OL, 2 FR OT from ISU replace Boyer and WIlliams.
Still need the DL guys but they have 2 so far. Three LB guys where at least two of them appear better than DeLuca, need one more to take the place of Campbell. DB are just a bunch of trades, Neal for Mack, Patton for Belgrave, etc.
Too many who act like the guys leaving are studs and the ones coming are duds. Many are even trades for guys who probably are better CULTURE/LOCKER ROOM GUYS that what is leaving.
If they can hit a couple key DL guys then this is a talent improvement
People need to stop looking at this as bringing over too many ISU guys. Not all of them are brought over to play this year. He has been able to keep 25 or more (we still haven't seen yes/no from everyone yet) that we know are solid players and would have been starting/playing big roles no matter if MC or JF was coach.
Some of these kids are to replace the young guys who we were going to lose anyhow or to bring young depth to replace some of the lost recruiting class. The QB deal sounds like getting a 2 for 1 as MC didnt necessarily like anything behind Grunk that was here.
The RB is a proven Katron type runner (albeit not as good), thats a trade up from Smith/Wallace. The TE's are equivalent to Reynolds and Henderson, giving them a year to recruit the next one while still having Finn. The WRs are a couple Fr and a soph to replace the ones we had leave who weren't able to see the field like Exinor and Brown, even swap there. On the OL, 2 FR OT from ISU replace Boyer and WIlliams.
Still need the DL guys but they have 2 so far. Three LB guys where at least two of them appear better than DeLuca, need one more to take the place of Campbell. DB are just a bunch of trades, Neal for Mack, Patton for Belgrave, etc.
Too many who act like the guys leaving are studs and the ones coming are duds. Many are even trades for guys who probably are better CULTURE/LOCKER ROOM GUYS that what is leaving.
If they can hit a couple key DL guys then this is a talent improvement
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I’m getting deja vu from all the crybabies that came unglued in mid November when we hadn’t yet hired a head coach. Did people think Campbell would have already signed half the Oregon team by now? Jfc. Our 2026 class was empty and we need to fill roster spots. He’s quickly bringing in players that he already trusts from his previous school and probably getting them at a considerable rebate. As more portal guys visit and figure out where they want to be then we’ll start bringing in guys from other schools and probably paying a little more. Do some of these fools really believe Campbell is bringing in stiffs because he doesn’t care about winning and just wants to coach his buddies from ISU?
It is pointless to argue against this take. By bringing in nucleus of players from a team that has already played together and understands the system Campbell has a leg up on the inevitable rebuild that Penn State will require. This nucleus will allow the integration of existing PSU players and some of the higher rated transfers that will finish up the class. After 2026, recruiting will target higher level players.
Rather than complain about the logo (ISU), look at some tape. These ISU players are ranked in 86 to 88 range which with good development will outperform their ranking. That is what this staff is known for.
I trust Campbell’s judgement. He’s been a very sucessful coach. HE KNOWS THAT ISU ROSTER. Backwards and forwards. He knows who can play. He knows who has real potential. He knows who can play at the Big Ten level because he has coached against Big Ten teams. Moreover, the people he has brought in are still going to have to complete against the returning Penn State players. They are going to have to earn playing time. And there are a bunch of really good PSU players returning.
4000+ are in the portal. Penn State did not "lose" players. They left because they have more comfort with the old staff, wanted more money, or they were not valued like they valued themselves. There is nothing "lowly" about the ISU players. All of them ranked in the high 80s and are ball players. They may very well go 8 and 4, which is high for me in year one, but this team will be tough as nails. Penn State has been soft for years and getting softer,
The program needed a hard reset, from the top to the bottom. To fast track the transition bringing in a nucleus of players that now the culture and the system and buy in.
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Yes, but don't you think he kind of knew which ones to bring in? The other thing is plenty of pieces are still in place and more outside players will be added. Nobody knows how this will turn out immediately, but counting on the free board for any decent or meaningful conversations about this is pretty hopeful at best. Did people want him to not recruit the guys he knows can play or make an impact at ISU....and bid against the nation for only the best players hoping PSU could outbid them all? LOL, the nonsense that gets posted on this and other sites at times is comical. Maybe we can pay back or marginal players 500k because they are good kids and loyal....that was going to work out well long term.
Well, the cupboard has not been stripped of all the good players........
Ranking the top 11 players Penn State retained for 2026
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Development of in house players is not cheaper, that is a very illogical conclusion. First of all, all extremely high-rated hs recruits are being paid way more than their worth as they are being "developed" and secondly, it's completely illogical to believe that you are paying an in-house starter (or even 2-deep player) less than their Free Agency value once they become a starter or 2-deep player. If you're significantly under-paying a player making on-field contributions, they'll simply enter the Free Agent Market, realize their market-value there and leave. Firthermore, if you add up the average numbers listed, it is quite a bit less than what PSU probably paid their starting roster last year.
The trick is being successful is to realize "value" for what you are paying in-house or X-Fer FAs - i.e., they perform on your roster at a level that is equivalent to a market value higher than what you're paying them (if you pay them more in future seasons after that value is realized it's okay - but you can realize significant "value" in the Free Agent Marketplace if a Coaching Staff does their evaluations better than others (and Matt Campbell's reputation and trackrecord on this side of the equation is impressive).
But paying market value for elite hs recruits year after year such that your team is 100% "in-house" (and then paying them market-value of the Free Agent Market for your entire 2-deep roster once they have developed, if they develop) is in no way less expensive than acquiring an already developed "2-deep ready" player for an average price in the Free Agent Market - no way, because of the numbers. You're already paying your 2-Deep roster (some 50 players including STers) market equivalent sums, then you have to add all the $$$ you're paying to elite hs recruits, many of whom won't develop as you anticipated.... and some will be complete busts. No way are "in house" players cheaper - no way. They're cheaper in Pro leaues because they can't immediately go Free Agent once they sign a contract with that team, but that is not true here in the Prollegiate Minor-League NFL.
Thanks a lot, now all year I'll be saying "There's Brecht with that 7 year pass again." Hopefully it'll be better than Clemson's 20 year fake punt pass.
This article from the athletic agrees with my position. The article uses a survey of multiple GM’s across college football. But you can opine all you want.
How much do college football transfers earn in the NIL and revenue-sharing era?
Quarterbacks are at the top of the pay scale, but offensive tackles and defensive linemen also cost a premium.
www.nytimes.com
