Portal Class Contributions

[Hawkangler]

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

 

[Ripcord]

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.

 

[RuggieC]

Phillips ran hard against NW. when he runs like that he gets 2 or 3 yards after contact. Btw him throwing the defender off of him while on the longer run was awesome. Love the attitude….get out of here!

 

[Raymond K Hessel]

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.

 

[HawksRule73]

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.

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.

 

[uihawk82]

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

Hawthorne was a huge addition coming from SD STate iirc, a beast

 

[DuddyB]

Hawthorne was a huge addition coming from SD STate iirc, a beast

That’s a good point, a lot of this year’s portal additions weren’t necessarily meant to be immediate impact additions. They biggest dividends will be paid next year and even the year after.

 

[HawksRule73]

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.

 

[JerseyCityHawk]

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

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]

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.

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.

 

[Grayhair1981]

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.

We can hope none of those guys will test their market value in the portal.