Getty Image / Brian Spurlock
Transfer portal season hasn’t officially started, as football players in the portal can’t be contacted until next week. But, this week will see a lot of players enter the portal, and Indiana is seeing a ton of entries after firing coach Tom Allen on Sunday.
How many? By 4:30 PM ET on Monday, the team has already seen a whopping thirteen entries into the transfer portal.
Indiana offensive linemen Kahlil Benson, Carter Smith and Zach Carpenter are in the transfer portal.
Hoosiers now have 13 players in the portal today.
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) November 27, 2023
That’s a ton of roster attrition. Not even counting graduating players and early entries to the NFL, that’s a little over 10% of their total roster, as most Power 5 FBS teams carry around 125 players on the roster.
And, there have been some important names for the Hoosiers to enter. First off, all three of those players are starting offensive linemen. No, the Indiana offensive line wasn’t an elite unit this year. But, those are still three offensive linemen that have a lot of experience playing in a major conference. Those kinds of players are highly-sought after in the portal, because, frankly, there are less players capable of being a serviceable starting offensive lineman in power 5 football than maybe any other position other than quarterback.
The biggest name to go in, however, is wide receiver Donaven McCulley. He had a breakout season, especially in the second half of the year. In the team’s final five games, he ended up with 28 catches for 420 yards. With good size at 6-foot-4, and limited experience at wide receiver after coming into Indiana as a quarterback, he’s a high-upside player that teams will surely covet.
As for the Indiana coaching opening, it’s still in the very early stages. Even Jon Gruden was mentioned as a candidate yesterday, but I don’t think that is what will happen. Instead, look at candidates like Toledo’s Jason Candle, James Madison’s Curt Cignetti, and others as candidates for the job.
Last year, over 8,000 players entered the portal in all of college football between the beginning of August, 2022, and the end of May, 2023.