Rhett Lashlee states transfer portal timeline is 'not fair' for Penn State QB Beau Pribula

While they will be competitors on Saturday, Rhett Lashlee can certainly sympathize with James Franklin about the challenges the current NCAA Transfer Portal calendar has created for coaches all across college football.

Following Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula‘s reluctant decision to enter the transfer portal, Franklin questioned the timing of the portal being open in December when many programs are preparing for postseason play. That includes Saturday’s first-round College Football Playoff game between No. 11-seed SMU and the sixth-seeded Nittany Lions at noon ET from State College, Pa.

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“It needs to be totally rebooted. And I’m not complaining. Look, we’re adults, and we’re football coaches, it’s our job to fix problems and handle tough situations. I’ve already told people that gripe and say coaches are complaining, we’ll work 24 hours in a day. … We can handle it,” Lashlee said Wednesday afternoon on The Pat McAfee Show. “What’s not fair is like the Penn State backup quarterback (Pribula) – who we’re playing – had to go into the portal and said he’s not going to play with his team, and said it was the hardest decision he’s ever had to make. Because he had to balance ‘Do I go in the portal and not pass up an opportunity to find a good future home for me to be the starter? Or do I play with my team and finish in the Playoffs,’ something (he) wanted to do, and he said he couldn’t do both. That’s what’s not right about this situation. He shouldn’t have to make that kind of decision.”

Lashlee then acknowledged SMU’s own backup QB Preston Stone, who started the first three games of the 2024 season before Lashlee handed the reins to the dual-threat Kevin Jennings, has already formally entered the transfer portal with the intent of leaving the Mustangs at the conclusion of their season.

“He went into the portal. He said he wanted to stay through the Playoffs and finish, we wanted him to, so we’ve worked with him,” Lashlee added. “When we’ve not had practice days, he’ll go take a visit, (then) he’ll come back. It’s a challenge that he wanted to do, and we’re working with him. But, again, two different situations where kids both felt like they were in a position to make tough decisions that honestly they shouldn’t have to make.”

Deion Sanders calls out coaches complaining about transfer portal

Of course, Franklin’s and Lashlee’s concerns aren’t necessarily shared by all of their coaching peers.

“I don’t think it’s difficult to navigate around the portal. I just think the portal is surprising some of these coaches that didn’t understand what it was,” Colorado head coach Deion Sanders said Tuesday, comparing the roster building challenges of the transfer portal to what he dealt with coaching youth and high school football, where he regularly recruited players off other teams. “I understood what it was Day 1. … That’s the way we approached it, from Day 1. I was willing to look like a fool for a period of time, and I listened to (the media), I watched it. And we understood it.

“Noah looked like a fool too when he kept saying it’s going to rain, right? When he was building the arc? Until that rain came. The rain’s coming now. The rain is coming now for everybody. And we’re good. We’re in the arc now.”