Dan Mullen believes transfer portal culture 'teaches bad habits to kids'

As Dan Mullen gets back into coaching this season after a three-year hiatus, he joins a world that looks a lot different than it did when he left. His last season at Florida in 2021 was also the first year that college players were allowed to profit from NIL.

The transfer portal was around before then, opening in 2018, but has become an altogether different beast since the inception of NIL. More than 2,800 players entered their name in the portal during the winter window this offseason, which closed on Dec. 28.

But that isn’t the only opportunity for players to transfer. A second window is set to open in the spring on April 16, lasting 10 days through April 25. That is after most teams have finished their spring practices, meaning some players who go through those drills may not even be on the team for the upcoming season.

Mullen, who is now preparing for his inaugural season as the coach at UNLV, spoke on the See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack about the challenges that creates for coaching staffs. He also suggested that it might be more beneficial if there were only one window as opposed to the two.

“It just teaches bad habits to kids,” Mullen said. “…Listen, I’ll give you the benefits (of eliminating the spring portal window). If you do that, you know what your roster looks like in January. It makes February signing day more valuable.

“More opportunities for high school kids because you’re gonna sit and say, ‘I don’t have to save scholarships for the spring transfer portal window. I’m filling up my roster right now. Sign the high school kids. We’re gonna coach and develop ’em.’ It allows you to start team building in January and know what your roster’s gonna look like. There’s so many different benefits to it. But that is what it is.”

Many have likened this new era of college sports to the professionals, which have free agency. Although there are still a few differences between the two, Mullen thought looking at how the NFL operates might be a good place to start developing a strategy for this upcoming season.

He recalled a conversation that he had with a former NFL quarterback about team-building activities. The player told him that he prefers to wait on attempting to build chemistry until the 53-man roster is close to being finalized, because he then knows those are the people he’ll play with for the year. Similarly, with the way the current transfer portal system is set up, Mullen will wait until after the spring window.

“I spent a lot of time with NFL, went back and reviewed NFL notes,” Mullen said. “When I was an offensive coordinator at Florida… I was with an old-time veteran quarterback. I went up to their (OTAs), their spring practices. I was visiting and watching and I sat down and we’re talking and I said, ‘Tell me about some team-building. What do you do with team-building?’ He looked and he said, ‘I don’t worry about it.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Because every day there’s guys coming and going in this room. So once we get really close to building the 53-man roster, I’ll start my team-building activities because I’ll know those are my teammates for the year.’

“I had that in my notes. I went back and reviewed it and I said, ‘OK, how are we gonna structure the team-building around? I guess after that spring portal when we start in June.’ Officially, that will be our team for the year. We’re not making cuts. Guys aren’t going to the portal at that point. That’s our team. Now, that seems like a quick window and I’d really like to do it before, but I’ll see how that plays out.”

UNLV is coming off an 11-3 season this past year that saw coach Barry Odom leave to take the job at Purdue. Dan Mullen is now tasked with carry over that momentum, and the transfer portal will play a big part.