Lane Kiffin: Ole Miss had the most sought after 'pre-portal' player in the country
The NIL and transfer portal has made college athletics the wild west and more specifically college football. Lane Kiffin has been beating this drum for years now since the NIL’s creation, stating amateur sports are no more.
With what almost feels like a lawless land comes another aspect of recruiting that is seemingly coming out of the shadows and dipping its toe into the spotlight; tampering.
Tampering is still a four-letter word but becoming louder and louder among coaching circles of teams who lose out on players and those who lose a player to another team after a season on their respective roster.
Ole Miss is not left out of this, according to Kiffin who coined a new phrase during his media scrum on Tuesday at this week’s Southeastern Conference spring meetings in Destin, Florida.
The Rebels had one of the top “pre-portal” players last season in Kiffin’s eyes. He did not state the player’s name outright but referenced the position and it is not heard to put the tea leaves together to understand who it is.
Quinshon Judkins had a freshman season that resulted in earning the SEC’s rushing title and one of the best running backs in the country.
With that came a lot of suitors who wanted Judkin’s talents knowing he still had his one-time ticket into the transfer portal still available. Kiffin never mentioned any actual teams who tried to come for his star running back.
“I would argue we had the most pre-portal player in America in our running back because he was only a freshman,” Kiffin said. “So, you don’t just get him for one year but for two years. It’s just going to happen.”
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Kiffin noted the term ‘pre-portal’ is one he has been using for a while now. He also acknowledged he had to essentially recruit Judkins a second time during the offseason.
Of course Kiffin and Ole Miss managed to hold on to Judkins who is back for a sophomore season encore performance.
Kiffin has had plenty of success in the portal by getting players to come to Ole Miss over the past few seasons but this past offseason was the first major experience of the other side of the NIL coin.
The transfer portal is the tool but NIL is the hand that is using it to help teams beef up its roster and in a reverse Robin Hood way of stealing from the poor to make the rich get richer.
With this recent recruiting and negotiating-esque experince with Judkins it paints a clearer picture of the NIL landscape but Kiffin is still adapting like the rest.
“I think you just over experience of kind of knowing what players get at different places I think you have a little better feel,” Kiffin said. “But, again, there’s no public contracts. So you kind of got to operate on people that you know and what’s out there. That’s really tough to figure out. I don’t think anybody (in the meetings) or anywhere can tell you, ‘Okay, this is the market value for the quarterback or the receiver with this many years left or coming out of high school.'”
Below is Kiffin’s full media scrum from Tuesday. Video provided by ‘DawgNation.’
