Transfer portal notebook: Sometimes, not using the portal is as significant as using it

Iowa’s offense was the butt of more than a few jokes with its Week One performance in a 7-3 victory over South Dakota State. The jokes were deserved. The Hawkeyes’ defense outscored their offense 4-3. Iowa had as many punts (10) as first downs. It averaged 2.7 yards on its 61 plays from scrimmage, including 1.7 yards per rush.

The numbers were startlingly bad. Still, it’s not as if Iowa usually is some kind of offensive juggernaut: In an era in which college teams routinely average 400 yards per game, the Hawkeyes haven’t hit that figure since 2014.

But this also is an era in which teams routinely go to the transfer portal to find quarterbacks, if for no other reason than to provide some competition. But Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz isn’t a fan of the portal – Iowa has two portal transfers on its roster this season – and Spencer Petras is the starting quarterback for the third consecutive season.

Petras was mediocre at best last season; he threw for 1,880 yards (156.7 per game), with 10 TDs, nine picks and a 57.3 percent completion rate. He wasn’t that good in the truncated 2000 season, either, with a 57.1 percent completion rate, nine TDs and five interceptions. (Yes, the offensive philosophy, as it were, is an issue, too, but that is not going to change.) It’s obvious Iowa doesn’t trust backup Alex Padilla, so why not hit the portal?

Florida and Washington had a presumptive starter and a two-year returning starter, respectively, yet still brought in a quarterback from the transfer portal. OK, both have new coaches and that certainly was a reason for bringing in a new guy. But what about, among others, Missouri, Arizona, Cincinnati, Baylor, Indiana, Syracuse and Illinois? All had presumptive or returning starters under “old” coaching staffs, yet still dove into the portal for a quarterback.

And what about Maryland? Terps starter Taulia Tagovailoa threw for 3,860 yards and 26 touchdowns last season, yet Maryland coaches still were extremely interested when Shepherd College (W.Va.) quarterback Tyson Bagent – the national player of the year in Division II – entered the transfer portal. Bagent eventually withdrew and stayed at Shepherd, but the point is that coaches everywhere annually attempt to improve their quarterback rooms.

How often do fans hear from coaches that “iron sharpens iron,” that competition at every position is important, that competition improves depth? Ferentz is big on culture, and Iowa definitely has a winning culture. But if your culture is so well-ingrained, how is bringing in a quarterback to compete going to mess it up? If the coaches do their job in the vetting process, how can one quarterback damage a program’s culture?

Oh, well, Iowa will roll out Petras again this week when rival Iowa State comes to town. We’ll see if there are more jokes.

Big-time debuts

One transfer quarterback who starred in Week One was Arizona’s Jayden de Laura, who teamed with transfer wide receiver Jacob Cowing to lead the Wildcats to a surprising 38-20 victory at San Diego State. The outcome spoiled the opening of SDSU’s new digs, the 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium. San Diego State was 12-2 last season, when it beat a one-win Arizona team by 24.

As well as de Laura played last season at Washington State (2,789 yards, 23 TD passes), it became obvious he would transfer after Eric Morris was hired as the Cougars’ offensive coordinator. Morris left his job as Incarnate Word coach to go to Pullman, and Incarnate Word quarterback Cameron Ward entered the transfer portal when Morris left. To no one’s surprise, Ward eventually followed Morris to Pullman.

Second-year Arizona coach Jedd Fisch, a former NFL offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, revamped his offense in the offseason. Last season, the Wildcats didn’t even get to the 20-point mark in 10 games and averaged 17.2 on the season. In addition to de Laura, Arizona added Cowing from UTEP. He was ninth nationally in 2021 in receiving yards with 1,367; he had 69 receptions and averaged 19.81 yards per catch. The top signee in the freshman class was wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, an On3 Consensus four-star recruit and a national top-50 prospect.

Against San Diego State, de Laura was 22-of-35 for 299 yards and four touchdowns; Arizona had 12 TD passes total in 2021. Cowing had a huge opener, with eight receptions for 152 yards (19.0 per catch) and three touchdowns; only one Wildcat had more than three TD receptions last season, and that was running back Michael Wiley with four. McMillan flashed, too, with three catches for 53 yards and a TD.

Granted, San Diego State isn’t supposed to be as good as it was last season, but Arizona’s dominance was eye-opening. And it makes this week’s home game with Mississippi State much more interesting. A victory over the Bulldogs and Arizona’s first bowl appearance since 2017 all of a sudden looks like a distinct possibility.

Hey, I know you guys!

The second-leading rusher in the Pac-12 after Week One is Washington State’s Nakia Watson. That makes the Cougars’ game this week more interesting: They play at Wisconsin – Watson’s former school.

Watson was a three-star recruit from Austin (Texas) Westlake and signed with Wisconsin in the 2018 recruiting class. He was Jonathan Taylor’s backup as a redshirt freshman in 2019, rushing for 331 yards and two TDs on 74 carries. After Taylor turned pro, Watson opened the truncated 2020 season as the Badgers’ starter but eventually was surpassed by both Jalen Berger (now at Michigan State) and Garrett Groshek.

Watson transferred to Washington State after the 2020 season and was the Cougars’ third-teamer last season. He’s the starter this season and rushed for 117 yards on 18 carries in a victory over Idaho in the opener.

The offensive contrast Saturday will be stark. The Cougars will be a pass-happy team this season with the aforementioned Morris as offensive coordinator; he is off the Mike Leach tree, and the Cougars threw the ball on 62 percent of their offensive snaps against Idaho. (Watson had two catches in the opener – one fewer than he had in his first three college seasons combined.) Wisconsin, of course, is one of the foremost ground-and-pound teams in the nation.

Watson told reporters Tuesday that he is looking forward to the matchup. “It means a lot to me,” he said. “It’s the old stomping grounds. … I know them, so it’ll be fun to play against them.”

He also expects a physical game. “I’ve been telling (my teammates), ‘Them boys are gonna come downhill,’ ” Watson said. “They are strong, they are fast and they are powerful. We’re going to have to bite down on our mouthpieces.”

Transfers in the spotlight

Watson going against his former team isn’t the only interesting transfer portal story with this week’s schedule. Here are some others.

+ BYU RB Chris Brooks vs. Baylor: Brooks, a transfer from California, is BYU’s new feature back; Tyler Allgeier had that role last season, when he rushed for 1,601 yards, then turned pro. In his first game as a Cougar, Brooks rushed for 135 yards and a TD on 13 carries in a 50-21 rout of host USF. The Bulls have a less-than-stellar defense; that’s not the case with Baylor, which BYU welcomes in Saturday. The Bears have one of the nation’s top defensive lines and a solid group of linebackers. BYU touts its offensive line as one of the nation’s best, and the Cougars’ pass offense likely can’t carry the day if Brooks is stymied.

+ Stanford S Patrick Fields vs. USC QB Caleb Williams: They were teammates last season at Oklahoma – Fields was a starting safety – and now they meet up in Williams’ (and Lincoln Riley’s) first Pac-12 game. Fields, a rare transfer player at Stanford, starts at nickel back for the Cardinal, and he’ll also likely see a lot of WR Mario Williams, another former Sooners teammate. Fields, a captain at Oklahoma last season, was a three-year starter at safety for the Sooners. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting at OU and is going for a master’s in management science and engineering at Stanford.

+ Fresno State QB Jake Haener vs. Oregon State: Haener began his career at Washington and transferred to Fresno State in August 2019, after Jacob Eason beat him out for the Huskies’ starting job. Haener threw for 2,021 yards and 14 TDs in the Bulldogs’ six-game season in 2020, then for 4,096 yards and 33 TDs last season. He opened this season by torching FCS Cal Poly, going 36-of-42 (85.7 percent) for 377 yards and two TDs in an easy 35-7 win. Saturday’s home game against Oregon State will be his third against a Pac-12 school since his transfer. Last season, he was 60-of-85 (70.6 percent) for 676 yards, six TDs and one pick against Oregon (a seven-point loss in which the Ducks rallied late) and UCLA (a three-point win in which Haener led a last-minute TD drive).

+ Wake Forest S Brendon Harris vs. Vanderbilt: Harris will be playing against his former team. While he never was a full-time starter, he did start six games and make 127 tackles the past three seasons for the Commodores. Harris is listed as a co-starter at one safety spot for the Demon Deacons. Vandy is 2-0, meaning it already has matched its win total from the past two seasons combined. The last time the Commodores started 2-0 was in 2017, which also is the last time they went to a bowl.