Craig McDonald transferring

[cymonw1980]

It went from NFL bound to D1 safety and was pushed to May 20 something. Which im guessing isnt happening anymore.

My7on7 Football Leagues, Training, and Tournaments

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Also, no longer has "Trevon Howard and other ISU Athletes" included...

 

[cymonw1980]

April 29th: PJ Fleck offers a sack of cash...

I think it's wisconsin... but could be wrong. just my guess.

 

[cyclone4L]

I don't think that McDonald is that much better than Verdon. He just has an advantage in experience. Verdon played a lot of QB in HS and has been at ISU less than a year. He's going to be a good player, but I would guess he's still pretty raw.

2022 McDonald is much better than 2022 Verdon. Trevon Howard is going to be a very good player as well, but he has some growing up to do on and off the field. He also was dinged up in the spring.

There was no questions that McDonald was the starter

 

[cyclonevac]

I know the grass is always greener on the other side but isn't there a large percentage (over50) of portal players that do not get picked up? I read only 28% of portal players get scholarships.

 

[tube1]

Perhaps he just wants to play at an AAU school.

 

[Aclone]

I don't think that McDonald is that much better than Verdon. He just has an advantage in experience. Verdon played a lot of QB in HS and has been at ISU less than a year. He's going to be a good player, but I would guess he's still pretty raw.

Verdon played two ways in high school, and McDonald didn’t play at all his senior year. Both were early enrollees for their respective classes. Verdon is in exactly the same spot McDonald was a year ago.

How’d that turn out?

 

[Aclone]

have not read all 13 pages here, so sorry if I am repeating something already said.

April 20th: McDonald announced his planned camp on twtter...
April 28th: McDonald says "camp has been postponed due to weather check new date" (it was supposed to be Apr 30th not sure if there was bad weather in the forecast? I live out of state now so do not keep up with the weather)
April 30th: He is in the portal

Maybe the camp did get postponed "due to weather" and it is just a coincidence that he entered the portal a couple days later... but that seems really odd.

Did ISU know about the camp? What made him change the date? Did they ask him not to have it?

Something happened in the 10 days between announcing a football camp and then suddenly changing the date, and transferring.

They could be unrelated (maybe he had full approval / support from ISU coaches to run the camp). Trevon Howard (still on the team) was also supposed to participate along with "other" ISU athletes. So, let's see if the camp goes forward on May 21st (new date) and if any ISU football players participate.

Also, CM and Trevon Howard seem to be big on the NIL stuff. This is not a bad thing - more power to them, hope they make a bunch of $. But I could also see this as a situation where he was offered an opportunity to make more... again, may have nothing to do with a pay-for-play deal ("NIL") but if he signs with a mid tier SEC team or a team at the "neb" type of level (lots of fan support, likely trying to compete) this is exactly the type of player you go after. You are not going to out bid tex a&m, tOSU, etc. for top guys. But you don't need to. You grab rising talent from good programs pay them and they burn their free transfer. So, unless they want to sit out a year you have them for the rest of their eligibility.

I’ll save you the trouble of reading all those pages. Here is what I think is a more relevant timeline:

Friday/Saturday JC transfer Blake Thompson, who will be immediately eligible, makes an official visit.

Saturday two safeties announce they’re in the Portal.

 

[Aclone]

Why? This is a totally valid question given our depth and talent at Dline and now lack of depth at DB....

I’m not sure that the coaches would agree with you about that “lack of depth at DB”,

 

[KnappShack]

I’ll save you the trouble of reading all those pages. Here is what I think is a more relevant timeline:

Friday/Saturday JC transfer Blake Thompson, who will be immediately eligible, makes an official visit.

Saturday two safeties announce they’re in the Portal.

In this brave new world I wonder if coaches have to take this into account. I'm sure they are completely transparent here, but at other schools you'd still think the "we'll always try to bring in more talent or players more talented than you" mind set is baked into the bargain.

Does a coach weigh bringing a new player vs possibly losing two of the old? Would you want the old guys around anyway if they bail out?

Players can jump so fast now. I guess that's why coaches get paid.

 

[Aclone]

Even if the Juco kid is good I think we lost 2 guys that would have started (Isheem Young, McDonald) and a ton of depth which is critical - separates good/great from ok/bad teams.

Between Anthony Johnson only using his COVID year to spend a season at safety and Beau Freyler being what looks a lot like a future All American, you only get one open starting spot left.

That’s not two starters leaving. So, which one is it?

 

[BBB83]

I guess sometimes there is an "i" in "team."

Sadly true........

 

[tim_redd]

Perhaps he just wants to play at an AAU school.

Too soon

 

[CycloneVet]

In this brave new world I wonder if coaches have to take this into account. I'm sure they are completely transparent here, but at other schools you'd still think the "we'll always try to bring in more talent or players more talented than you" mind set is baked into the bargain.

Does a coach weigh bringing a new player vs possibly losing two of the old? Would you want the old guys around anyway if they bail out?

Players can jump so fast now. I guess that's why coaches get paid.

Here is the deal, if these 2 guys are actually afraid of competition they can go somewhere else. I doubt this was the case here for McDonald. I can’t imagine a juco kid scared him away

 

[brett108]

I already can tell we’re going to be far more nasty to college kids now. Especially post Tyrese Hunter.

These aren’t kids. Let’s stop calling them that. Their just people trying to make a bucks at this point. They have always been adults.

 

[brett108]

Imagine the scenario of committing to Iowa State because you liked Campbell. Campbell leaves for the NFL and we hire Brian Ferentz as the new head coach and you as a player have no ability to leave without penalty.

In all fairness if we hired BF all the fans are in the transfer portal too.

 

[cyc26]

I don't think we should read too much into the briefness of the post. Some people are just more direct.

Like someone else said above, I appreciate the brevity of the post. I don't need to read three paragraphs of fluff and you thanking everyone from the RA in your dorm to God for the great year you had in Ames.

I mean given that CW and Blum said even the coaching staff/players were surprised by it leads to me believe it was not a necessarily pre-meditated thing... Most guys will go through the team graphics department and have something made (Tyrese and Isheem). Clearly it was sudden.

He was also planning to have a kids camp which makes it even more weird.

 

[cyc26]

I’m not sure that the coaches would agree with you about that “lack of depth at DB”,

Well given that there are literally 10-12+ guys in the D-line position room and only 6 in the safety room, (counting the new transfer)... I would beg to differ.

 

[Frak]

have not read all 13 pages here, so sorry if I am repeating something already said.

April 20th: McDonald announced his planned camp on twtter...
April 28th: McDonald says "camp has been postponed due to weather check new date" (it was supposed to be Apr 30th not sure if there was bad weather in the forecast? I live out of state now so do not keep up with the weather)
April 30th: He is in the portal

Maybe the camp did get postponed "due to weather" and it is just a coincidence that he entered the portal a couple days later... but that seems really odd.

Did ISU know about the camp? What made him change the date? Did they ask him not to have it?

Something happened in the 10 days between announcing a football camp and then suddenly changing the date, and transferring.

They could be unrelated (maybe he had full approval / support from ISU coaches to run the camp). Trevon Howard (still on the team) was also supposed to participate along with "other" ISU athletes. So, let's see if the camp goes forward on May 21st (new date) and if any ISU football players participate.

Also, CM and Trevon Howard seem to be big on the NIL stuff. This is not a bad thing - more power to them, hope they make a bunch of $. But I could also see this as a situation where he was offered an opportunity to make more... again, may have nothing to do with a pay-for-play deal ("NIL") but if he signs with a mid tier SEC team or a team at the "neb" type of level (lots of fan support, likely trying to compete) this is exactly the type of player you go after. You are not going to out bid tex a&m, tOSU, etc. for top guys. But you don't need to. You grab rising talent from good programs pay them and they burn their free transfer. So, unless they want to sit out a year you have them for the rest of their eligibility.

Just my opinion, but if he's upset because of low registrations for his camp, then his expectations were too high. Like it or not, he's not a known name to many people. He started, what, 4-5 games for ISU? I mean, if Greg Eisworth and Anthony Johnson were running a DB camp, that's at least a little more name recognition. But honestly, if I were to pay for my elementary age kid to go to a FB camp (and I have before), it would be with the actual coaching staff. It would take some pretty big names to skip that and instead go to a player-led camp. Like if last year, Purdy, Hall, Rose and Kolar were running a camp, then I'd consider doing that.

 

[isu81]

From last season’s team, half the scholarship players either graduated/moved on (18) or are in the transfer portal (22).

 

[Frak]

Well given that there are literally 10-12+ guys in the D-line position room and only 6 in the safety room, (counting the new transfer)... I would beg to differ.

I count 7. Freyler, Verdon, Johnson, Chambers, Thompson, Howard, Cooper. Still thin though. I think that you can get by with 7, but any injuries may be tough to overcome and it definitely will affect special teams.