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<\/p>\nCHARLOTTE \u2013 Every coach of a non-power school can hear the drumbeat.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the bittersweet reality of a player thriving in their program.<\/p>\n
In an era of college football where rosters turn over rapidly and sharks in major conferences are constantly swirling, coaches outside the major conferences must brace for their highest performers to be poached every offseason.<\/p>\n
Tulane won nine games last season, and their quarterback \u2014 star freshman Darian Mensah \u2014 left for Duke in December on a two-year deal worth a reported $8 million. Sixty of Tulane\u2019s 116 players \u2014 51.7 percent \u2014 are new in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year, we all have a brand-new team and a brand-new roster,\u201d Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not just me. That\u2019s everybody. That\u2019s normal now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fears that the sport\u2019s lower levels could serve as a farm system for larger programs have come to fruition. Of the 22 players named to the American Conference first or second teams who returned to college in 2025, 13 transferred, including 12 to power-conference schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard. You turn around and go, \u2018Wait, we only have three returning starters? And every year we\u2019re gonna have a new quarterback?\u201d Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield said. \u201cIf you have a guy who starts and thrives for you at left tackle, it\u2019s hard to afford to keep him around.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the four years since name, image and likeness (NIL) money flooded into the sport and instant eligibility for transfers threw rosters into chaos, coaches at the sport\u2019s lower levels have had to develop new methods for player retention.<\/p>\n
They can\u2019t just resign themselves to losing their best players each year.<\/p>\n
Here are five things they say they\u2019re doing to fight off the major-conference goliaths.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t take anything personal. But you do,\u201d Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield said. (Stu Boyd II \/ The Commercial Appeal \/ USA Today Network via Imagn Images)Building trust and connection<\/p>\n
First-year Temple coach K.C. Keeler has a mandate for his staff. It\u2019s simple. It\u2019s small. But it\u2019s foundational.<\/p>\n
If it\u2019s a player\u2019s birthday or he\u2019s having surgery for any reason, he\u2019s getting a text or call from every member of Keeler\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a player is going to leave, I want him to feel like he\u2019s leaving the whole building, not just a coach,\u201d said Keeler, who won a FCS national title at Sam Houston in 2021 and guided the program\u2019s transition into FBS before leaving for Temple in December. \u201cThat makes it harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t want players siloed into their position group.<\/p>\n
Zach Kittley, a first-time head coach taking over at Florida Atlantic, has two key pillars of his program: Treat each other like family and have fun. That\u2019s with an aim toward retention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you create an environment guys want to be in, it\u2019s going to be easier to keep guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That can create a delicate balance for coaches who want to make spending full days in the facility enjoyable without inviting too casual an atmosphere.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour standards and norms in the program culturally cannot change,\u201d Traylor said. \u201cYou have to stand on the foundation you believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traylor, 46-20 in his first five seasons at UTSA, has recognized that winning helps both keep players and attract other players. As does a track record of putting players into the NFL. If a coaching staff has done it in the past, players will feel less pressure to leave for a bigger program to maximize their NFL stock, Traylor said.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s another aspect to maintaining trust within a locker room: How coaches handle it when players do leave.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s natural and easy to take any player transferring as a rejection, even amid the financial realities of the sport that put Group of Five programs at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n
By now, Traylor can usually see on a player\u2019s face the second he enters his office if he\u2019s preparing to tell him he\u2019s leaving.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t be defensive or sensitive about it. It\u2019s like, \u2018Hey man, wish you the best. Hope it goes well,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to be empathetic. And that\u2019s hard because as you build your team, you\u2019re so focused on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silverfield said in the past he\u2019d found himself arguing with players about aspects of their transfer that had nothing to do with Memphis. Now, he\u2019s careful to sell what awaits them in Memphis rather than pointing out the flaws of where a player might be considering going.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t take anything personal,\u201d Silverfield said. \u201cBut you do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Educating players and having hard conversations<\/p>\n
In the early years of immediate eligibility for transfers, coaches might have believed a decision to leave wasn\u2019t right for a player.<\/p>\n
Now, they do research and try to present data to players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell them up front I\u2019m going to skew this my way because I want you to stay. But there is some reality here,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cBut I can explain to players they might take a bigger check now and give up a bigger check later by putting themselves in bad situations. You try to educate them but you try not to be negative or belittle. You just want to have an honest conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
A player might come to Keeler saying he\u2019d been offered $150,000 to play for a Big Ten or SEC program. Now, as the market for players has settled and rates are relatively consistent, he said he knows what a number signifies for the programs at the top of those leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe might think that\u2019s big money,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cTo them, that\u2019s backup money. If you have that relationship, you can have honest conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
If a player tells him he\u2019s going to a particular program, he\u2019ll dig up their roster and see what he thinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey might have three corners coming back that have played a ton of snaps. Two starters and a rotation guy. You know they\u2019re bringing in your starter to be a fourth corner. You have to show them that,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cOr point out, \u2018Hey, they graduated one offensive lineman and already signed five from the portal. They\u2019re getting to you late because they found room for a sixth. You weren\u2019t the first one they signed.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to do your research and have honest conversations. It goes further if you have that relationship and they know you\u2019re gonna shoot them straight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silverfield said each player\u2019s situation is different. But if a player only has one year left and has thrived at Memphis, he\u2019ll point out that one year at a bigger program introduces some variables on the road to the NFL, even amid the tantalizing offer of a bigger stage or bigger immediate payday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a freshman All-American and somebody comes and gives you an obvious opportunity to start or maybe you just don\u2019t like me, then that\u2019s fine. Move on,\u201d Silverfield said. \u201cI want to make sure they\u2019re making the best decisions for themselves. I can tell them about the pitfalls that might come with a move. But ultimately I just want to make the case for why they\u2019ll have success staying with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Florida coach Alex Golesh said he\u2019s talked with his team four times in the last three months about being guarded about who they\u2019re getting advice from.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can point to guys now where it\u2019s like, \u2018Look at this situation, look at that situation,\u2019\u201d Golesh said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got guys on our team who were at a place, left and then were like, \u2018Holy smokes, what did I do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also times when a coach can tip his cap and thank a player, as Silverfield said. Sumrall pointed to former Tulane cornerback Rayshawn Pleasant, who played 37 snaps in 2023, blossomed into a star in 2024 and moved to Auburn this offseason with two years of eligibility left.<\/p>\n
Said Sumrall: \u201cHe went from being an unknown nobody to a well-compensated SEC player.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Tulane lost multiple key players to power-conference schools, including QB Darian Mensah (above, Duke) and CB Rayshawn Pleasant (Auburn). (Tommy Gilligan \/ Imagn Images)Being proactive<\/p>\n
Keeler mostly knows what every player on his Temple roster makes, but like many coaches, he isn\u2019t the person who handles the finances.<\/p>\n
Early in the 2023 season at Sam Houston, Keeler\u2019s general manager, Clayton Barnes, came to him with a request: They needed to bump up 6-foot-4, 255-pound edge rusher Chris Murray\u2019s pay. He wasn\u2019t a star yet, but they\u2019d seen him thrive in practice. And Murray forecasted a shortage of edge rushers in the upcoming portal window and knew Murray\u2019s measurables might earn him calls from bigger programs.<\/p>\n
Murray wasn\u2019t thinking about leaving. He was taken aback at the offer and said the program didn\u2019t need to give him more money.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said I want to because we saw what the future looked like,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cHe felt it was great when we came to him first.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stayed at Sam Houston for 2024 and made 11 1\/2 tackles for loss and 5 1\/2 sacks, earning first-team All-Conference USA honors. After Keeler left for Temple, Murray took an offer to move up to Auburn, but last season may not have happened without the Bearkats\u2019 proactive approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to attack our locker room first. The teams that have the most coming back generally have the most chance to sustain success,\u201d Keeler said. \u201cBeing a head coach now is about managing the stuff that can be the difference between a player staying or leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Golesh: \u201cAre your resources allocated into retaining talent or acquiring talent? Everybody will tell you they want to do both but there has to be a focus. For us, we\u2019ve had a huge focus on retention because that\u2019s the name of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t always work. Sumrall turned to Mensah last fall as Tulane\u2019s starting quarterback after he began camp as the team\u2019s third quarterback, paid almost nothing by Tulane\u2019s collective.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to shift that quickly as we moved him into being the starter,\u201d Sumrall said, adding that his program uses an NFL model of percentages in deciding how to spend on their roster relative to total budget, with an extra emphasis on offensive and defensive lines. \u201cMaybe it was too little too late or not enough period. Even if we tried to go to our max, we probably weren\u2019t able to get to where it went.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being strategic in recruiting<\/p>\n
As the sport has changed, at least one truth has remained for coaches: You recruit your problems.<\/p>\n
Now, those problems just look a little different for Group of Five coaches. When it\u2019s easier than ever for players to transfer, regional recruiting has become more important.<\/p>\n
Keeler said when his staff took over at Temple, they drew lines from Connecticut to Virginia and Ohio. Recruiting outside that region will be a rarity.<\/p>\n
Staying in a geographic footprint removes one reason players leave: Getting closer to family back home.<\/p>\n
And coaches have re-emphasized a healthy locker room and recruiting character in hopes of having a roster with players who aren\u2019t just looking for a ticket up the college football ladder.<\/p>\n
Every now and then, Sumrall\u2019s assistants have to pull him aside in a meeting with recruits.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach, are you trying to de-recruit this guy?\u201d he says they\u2019ll ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be so transparent and honest so they know what they\u2019re signing up for,\u201d Sumrall said. This is how we operate. If you don\u2019t want to operate like this, that\u2019s cool. Don\u2019t come here. I will tell kids that in my office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other coaches noted they\u2019re diligent about flagging potential concerns in the recruitment process, be it an aggressive or unprofessional agent or a problem parent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate frustration is there are so many outside influences now that are so far out of your control,\u201d Golesh said.<\/p>\n
Vetting players in the portal is difficult because the process moves faster, but if the program recruited a player in high school because he\u2019s regional, it can help with intel. Golesh is recruiting in the talent hotbed of South Florida. When players don\u2019t have success at higher levels, it can mean bringing in high-rated prospects to USF looking for a fresh start.<\/p>\n
Painting a clear picture and making that picture reality once a player signs can prevent players from developing wandering eyes, Golesh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s transparency on the front end, there\u2019s less craziness on the back end,\u201d Golesh said. \u201cDon\u2019t ever promise somebody something you\u2019re not sure you can deliver on. That\u2019s when you start to have problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silverfield pointed to his team\u2019s GPA last year being the highest in history and one of the country\u2019s leaders in community service hours as a testament to the types of players he brought in and helping the program not be a revolving door.<\/p>\n
At the start of the year, he has players write down goals for the year and hang them in their lockers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m gonna hold their ass accountable to those goals,\u201d he said. \u201cI think guys appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Jeff Traylor and UTSA got a boost when starting QB Owen McCown elected to return this season. (Danny Wild \/ Imagn Images)Building up their own war chests<\/p>\n
Every other week, Traylor meets with UTSA athletic director Lisa Campos and the program\u2019s key fundraisers about one key topic: How can we meet or fundraising goals while also growing our budget?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the ability to pay max, but we want to be competitive in this league,\u201d Traylor said. \u201cThat\u2019s where we have to start.\u201d<\/p>\n
This offseason, it worked. Quarterback Owen McCown elected to stay after throwing for 3,424 yards and 25 touchdowns last season. The offense lost running back Brandon High Jr, the team\u2019s second-leading rusher, to Cal, but every other major contributor on offense elected to stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey stayed because of Owen,\u201d Traylor said.<\/p>\n
When Golesh was considering leaving his post as Tennessee\u2019s offensive coordinator for South Florida, the most critical question he wanted answered was USF\u2019s ability to recruit and retain talent. It had geographical advantages. Knowing it had financial advantages relative to the level helped convince him to take the job.<\/p>\n
Immediate eligibility for transfers lowered the barriers for players to leave their program. As a result, it made sustaining success at the sport\u2019s lower levels harder than ever.<\/p>\n
But the coaches tasked with doing it are still trying to develop tools to build sustainable programs amid constant change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s just about the bag, our bag isn\u2019t gonna be big enough,\u201d Traylor said. \u201cBut if it\u2019s about development, the fit, the holistic opportunity, we can compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Top photos of Jon Sumrall and K.C. Keeler: Julio Aguilar, Chris Gardner \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE \u2013 Every coach of a non-power school can hear the drumbeat. It\u2019s the bittersweet reality of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,21183,7,3364,49,48,4431,156,5041,4711,4731],"class_list":{"0":"post-275997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-florida-atlantic-owls","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-memphis-tigers","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-football","14":"tag-south-florida-bulls","15":"tag-sports-business","16":"tag-temple-owls","17":"tag-tulane-green-wave","18":"tag-utsa-roadrunners"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115002550917724471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}