ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 The second year of the 12-team College Football Playoff welcomes a new challenge: It directly coincides with the transfer portal. <\/p>\n
In October, the NCAA shifted from two portal windows<\/a> to one. The 15-day transactional window now spans from January 2-16, giving players and coaches alike just over two weeks to set themselves up for success the following season.<\/p>\n One problem: Four head coaches, eight coordinators and over 400 players are still in the running for a national championship.<\/p>\n Amid a trip to Atlanta, a Peach Bowl<\/a> appearance and the national title race, Oregon coach Dan Lanning and Indiana coach Curt Cignetti are tasked with optimizing the window and securing top-tier talent. All the while, they have their biggest game of the season ahead.<\/p>\n Both teams last took the field on January 1. Indiana beat Alabama in the Rose Bowl<\/a> in Pasadena. Oregon rolled past Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl<\/a> in Miami. The transfer portal opened at midnight, and neither team had set foot back on campus yet.<\/p>\n \u201c(It\u2019s) certainly a juggle,\u201d Lanning said. \u201cYou try to make sure you communicate to the people you\u2019re recruiting, \u2018Hey, I wish I could pay more attention to you right now, but the reality is, we are really focused on this game, and if you want to be a part of games like this, this is what you have to look forward to, and you\u2019ll want my focus to be on this game as well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Both coaches hosted several prospects in the week leading up to the Peach Bowl.<\/p>\n \u201cI was playing catch-up most of the week, and you got to rely on your people a little bit more,\u201d Cignetti said. \u201cIt also stresses you from the evaluation standpoint and the quality of the one-on-one meeting on the official visits, but it is what it is and you\u2019ve got to make the best of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Cignetti and Lanning lean on their coordinators and supporting staff to help with the portal. For Oregon\u2019s offensive coordinator, Will Stein<\/a>, and defensive coordinator, Tosh Lupoi<\/a>, that means managing two transfer portals for two different institutions.<\/p>\n Stein and Lupoi both accepted head coaching positions at Power Four institutions and will make the full transition after the playoffs. Stein is Kentucky-bound, and Lupoi is headed to Cal Berkeley<\/p>\n The duo is running on fumes, but they\u2019re relentlessly focused on the task ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cI was told I look refreshed today, which I have not felt that way, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Stein said Wednesday night.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely wonderful. It\u2019s been so awesome. What a great time to have the portal open right now, you know, that makes a whole lot of sense,\u201d Lupoi added sarcastically.<\/p>\n Lupoi struggles with not being two places at once. Guilt creeps up occasionally at the thought of not doing enough for his new program.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I\u2019m not going to do is lack any preparation that I owe to our team and our family here, so that\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d Lupoi said. <\/p>\n Stein thinks the best way to draw attention to Kentucky<\/a> is by continued success at Oregon.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of guys back there (in Kentucky) that are helping, but I really just try to stay present. Those guys are doing a hell of a job back there for me, but they also know that the most important thing for that program is for us to be successful here at Oregon because it\u2019s a testament to what the blueprint is and how they\u2019re going to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n If Oregon loses on Friday, Lanning, Lupoi and Stein can fully shift focus toward the portal. If the Ducks make the national title game, players will have an extended window from Jan 20-24. In past years, coaches and players would\u2019ve had another opportunity in the April, but the NCAA eliminated the 15-day spring window in the fall.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people that can handle the chaos the best are the people that succeed the most in our sport right now. Is it easy? No, it\u2019s not easy for anybody,\u201d Stein said. \u201cBut that\u2019s what we signed up for. That\u2019s why they pay us a lot of money to coach a kids\u2019 sport. It\u2019s the greatest gig in the world. Somebody told me there\u2019s no crying from a yacht, so I\u2019m very blessed and fortunate, and I\u2019m looking forward to this game.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 The second year of the 12-team College Football Playoff welcomes a new challenge: It directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,339,16784,7,4645,629,12224,932,82906,49,48,38070,683,575,1381,96344,9,1438],"class_list":["post-664875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-curt-cignetti","tag-football","tag-ga-state-wire","tag-georgia","tag-in-state-wire","tag-indiana","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-or-state-wire","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-oregon-ducks-football","tag-peach-bowl-game","tag-sports","tag-sports-transactions"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115861861418053306","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664875","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=664875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}