I’m not questioning any of his points; however, after the tone of his last few columns, I wonder how many parking tickets he got on campus this past season.
Back to the transfers: it seems a lot easier to be productive out of the gate at kick returner and at WR, and possibly at RB. We haven’t integrated players as well at the rest of the positions, and I’m not sure why.
WR and RB are fairly easily to adapt to a new offense. While it might take a year or two to fully bake in all the intricacies, getting to a nominal level of competence in a short time is very achievable. OL is a completely different story, where it not only takes time to develop a player (generally speaking, there are exceptions out there) but to also get them used to working together as a unit.
On the D side, all positions should be fairly easy to achieve nominal competence in a short time, we just haven't had a lot of luck there so far.
For the most part, I think our lack of notable "success" with incoming transfers is pretty normal. Most P5 transfers weren't starters at their previous stop so expecting them to all of a sudden be world beaters sets us up for disappointment. G5 and FCS transfers are moving up a level, and while they may have been great there, the jury is still out on can they perform as well at the P5 level.
Ultimately, transfers build depth and maybe you get a diamond in the rough. Very few teams get a Gibbs type transfer, and we were fortunate that McGowan performed as advertised.
I have no issue with the guys we are getting, but I fall firmly in the wait and see category before claiming victory on their commitment.