The transfer portal giveth and the transfer portal taketh away.
Those are the two sides that every college program faces each offseason. No program or sport is safe from feeling the effects – good or bad. But when Kent State takes the field tomorrow to face the Razorbacks, they’ll provide fans with a glimpse of the “other side” of the portal.
See, as a Power 5 school the Hogs have the resources – whether financial or otherwise – to replace transfers with players as good or better than the ones that left. Unfortunately for the Golden Flashes and other Group of 5 teams, they don’t have that luxury.
Every offseason, those teams are picked through by the “big boys” of the Power 5 like it’s an early spring garage sale. You have a wide receiver who finished with 1,000 yards and 15 touchdowns? Gone. You have an All-Conference linebacker who led the league in sacks? Gone. You have a three-year starting defensive lineman who led your team in tackles? Gone.
That’s the challenge that Kent State head coach Kenni Burns is faced with this year – his first year as a head coach.
The Golden Flashes are starting a first-year quarterback because their previous one transferred to UCLA. The Kent State offensive line is made up entirely of first-year starters. They also lost five wide receivers to the portal, including their two leading receivers who left for Penn State and West Virginia.
It’s a very inexperienced group that Burns has on the field this season and that showed up last week when they were blown out by UCF, 56-6.
Burns has an incredibly difficult rebuilding job in front of him, and this year is going to be painful. As they take the field against the Hogs on Saturday, it’s not really a fair fight.
It’s still college football and anything can happen, but Arkansas shouldn’t have any issues. The resources that [autotag]Sam Pittman[/autotag] has available in recruiting, and more importantly – the transfer portal, will be on prominent display this week.
Arkansas and Kent State kickoff at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday from Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. It will be televised on SEC Network.