In case you missed it, new Memphis head coach Justin Fuente is blocking quarterback Taylor Reed from transferring to some schools against which Memphis is slated to play in the coming years. He’s also blocking him from transferring to any school in Conference USA, which Memphis is leaving after this year.
Do Recruits Care About A School’s Transfer Policy?
It’s a ridiculous move by the Memphis head coach, but is this something recruits would care about? Probably not.
First, realize that recruits don’t usually pay attention to football as much as die-hard football fans do. They are quite often unaware of even the most public of issues impacting the sport.
For a recruit to become aware of the policy, it would probably have to come via an opposing coach’s negative recruiting tactics. Coaches say publicly that they do not negatively recruit, though privately, many say it’s a fact of life.
But would transfer restrictions be fodder for negative recruiting? It’s unlikely. Assuming a coach does engage in negative recruiting, he is probably much more likely to bring up issues that are far more important to recruits.
And why wouldn’t transfer restrictions seem important to recruits? Cockiness. Recruits believe that they will not only start quite early in their careers, but that they will be stars as well. The same mindset is seen with the problem of oversigning, in which recruits don’t pay much attention to schools cutting players because they never believe that their career will be anything but a success.
Further, if a coach were to bring it up, the player might resent the implication that the coach believes the player’s career might be anything but a rousing success.
While a coach’s transfer policy probably should matter some in the game of recruiting, the reality is that it simply does not.
