Some people spin Miami taking on numerous transfer portal seniors as a negative in terms of the development of young players. Alex Donno points out that young players learning from veterans is an important part of development. Playing time on Saturdays is not the only factor.
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00:00 Let me look at the flip side of what Pat Mack just said.
00:02 And his narrative is a common one, right?
00:04 You bring in too many transfers.
00:05 Your young guys are never going to play.
00:07 And you get yourself locked up in this cycle where you're taking 15, 20
00:10 transfers every single year, and you're not, not developing everybody.
00:13 That's a common narrative out there.
00:15 But on the flip side, folks, if Miami didn't take these experience transfers,
00:20 you'd probably be a seven or eight win team when you play mostly your young guys.
00:25 Right.
00:25 As opposed to nine, 10, maybe 11 wins, which does feel attainable now.
00:30 That's not my only reason though, guys, I'm only getting started here.
00:32 So Mario Cristobal, he's brought in some great players through recruiting, but
00:37 most of the players that he's brought in, you talk about class of 2023 and class
00:40 of 2024, our freshmen, sophomores, a lot of players coming in for their first year.
00:45 So now you add players like Cam Ward, Damian Martinez, Simeon Barrow,
00:50 Sam Brown, Mish Powell, bringing in these players.
00:53 It had to be done folks.
00:54 It had to be done.
00:55 If you want to contend this season and why wouldn't you want to contend
00:59 this year when you have an opportunity to upgrade your roster like Miami just did.
01:03 Now, here's the other part of what Pat Mack was saying about not developing
01:09 your young players because they maybe wouldn't get as much playing time as
01:12 they would if you hadn't, hadn't brought in so many transfers, guys, I can
01:16 spin that in the other direction.
01:18 And people don't talk about this enough.
01:20 People hardly talk about this at all.
01:22 Getting on the field, starting games, playing, you know, 40 snaps a game.
01:27 That's not the only way for young players to develop young players
01:32 like Mark Fletcher running back.
01:34 Emery Williams and Judd Anderson at quarterback.
01:37 They can learn a lot from having Damian Martinez and Cam Ward playing in front
01:43 of them for a year and leading by example, Ahmaud Moten and Josh Horton can learn
01:47 a lot from Simeon Barrow and CJ Clark.
01:49 One of the problems that Miami's had in recent years, folks, when it
01:53 comes to development of talent.
01:55 It's not just the fact that, Oh, maybe coaches aren't doing a good enough job
01:59 teaching these players, you know, maybe they're not playing enough.
02:02 I think a big problem, this is not the only problem, but one of the problems
02:06 Miami's had in recent years is this cycle of young players, not having
02:11 strong upperclassmen with good habits to learn from that creates a cycle
02:16 where bad habits get perpetuated.
02:18 If the freshmen don't have hardworking role models to lead them by example.
02:22 And guys, the reason why I've been thinking about this a lot for the past
02:26 four or five days is when I watched that interview that Mark Fletcher did with
02:31 the Momentum podcast late last week.
02:33 And when I had a chance to speak to young Miami players, like CC Maui, Noah,
02:38 just last week, Malik Bryant, a few weeks ago, I'm reminded about this aspect
02:43 that people don't talk about Fletcher said it last week, when he found out
02:47 Damian Martinez was going to visit Miami, he texted him and said, I need you here.
02:52 Said I'm young in this game.
02:53 I want to soak up everything I can from Damian Martinez.
02:56 Stories like that are the reasons why I think it's okay for Miami to
03:02 be taking on transfers right now.
03:04 But of course, when these strong players we talk about Fletcher was a class of
03:08 2023 guy, for example, when these 2023 and 2024 players, when they get to be
03:14 juniors and seniors, that's when I feel Miami should not rely as much on the
03:18 transfer portal, hoping you have better habits and better consistency from these
03:22 players when they come of age, because guys, when you talk about taking on
03:27 transfer players, oh my gosh, Miami took on whatever it was, I think 15 transfers
03:31 is what they ended up taking on, you know, Florida state took on 17 transfers
03:36 this year and in Florida state with a transfer led team went, you know, 13 and
03:40 one, they won the ACC last year.
03:42 People assume that every transfer is a mercenary or a culture killer.
03:47 Not if you find the right players.
03:48 Now I'm not saying Miami has a perfect track record doing that.
03:52 Obviously they've missed on some transfers over the years, but if you assume that
03:56 every transfer is a culture killer, well, it's Kiko Maui Noah, was he a culture
04:01 killer, Matt Lee, JV on Cohen.
04:03 Were they culture killers?
04:05 No, they made the culture here better.