Baylor Kicker Connor Hawkins to Enter Transfer Portal

Really hope we can keep him. Maybe some big money donors can change his mind.

Jacques Strap said:

---

Being a middle-tier NIL budget football coach trying to put together a roster must be incredibly frustrating.

Here we are several days into the portal period, and you think you have a kicker. Then some other team makes an offer you can't afford to match and now all of a sudden you don't have a kicker.

---

Tampering is supposed to be illegal, but there are no enforceable rules to combat it. So the schools with the most money can just draw players into the portal with offers their schools can't match.

We should try to market ourselves to Dollar General

Wow, that came out of nowhere.

Not that some other program wouldn't want him, but dang, just slip out the back door at the last minute.

I guess we'll be going for more fourth downs, because we totally needed that.

Dia del DougO said:

---

Wow, that came out of nowhere.

Not that some other program wouldn't want him, but dang, just slip out the back door at the last minute.

I guess we'll be going for more fourth downs, because we totally needed that.

---

He must have an offer already.

So hate college sports these days.

Jacques Strap said:

---

Being a middle-tier NIL budget football coach trying to put together a roster must be incredibly frustrating.

Here we are several days into the portal period, and you think you have a kicker. Then some other team makes an offer you can't afford to match and now all of a sudden you don't have a kicker.

---

I know all kinds of shady stuff goes on no doubt... but other schools should not be reaching out to players on our roster if they are not officially in the portal right?

Acsteffy87 said:

---

Our 4th down attempts in the red zone are about to break some records.

---

we were already going for it nearly every time I don't think changes much but it also makes me fear that Palmer Williams may be next and that dude is a special teams WEAPON.

Mitch Blood Green said:

---

Dia del DougO said:

---

Wow, that came out of nowhere.

Not that some other program wouldn't want him, but dang, just slip out the back door at the last minute.

I guess we'll be going for more fourth downs, because we totally needed that.

---

He must have an offer already.

---

That is what it seems like. Otherwise the timing is very strange. If he has an offer that does feel like tampering.

boognish_bear said:

---

Jacques Strap said:

---

Being a middle-tier NIL budget football coach trying to put together a roster must be incredibly frustrating.

Here we are several days into the portal period, and you think you have a kicker. Then some other team makes an offer you can't afford to match and now all of a sudden you don't have a kicker.

---

I know all kinds of shady stuff goes on no doubt... but other schools should not be reaching out to players on our roster if they are not officially in the portal right?

---

That's the "rule," but no one follows it.

Schools are recruiting players off other teams' rosters in season and continue to do it through the portal deadline.

It's bull****, but it is what it is until it's fixed with a CBA and enforceable rules.

With the abundance of agents who push players into the portal (so the agent can get 15% or whatever), other schools don't need to tamper proactively. The agent calls around to shop his player, and when he finds interest then he gets his client to jump into the portal.

My two cents is that there's a bigger problem with the sports agents than with other schools affirmatively tampering.

Rhett Armstrong was highly rated out of high school. Does anyone know how he has looked in practice? Maybe Connor thought he might not win the job next season.

This reeks of somebody like Lane Kiffin.

BearlyBeloved said:

---

With the abundance of agents who push players into the portal (so the agent can get 15% or whatever), other schools don't need to tamper proactively. The agent calls around to shop his player, and when he finds interest then he gets his client to jump into the portal.

My two cents is that there's a bigger problem with the sports agents than with other schools affirmatively tampering.

---

"Agents" in college football are a major problem. There's no certification process to ensure that these folks even know what they're doing and then they take a much higher percentage than what's customary at the highest levels of professional sports.

It's really a ****show.

boognish_bear said:

---

Jacques Strap said:

---

Being a middle-tier NIL budget football coach trying to put together a roster must be incredibly frustrating.

Here we are several days into the portal period, and you think you have a kicker. Then some other team makes an offer you can't afford to match and now all of a sudden you don't have a kicker.

---

I know all kinds of shady stuff goes on no doubt... but other schools should not be reaching out to players on our roster if they are not officially in the portal right?

---

Mitch Blood Green said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

Jacques Strap said:

---

Being a middle-tier NIL budget football coach trying to put together a roster must be incredibly frustrating.

Here we are several days into the portal period, and you think you have a kicker. Then some other team makes an offer you can't afford to match and now all of a sudden you don't have a kicker.

---

I know all kinds of shady stuff goes on no doubt... but other schools should not be reaching out to players on our roster if they are not officially in the portal right?

---

---

RIP

boognish_bear said:

---

Mitch Blood Green said:

---

boognish_bear said:

---

Jacques Strap said:

---

Being a middle-tier NIL budget football coach trying to put together a roster must be incredibly frustrating.

Here we are several days into the portal period, and you think you have a kicker. Then some other team makes an offer you can't afford to match and now all of a sudden you don't have a kicker.

---

I know all kinds of shady stuff goes on no doubt... but other schools should not be reaching out to players on our roster if they are not officially in the portal right?

---

---

RIP

---

I have no doubt this is tampering. I will be shocked if come Friday, he isn't signed.

One of the better kickers in the country last year. No doubt someone offered a big payday.

Visiting Ohio State


BU farm team

DTBear said:

---

Visiting Ohio State


BU farm team

---

It's not just us. That's the lot for 90 percent of the schools in America now.

bear2be2 said:

---

DTBear said:

---

Visiting Ohio State


BU farm team

---

It's not just us. That's the lot for 90 percent of the schools in America now.

---

Yep...in this new era programs like BU are going to have to find hidden gems better than other programs and also be better at developing players than other programs if we want to compete with the better teams. We can't buy our way there.

....

boognish_bear said:

---

bear2be2 said:

---

DTBear said:

---

Visiting Ohio State


BU farm team

---

It's not just us. That's the lot for 90 percent of the schools in America now.

---

Yep...in this new era programs like BU are going to have to find hidden gems better than other programs and also be better at developing players than other programs if we want to compete with the better teams. We can't buy our way there.

---

This is exactly why I've started to warm up to Brian Newberry at Navy. I honestly think that his style is exactly what we need. Get less ambitious players on the team that will stay from year to year to build chemistry and buy into the system. it's the closest thing to the Matt Rhule strategy of teambuilding that we would be able to do in the NIL era. Navy's squad would at least be a seven or eight win team in the big 12 last year

100% on the agents! My nephew is playing mid-major bball and averaging 12/10. His agent out of New York has $500,000 NIL deals on the table for next year. He is currently getting $50,000. The agents shop the players. Reform is needed.

Rg6 said:

---

Rhett Armstrong was highly rated out of high school. Does anyone know how he has looked in practice? Maybe Connor thought he might not win the job next season.

---

Rhett was a highly ranked kicker coming out of high school. He was the #1 kicker from Colorado out of last year's recruiting class and was the 11th-ranked kicker on 247. Hopefully, he can be somewhere as good as Hawkins was, but that isn't certain... I read that Hawkins is garnering interest from Ohio State; I'm not sure how Baylor is suppossed to match offers from a blue blood program like that. Dave going for it on 4th down as much as he did while being in FG range could've certainly helped Hawkins' decision.

Cool, so I guess Rhett has a huge payday to look forward to next year from some other program.

I think it's been proven that the grass isn't always greener for those who xfer for higher NIL. But this doesn't apply to kickers. Kickers don't need a good system, a nice fit, or even wins to advance their careers. They just need to knock down kicks.

Under the current conditions, makes all the sense in the world for these guys especially to just go to the highest bidder.

Is it me, or are we losing way more in the portal than we're getting in return?

Didn't he sign with Ohio State?

Tempus Edax Rerum said:

---

Didn't he sign with Ohio State?

---

According to SI, yes

https://www.si.com/college/ohiostate/news/new-ohio-state-kicker-connor-hawkins-is-the-missing-piece-for-the-buckeyes-01kf19ae8qta