1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - High School Recruits OR Transfer Portal?: November 19th, 11:25am

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

High School Recruits OR Transfer Portal?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome back one-on-one, sitting here with Bach. I'm trying to go through. And I posed this question to him about, you know, how you would build programs. The Texan, you can tell me which room you would go to. But here's the question. Here's what I'm posing. That you become the head coach of your favorite basketball program or football program. And you get to choose your players.

there's two rooms. There's two gyms. In one gym, there are high school seniors of various talent levels, growth, maturity, et cetera. In the other room, there are college sophomores and junior. So you're going to have at least two years with them. Which room do you go into to get your players? You can only go in one. Bach, kind sir. The fighting, bachovans from bach university and you've got to build them and you're the new coach so there's some pressure right there's some pressure you can't just come in and coast you got to get it done box which room do which gym do you go into are you going into the the high school senior gym room or are you going into the college freshman sophomore junior room I would probably

especially with the pressure, you know, going young, right? Teams can do that and sell the future, so that could be, you know, a strategy. But I would go into the transfer portal room at this, at this time. And that's where a lot of coaches are doing. There's a lot less guesswork of how is this going to translate. Now, it still doesn't quite translate the way you might expect it. Trevor Pena, Penn Statewide receiver we saw transfer in. In fact, they had two of them.

Trevor Pena had close to 1,000 yards. They got another 1,000 yard receiver. Both of them are at, you know, just under 400 now. So you don't know necessarily how it's going to translate, but you have a better idea, I think, when you got filmed against legitimate college competition. So, I mean, I would lean into the transfer portal in the modern era. Yeah, it's fascinating.

And it ultimately ends, I think, in fairness, it ultimately ends up where you have to go in both rooms. You have to go in both rooms to get different. Sometimes it's a new work ethic. Sometimes it's a new technique or new skill. Sometimes it's a different body. for Nebraska football if you said going into the room

in the receiver room you could go to Isaiah Hunter or Jacori Barney you're not wrong with either you just get different things from either and that's the recruiting process and then also understanding that what you're going to recruit next

literally depends on the success of which room you went into this year because if you get it wrong this year hey bach if you spend all of your time in the high school senior room and you don't win guess what happens next year you go in the transfer portal room you're not going back in the high school you're not going back in the high school gym you're not going to recruit that guy you're going to as a matter of fact In the first scrimmage, you get them all in the gym.

You know who you're going to give the ball to? The returning guy. You're going to the older guy. You're not going to have a high school senior come in and set the pace and the energy of the road. If you're running a drill of how you want things run, spots on the floor of Bach where you want threes to be taken and not taken, who are you giving the ball to?

You're returning. play. And I think we miss all that. Like we miss the particulars. I'm, I have to admit, I'm fully impressed by this group across the board of Husker head coaches in the programs, who all have kind of identified what their style is. Case in point Fred Hoyberg. that three years ago, I'm not sure he could or was able to recruit the kind of player he needed to win in the Big Ten. Is that fair? Is that a fair statement?

Well, yeah, I mean, especially given the results, you sold for three years. Right. Right. So then what he did was pivoted. Or at least in my mind, he pivoted. Would you say, that he got smarter about who he brought into the program or was he getting better talent into the program?

I would say that he got he got smart about who he's bringing to the program. Now, I don't want to Bryce Williams looked pretty good in the G league the other day. So, I mean, there's some talent in there as well, but I think for the most part. Well, Bryce McGowan's on the big roster for the Pelican. Well, right.

Delano Banton was NBA player that was on the bench by the time he was leaving Nebraska. So, I mean, Remember that conversation, Brock? Wild. Remember the conversation you and I had about Delano Bant? And I kept telling you that he was going to be an NBA veteran. And everybody looked at me like, bro, he's, he's coming off the bench in Nebraska.

And I went, I'm just letting you know what NBA do is like. I'm just letting you, I'm just telling you he's a unicorn. And NBA people will fall in love with the 6-9 ball handler. They'll figure out the rest of it. Like, hey, Delano, don't shoot. Well, until you prove that you can shoot. and he worked on. So.

But to that point, I mean, you had Delano Bent and you had Bryce McGowan's and you weren't winning. You had Trey, Trey, who just signed with the Spurs. Yeah. Like you, Derek Walker, who was his team's, his league's MVP over overseas. Like, there's some, yeah, there's some. And, and, Bach, can you do it? Can somebody do be a check on Sam Griesel? I can look it up here.

Yeah, we need to find. at where he is and what he's doing. I'm sure. I was told at some point I thought he was like an actor. Yeah, he did. He got to be movies or something. And there's that. But I think it's fair.

So for football and what happens in the, because we're now at the point. Two weeks left. Two games left. Before bowl season. And Bach, this is where the emails and the phone calls start to happen. This is where all of the disgruntled daters start to build their dating profiles for who they're going to be around next year, including some coaches.

The results of the next two weeks will dictate, one, because it'll tell you who's going to stay, who's going to transfer, who's looking for people, what coaches are going to be where they are. because if Bach, the player is going to stay at a school and move, he wants to know who his coach is going to do. If you're a coach and you're going to take over a program, you need to know who your players are. You got to know what's in the cupboard. Because no coach wants to come in and have to totally clear the cupboard and make it build everything from scratch again.

And what happens in bowl season, Bach? What happens with players in bowl season? A lot of them sit out. And why are they sitting out? Well, there's a few that will grow in pro, but a lot of them are making plans, moving around. At some point, can we track this year, and I'm sure there's a text or somebody that will help us with that. Can we track this year the people who sit out bowl games and whether they play in the NFL the next year? Right, because there are a lot of guys who set out.

I can't imagine that all of them were first-round draft base. right right i mean a few of them again are we're kind of headed to the transfer portal but that's this year hopefully will be after both seasons that's kind of the idea behind moving the transfer portal i don't know if it's going to work i really that was my thought was i don't know if this year will be different if you're you think you're a a p4 star but you just have a bad relationship with you. Do you play in the bowl game for resume and for tape, or do you sit out because you're afraid

that he could do damage to your reputation in the name? It's a tough decision now. I mean, I talked to you about this the other day. I would love to, I love for bowl games to have the meaning that they used to, but it's kind of a glorified exhibition preview for the next season. Or, you know, sometimes we saw Ramir Johnson, kind of a nice send-off, but it just feels disconnected from the team,

again, because like the Boston College team, Nebraska played last year, the two best players sat out. So what did you do? What was that? I'm old enough that I have full, still have romantic interest in bowl games. Right?

Just because it, one, it's a game. Like, it's still a college. football game and it's still a college football game of the top half or the top third of teams in the country right bowl games are top third is is is is that fair like some of them some of them are 500 teams playing each other but well but are there are there are there nine win teams that don't go to a bowl not unless they turn it down generally not eight win teams who go to a bowl basically anything above six sometimes you get five win teams into bowl games right so that so if we said maybe the problem with lower tier bowl games is that there are too many of the lower third in these bowl games right

but you've now given value to more of these bowl games because they're playoff games. I think ultimately that's where it's going to end up. They currently have it where the first round is on site. I think what happens is the next four or six tier bowls, the ones that aren't sugar rolls, you know, et cetera, orange. that the next four are going to petition to host those playoff game, those first round playoff game.

Because they're in the money business, right? They're fully sponsored. If you're at, let's look at the list of teams that would currently host if the season ended today, these would be the matchups. Norman, Oklahoma, South Bend, Indiana. Are those games fully sponsored? Are those the best game presentations for college playoff?

I mean, I think so. I like the on-site bowl games myself. So, or the playoff game, excuse me. So let's dream and say that, okay, Nebraska hosts a first round playoff game in December at Memorial Stadium. uh good weather not likely good playing conditions not likely but if you invite an cc team down in thank god because we've had to go play in the orange bowl all these years and they're playing conditions u sd's a prime example of a team that generally is uh you know they beat iwas so i'm not

but going into that game right that was the kind of the conversation is they they like it sunny But that was the purpose, the point behind, it was, it was, it was a gift for a great season. You have to make it a gift for a great season. I mean, it's not the NFL where, you know, back in the day, you know, if you were the Washington Redskins and you finish second, you know, division or you finished behind the Minnesota Vikings, you got, congratulations, you get to go to the old outdoor stadium. and play in six degrees. Or, hey, you get to go to Lambeau Field and play in sub-zero temperature. For ball games, the beauty of it was that you were going to go

to some really nice weathered place. Like Super Bowls have figured it out. Super Bowl said, you know, no, we're not going to do cold weather. We're, we want people to go to where it's sunny or it's an indoor state. and the game is better because it's under controlled climate. Depending on the viewer, yeah. I personally, again, Nebraska fans for years would have liked to invite Florida State, Miami,

up to Nebraska for a bowl game or to a cold weather region to play more what Nebraska has to do at the end of the big eight season against Oklahoma, Colorado's like that, rather than to play in the conditions that Miami gets to play. If you said Nebraska could host a first round playoff game here at Memorial Stadium in December, or they could go to Miami or Pasadena or Vegas and play under climate control as a higher seed, what would you prefer?

Well, again, I think you're talking about different ideas from the old Nebraska based on physicality versus what we see with this Nebraska team, which I, you know, I don't, I'm not done playing what they've done. They've got some physicality themselves. They're just not built on that like Nebraska was back in the day. So I think currently, I think this team would probably be better off in better conditions. but, I mean, they are, you know, pretty good run team on offense,

but I guess the fear right now is the run game defense. So, you know, I don't think they need to help for the past defense. You're going to go to a bowl game, Pennstrike Bowl or Vegas Bowl. Where are you going? Yeah. I hate New York. Yeah.

I hate the Yankees in particular. Right? That there are bowl games that are in really bad climate. But I like those. You don't like the one bowl games. game that's got, you know, a couple of bowl games that have snow in it or extreme weather? Those are particularly

my favorite. I want to watch it. I don't want to go to. I don't want to go to it. I love Mac action now where it starts to snow and you got to watch that stuff. I love watching when the NFL gets its first snow in Buffalo, right?

Hey, do your thing. Is it, or Lambeau field. Do I want to go? No. No. There's year right no no that's for younger people younger people might still want to go right and i know i know that there are people texas absurd any team would want to play at home uh we've talked to some former huskers who love the idea going to even if it was to face miami they love the idea of going to miami in january playing a playing a championship game

at Memorial Stadium? You think anybody else around the country would prefer that? To play at their home? To play in a cold stadium rather than a sun stadium. Again, I think if it's their home stadium. We do see that in the NFL, like a Buffalo. You know, those playoff games,

you're used to playing in Green Bay for years, right? Packers fans love it, right? I mean, Harrison and I spent two hours talking about the ice bowl. There are people that loved it. There are people, listen. Bowl games, I thought the idea, The beauty of it was the climate aspect for visitors.

Those are travel games. The game itself, the game within the game, is priority. But if you're going to have a bowl game where you're inviting people to it, I know that sponsors and fans prefer good climate weather. That's what they determine with all the marketing for Super Bowl. That's why Super Bowls are held. The biggest game of the year are held in climate control space. that's just that's take that for what it is so we'll go to break uh huskers in in at state college

Bach I'll get your take on what you think the focus is going to be what do you think the priorities are going to be the things of need as the hustlers go to Penn State we'll be download our app by searching 93.7 the ticket in your app store you're listening to one-on-one with DP on 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com Thank you.