Florida Atlantic head coach praises team’s depth after adding numerous walk-on transfers

BOCA RATON — Florida Atlantic head coach Lane Kiffin didn’t spend his summer vacation trying to mend his broken relationship with his sworn enemy, college football’s transfer portal.

The parties instead seemed to have reached a mutual understanding: Kiffin still sees the portal as "sexy" and problematic, especially for players who transfer without considering the consequences, but he’s found a way to make the system work.

"You got a lot of kids that went in it thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna have all these places to go’ and they got nowhere to go," Kiffin said Tuesday. "So they’re either not playing or they’re walking on, which we took advantage with a number of kids that went in from other places … and weren’t able to find scholarships, so we stayed on top of those guys and were able to get some of those guys to walk on."

FAU opened camp Friday with multiple players who spent last year at other FBS schools. Several of those players are underclassmen who walked on.

Former USF wide receiver/safety Deangelo Antoine joined the Owls as a graduate transfer and is already seeing first-team snaps at outside receiver.

"FAU spoke to me when I came to watch the spring game," said Antoine, who caught 25 passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns at USF the last three years. "I enjoyed watching the spring game and I wanted to play for Lane Kiffin. When I met the guys, they welcomed me with open arms.

"I wanted to stay in Florida, so I chose FAU."

Some of the walk-ons, like ex-Alabama wide receiver Chris Herring and Charlotte linebacker John Francois, have ties to FAU’s current coaching staff. Herring joined the Crimson Tide in 2016 when Kiffin was the team’s offensive coordinator. First-year FAU defensive coordinator Glenn Spencer held the same role at Charlotte last year.

Others were familiar with the area. Rahsaan Lewis came from UCF and his father, NFL Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, has a home in Boca. Former Toledo cornerback Keelen Roberts is from Miami Gardens.

Then, there’s ex-Southern Methodist wide receiver Jordan Brooks-Wess, who transferred to a junior college this offseason and worked out an FAU prospect camp in June. Brooks-Wess impressed coaches enough to where they offered him a roster spot; he is currently waiting to see if the NCAA will award him immediate eligibility for the 2019 season.

Those non-scholarship additions, along with a recruiting class 247 Sports called the best in Conference USA, has Kiffin confident about his team’s depth.

"I don’t think we’re as strong in the top of our roster as we have been the past two years," Kiffin said, "but I think we may be stronger at the back of the roster with a lot of quality walk-ons that we went out and found, transfers and things."

The portal actually has an unintended advantage for teams looking to add depth. Because the NCAA only allows a school to sign 25 players in each class to avoid roster manipulation, programs can prioritize high school players in their signing class and focus on adding transfers before fall camp.

Kiffin acknowledged that was his plan with the 2019 signing class, when FAU only signed three junior college players: wide receiver Adrian Bryant, offensive lineman Lavante Epson and linebacker Caliph Brice. Bryant left school before spring camp opened in March and Epson entered the transfer portal in June.

Kiffin’s biggest problem isn’t so much with the portal as it is the NCAA’s refusal to provide teams with more scholarships if they lose players to the portal. Kiffin estimated the Owls have 75 players on scholarship, 10 below the NCAA’s max of 85.

"I think that it’s not good for college football because everything has been let’s find a way to play more players, give them the four games and they can still redshirt as freshmen so that guys aren’t playing as much, guys aren’t getting injured as much, player safety is better," Kiffin said.

"But now, everyone’s rosters are down, so really, it’s not really working," Kiffin added.

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