Have signed two rightside and two leftside Def. Ends AND will be signing three more LB's that are May graduate transfers. No names but they are looking at some good ones. Coaches tell me that most of the the teams in the league lost key players as well as us [so did Idaho by the way - our week three opponent - their QB among others]. Players want to come to UA becasue of last year's successes.
With those two back you have something almost no matter what. However a freshman that averaged 3 points a game (even though could very much improve) does very very little to move the needle for Thomas and Marshall. Would need to bring in high level senior talent for a shot to have them come back.
There are so many kids in the portal everywhere, it is absolutely not sustainable. 40% of players in the MVC are in the portal for example.
Transfer Portal
There will be so many kids without a degree, it's not even funny. Honestly, it is not college sports anymore. The amount of students who benefit from this massive 4 year upheaval is minute. The ones that suffer, long term, is a rather large group.