DALLAS — Success comes with challenges, and as the SMU Mustangs venture into uncharted waters, some players are feeling those challenges firsthand.
For the first time in program history, Head Coach Rhett Lashlee has led the Mustangs into the College Football Playoff. SMU entered as the 11th seed and is set to face a daunting Penn State team on Saturday at 11 a.m. in State College.
The chance to compete for a national championship sounds like a dream come true for any college athlete. However, December can be a stressful month, as players face the tough decision of whether to stay with their team for a playoff run or enter the transfer portal — all within 19 days, from Dec. 9 to Dec. 28.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Lashlee didn't hold back his opinion on the timing of the small window to transfer as he said it puts athletes in a tough spot.
"It's terrible," Lashlee said. "I feel so awful for our kids and kids around the country. We talk about making a system that is all great for them, but we haven't. I mean that's part of your job as adults is to do what's best for young people, not what they want necessarily, and they don't want this."
The third-year head coach even alluded to Penn State's backup quarterback Beau Pribula, who announced he would be entering the Transfer Portal. In his announcement, Pribula stated that the current format of the playoff and its overlapping with the Transfer Portal window forced him to make an incredibly hard decision.
"That's wrong," Lashlee expressed. "That's unacceptable. that's not okay, he shouldn't have to make that decision. Preston [Stone] here is doing the same thing now, he has chosen to stay with us and we're working with him, but it's still a juggling act for him. Oh, and let's not forget they're in finals right now. So yeah, the real easy thing is you don't have a transfer portal in December."
Lashlee said by eliminating this Transfer Portal window, you take away that tough choice athletes will have to make on whether they want to play in the team's bowl or playoff game.
Instead, the Mustangs head coach suggests the window be only in the spring as that is the end of the "scholastic year," however, he didn't specify exactly when.
"Let's call it like it is. People are bombarding our roster trying to pick people off our roster and we're trying to focus on the playoff," Lashlee said about other schools recruiting in December. "The easy answer is don't have free agency, don't have a portal window, and put kids in the position that they have to either make those decisions or be incredibly distracted by the environment."