By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Every year lately, college coaches come to the Macon Touchdown Club and have to address the latest changes in the landscape of college football.

It can’t stabilize in the least for very long

But Georgia Southern’s Clay Helton does see one nugget of progress that will help teams on all levels, some more than others: one transfer portal.

College football players now have one window, Jan. 2-16, to make their move, unless their team has a coaching change.

It’s quite an improvement from when a player might go through spring practice more to bolster his resume than help his team, and then leave shortly after that.

“It needed to be one, and it needed to be a window that was after after the bowl games,” Helton said Monday night in his fourth visit to the Touchdown Club. “Even our league in the Sun Belt, when the Sun Belt champion, Marshall, can't go to a bowl game because they don't have enough players after after a coach going to another school and those players leaving, that is an issue.”

Helton thinks it works for all involved, although some coaches – those more likely to go deep in the FBS playoff – have grumbled about the schedule.

“The NCAA saw that and said, ‘Hey, we have to do right by the student-athletes, but we also have to do right by the sport,’” Helton said. “By pushing it past the bowl games, allowing the bowl games to still happen, to get it to where you're at the end of the playoffs was extremely important.

“It was really hard last year having the two windows.”

Helton foresees more programs re-establishing the high school recruiting path, a philosophy he’s following at Georgia Southern.

“I'm thankful we only lost four guys to the transfer portal last December, because of recruiting high school players, especially from the state of Georgia because they wanted to go to Georgia Southern,” Helton said. “My brother's at Western Kentucky. He's in a different situation…. He lost 51 guys last year. He lost 49 the year before.”

Helton hopes the stability he seeks starts paying off more.

“We're actually getting better players from the high school levels,” he said. “My three years here, we have signed 81 high school football players, 59 of them from the state great state of Georgia.”

While the power 4s don’t have the money of the group of five programs, Helton knows that any help for many kids is huge.

“Is it anywhere near the power 4 numbers?,” he said. “No. But it may it may help a kid be able to get a little money back home to help his family. A lot of kids don't come from a lot, and the kid that gets maybe an extra 500 bucks a month or extra thousand bucks a month, man, it goes a long way to be in there and help them and help their families.”

No coaches are ignoring or dismissing the portal, even if they dislike unlimited transfers, a change from not long ago. But Helton’s use is more on need than building. He lost a defensive standout to Nebraska last year.

“All of a sudden you got four rookies that are standing beside you,” he said. “You probably need to go out and get a one-year young man to be able to help you out.”

Something so simple as one portal and an approved window may eventually slow down the coaching carousel that has gone crazy in recent weeks, crazy in number and impatience and buyouts.

“Think of Clark Lea and his story at Vanderbilt,” Helton said. “2-10 in year one, 5-7 in year two, just missed the bowl game. Year three, 2-10, not doing great.

“University says, ‘You know what? Let's invest in the program like it needs to be." And you look at the next two years: 7-6 and now 7-1. Probably as good a college story there is.”

Helton hopes to become a good story at Georgia Southern. His seat has been warming up during this 3-5 season in which the Eagles aren’t competing for the East Division title in the Sun Belt, three games behind James Madison.

All four remaining opponents are ahead of Georgia Southern in the standings, three with winning records and one at 4-4.

“Last year in October, we squeaked out two wins,” Helton said. “This year, we just lost those two in October, and we’re fighting for our fourth bowl trip in a row at Georgia Southern, which would be the first time in the history of the university.”

That means a 3-1 finish to reach six wins, the minimum needed for a bowl, unless not enough teams win six games. If the Eagles follow this off week with a win, though …

“We get to go play Appalachian State,” Helton said of the Eagles’ long-time rival. “It’s ‘Hate Week’ for us.”