The UAB Blazers look to bounce back in 2023 from a 7-6 record last season, and they’ll do so under first-year head coach Trent Dilfer.
The former NFL QB and ESPN analyst also has other things on his mind and seems like a man who is willing and ready to expose dirty coaches.
Dilfer thinks Power-5 schools coming in and luring players in with big-money offers need to have a huge punishment.
“There has got to be a mechanism in place, where the player personnel director of said school will never work in college football again if he coerces somebody from another team [into the portal with NIL promises] and it is proven,” Dilfer said, in a recent conversation with On3.com. “We have evidence.”
Dilfer refused to call out the school(s) in question publicly, but he will “call them individually. I have and will continue to.”
“Coercing players into the portal who had no desire to go into the portal,” Dilfer continued. “They are in my office in tears. ‘I don’t want to leave, but my dad is being told by the collective or by my high school coach, or by the frickin’ player director at [P5 school], that I can make way more money with them than with [UAB].’ He’s crying. He doesn’t want to leave. It is tampering.”
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The world of college football is different since the institution of the NIL.
According to Axios, at least 8,699 college football players entered the portal between Aug. 1, 2022, and May 1, 2023, which was more than last year’s record of 8,242.
Like coaches, players are on the move for better opportunities and bigger paydays. Dilfer may not like it, but if players see a big money opportunity that could change their life or family life, they are likely to take it.
It’s a nasty game with NIL, but everybody has to get used to the way things will be from now on.
