It might be bowl season right now, but as Tulane has found out, it’s also a time where the transfer portal looms large over the sport.
Once something that was rarely used by players because they had to sit out a year if they changed schools, the newfound ability for prospects to have unlimited transfers while not being forced to sit out for a season has made the portal operate like the Wild West.
The Green Wave has seen that first hand the past two years.
First, it was Willie Fritz taking the head coaching job at Houston that created major roster turnover, and after Jon Sumrall was able to come in and have a successful showing during his debut season, Power 4 programs swooped in to poach some of their best players.
But, things can go both ways, and Tulane was the beneficiary of their own transfer addition turning into a gamebreaker for them, something Sumrall made sure to point out when talking about star wide receiver Mario Williams.
“I’ve been so blown away by Mario from Day 1. We started our offseason program in February at 5:50 a.m., and all he did was just kick everybody’s butt every morning. He’s giving so much to the team. When he’s gotten individual accolades, he’s tried to defer the attention. When things haven’t gone maybe his way when we won a game, he’s been really positive about it. He was as crushed in the locker room (after the AAC championship game loss to Army) as anybody on our team. He’s fully bought in,” the head coach said per Guerry Smith of Nola.com.
Coming out of high school, the 5-foot-9 pass catcher was one of the most coveted players in the country. Rated as a four-star prospect, 247Sports Composite rankings listed him at No. 43 overall in the 2021 class.
Some might say he didn’t live up to that billing, having 1,316 yards receiving and 11 touchdowns on 104 receptions during the three seasons before he arrived to New Orleans, but Sumrall and the Green Wave are certainly happy to have him.
Williams is 60 yards away from reaching the 1,000-yard plateau this season, a stamp on what has been a very solid showing by him.
It could be something that put him back on the radar of NFL teams, but he’s not going to skip out on the Gasparilla Bowl to prepare for
Williams is one of Tulane’s draft eligible players who is not skipping the bowl game, and in fact, none of the players eligible are going to miss the final game of the year.
That bodes well for a Green Wave team who is looking to cap off this season by beating an SEC program in Florida who is looking to build momentum of their own.
