Feb. 10-16

Life comes at you fast, and sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of life, seismic things happen that don’t get the attention they deserve. With that in mind, let’s recap the last 60 days in the college and pro football world. 

• Perhaps the greatest college football coach ever, Nick Saban, retired, surprising many. This prompted several top Alabama players to enter the transfer portal.
• Several college head coaches left to become assistants elsewhere, with two of them leaving Power 5 programs. One of them, Georgia State’s Shawn Elliott, left right in the middle of spring practices.
• Two major schools sued the NCAA in an effort to simplify and expedite the transfer portal process.
• The two most powerful college football conferences, the SEC and Big Ten, decided to meet to hash out some of the biggest problems facing college football. They didn’t invite the NCAA.

Any one of these developments would create big headlines for weeks in a normal news cycle, but who knows what a normal news cycle even looks like anymore? Instead, while fans and football business professionals were reeling from each development, some other explosion took place. With so much happening, how is it even possible to make sense of it? 

We don’t know. But we’re going to try to help members of the college and pro football business endure it, and even profit from it, with the second annual 2024 Vestible ITL Symposium, which is set for Thursday, Feb. 29, at 9 a.m. ET. It comes on the heels of last year’s summit, in which we invited top agencies and NIL collectives in to discuss the realities of the modern game and help everyone communicate, learn and network. It was a smashing success, and our hopes are that this year’s event will be even bigger. 

This year, our guest speaker will be Oscar Monnier. Oscar is a veteran of the transfer portal, having headed the recruiting of players and administration of the portal at five Power 5 schools: Northwestern, Oregon, Stanford, Duke and Texas A&M. Oscar left the Aggies last month to help agencies develop their respective college football practices. 

ITL’s Neil Stratton will interview Monnier in Room 103 of the Indiana Convention Center on Thursday, Feb. 29, from 9-10:30 a.m. He’ll also take questions from the crowd, which last year included members of several top agencies as well as search firms, coaching agencies, NIL companies and collectives. We expect the same crowd to join us again this year. As was the case in 2023, this event will not be recorded and will be restricted solely to members of the industry in an effort to promote transparency and candor. Cost is $100 per attendee or $400 per agency, with a limit of eight agency members. Register here; billing will take place next week. 

Our goal is to present a full picture of the portal from the major college side, giving people in player representation insights they might not otherwise receive. Monnier will address the following topics:

• The “real” state of NIL: How identification, acquisition and retention work. The true schedule for making contact. Where money is coming from, who is running it, etc. 
• The new faces: How people new to the process (i.e., non-NFLPA certified representatives) are not just monetizing, but dominating, the space. 
• The vagaries of the market: How to understand how and why players get offers and how to maximize your client’s marketability. 
• The player pipeline/timeline: The urgency of making contact early, from the college as well as the agent point of view, and what to look for.
• Initiating, maintaining, and strengthening relationships with players: Not only how to play offense, but how to play defense, and the techniques schools use to break the bonds between players and their representatives. 
• How to deal with schools and coaches: There are definite best practices when it comes to working with schools, whether you’re an agent making an inquiry or a player on an official visit. 

He will also field questions from the audience following his interview with Stratton.

All too often, we’ve seen established NFL agencies dismiss the portal as a nuisance, a fad that will soon pass. We see this as an immense opportunity lost, and our goal is to help our audience not only see the potential of this relatively new space, but how to capitalize on it. If you’re in Indianapolis in less than two weeks, we hope you’ll seriously consider joining us for straight talk and networking.

Make sure to register today. We must, unfortunately, limit our audience to the room capacity, so don’t delay in signing up. Your registration is not binding, but helps us to prepare. We hope to see you there. 

By the way, if you’re in Indianapolis and want to help us celebrate the scouting industry, join us Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 6:30 p.m. ET in Room 125 of the Indiana Convention Center. It’s the 2024 USI Insurance ITL Combine Seminar Presented by The Tatnuck Group, our 15^th annual event, and we’ll hand out dozens of awards to members of the NFL scouting community as voted on by their peers, active NFL evaluators across the league. It’s completely free, and open bar starts at 6 p.m. 

Now let’s take a look at what else was happening in the business of college and pro football this week.

This week in football: Here are a few things that made news this week.

• Wilks out: In the wake of San Francisco’s Super Bowl loss last week, defensive coordinator Steve Wilks was surprisingly shown the door. This story in The Athletic paints a complicated picture and the reality that this parting of ways was probably in the works regardless of the Super Bowl’s outcome. Wilks, who has acquitted himself well at various stops (some as head coach), will likely find a new home soon. 
• Foster in: When head coach Chip Kelly bolted for Columbus, UCLA was left with a dilemma: how do we find his replacement so late in the new year, and how do we head off potential transfers? Athletic Director Martin Jarmond sought to answer both questions by elevating from within, promoting former Bruins great DeShaun Foster to the job from his former post as running backs coach. 
• No S2 for A1: Today, The Athletic’s Kalyn Kahler broke the news that Irvine, Calif.-based Athletes First has instructed teams that its clients – including Alabama DE Dallas Turner, LSU WO Brian Thomas, Iowa DC Cooper DeJean and many others – will not submit to S2 testing after the results of Ohio State QB C.J. Stroud were leaked last year. It’s a major development given the volume of top prospects represented by the agency, and, if it persists, may result in the league seeking alternative methods of measuring processing aptitude. 

Presenting our partners: As excited as we are about what’s ahead in Indianapolis at the end of the month, none of it would be possible without the help of USI Insurance Services, the Tatnuck Group and Vestible. They are more than just companies doing business in this space. They are each helping people and teams succeed in the football world. We like to think we’re doing the same thing. Make sure you check out each of them in this week’s post at Succeed in Football, in which we give you a brief rundown of each service. We think they are a valuable part of the football business landscape, and we think you will, too. 

Scouting Changes Grid: There were a handful of front office moves this week.

• Panthers Senior Director of Football Strategy and Analytics Taylor Rajack has moved on.
• Seattle GM John Schneider got a new title.
• Lance Newmark is headed to Washington from Detroit, fresh off the Lions’ success in the ’23 draft.
• The Commanders otherwise refashioned their front office in the wake of hiring new GM Adam Peters.
• Titans capologist John Streicher moved to the Rams.

There were also a number of moves at lower levels of NFL front offices that we recounted in our Wednesdayand Thursday reports. Catch up with all the moves in scouting so far on our big board.

Coaches coming and going: As we’ve already mentioned, Georgia State has a new vacancy at the head coaching position, while UCLA filled theirs this week. Hard to believe it’s almost March and teams are still filling vacancies. So far, there have been 30 new coaches hired this offseason, about a 33 percent jump over most offseasons (and that’s not even counting the elevation of David Braun from interim to full-time head coach at Northwestern). It’s made for booming business for firms like Parker Executive Search (eight engagements) and TurnkeyZRG (six engagements). In fact, 19 of the 30 openings have been filled with search firm assistance. Keep up with who’s doing what and who’s representing whom on our College Coaching Changes Grid here. 

The Patriot mystique: What made New England a dynasty in the early days of the 21^st century? Belichick? Brady? Yes, but there’s more to it. This week, in the Scouting the League podcast, Rodrik David of Right Step Advising and ITL’s Neil Stratton hosted former Patriots running back James White, who had a front-row seat to the team’s success during his eight years in Foxboro, which produced three championships. David discusses how White’s Patriots broke his heart in Super Bowl LI and also queries the former rusher on what separated his former franchise from the rest. The trio also chop it up on the NFL’s head coach and front office hiring cycle, review the Super Bowl, and more. Make sure to listen in. While you’re at it, check out White’s personal pod, the Money Down Podcast, or catch him on SiriusXM’s The Opening Drive Wednesday mornings from 7-9 a.m. ET, Channel 88. 

Catching Up: Kevin Colbert, 67, spent 38 years in player evaluation, starting out in 1984 with BLESTO before joining the Dolphins (five years), Lions (10 years) and, finally, the Steelers for 22 years before he retired after the 2022 draft. We caught up with him this week.

• Where are you living and what are you doing now?: “We’re living back in Pittsburgh. I’m originally from Pittsburgh, so coming back and working with the Steelers (after leaving Detroit) . . . that’s where we’re set up. I still work for the Steelers. I don’t really have an official title, but I work with our alumni and we have a program called Lend a Hand. That program is designed to help alumni transition into life after football. I’ve been doing that since I retired after the ‘22 draft.” 

• Do you miss the job? What do you miss most?:  “You know, really, the last few years, the travel got to be a chore. It was during the pandemic, and it wasn’t unique to just people in scouting. Travel anywhere was tough. What I do miss is the ability to go to a college campus and sit down and watch film and talk to coaches or go to a college game or practice, and that interaction on college campuses is what I miss the most.” 

• Do you keep in touch with any of your former colleagues?: “You know what? Funny you should ask. I still, obviously, am with the Steelers, so I’m still a part of it, though I don’t do any football. I still go to a practice a week, so I interact with the team, and I make myself available to coach (Mike) Tomlin or (GM) Omar (Khan) if they have anything they want to talk about, and I stay in touch with our alumni because that’s my job. I am still on the (NFL) Combine board, so I still have interactions, but we’re also talking about a way to communicate with some of the retirees in the scouting world, and that’s something I’m trying to work on.”

• Do you go to any live games (HS/college/pro)?: “I still go to Steelers home games. Usually if I’m in the area on a Friday night, it’s not unusual for me and my wife and grandkids to attend a high school game, because football has always been a big part of our lives. I haven’t attended many college games. I wanted to make a Pittsburgh game or an Ohio State game or a Penn State game, but I never got around to getting there because usually there’s a grandkid activity that keeps me from doing that.” 

• Are there any players you love to watch and/or feel close to due to your work in the game?: "Obviously, the players that we selected for the Steelers, obviously, I want them to succeed. I’m still part of the organization, so I want success from that group. There are so many guys playing that we did evaluations on, and you’re always looking for feedback on whether you were correct on those evaluations. There’s just so many out there that I couldn’t say one or the other, and it’s hard because it changes quick. Being out of it two years, there’s a whole new group I’m not aware of. Some I evaluated as underclassmen, but you always find yourself during a game trying to find out who that guy is, because he just made a good play and I don’t remember him.” 

Review the latest from other former NFL scouts and executives by accessing our Catching Up archive here. Want to hear from a former scout, or know someone who may be interested in being interviewed? Let us know.

Hitting the books: This week, we kicked off our NFLPA exam prep Zoom series with our guest instructor, Ian Greengross. Dozens of prospective NFL agents sat in as Ian covered the following topics:

• Given a signing bonus and Year 4 cap number, calculate rookie salary (this is a question that tripped up a lot of people in the 2022 exam, and we expect the NFLPA to bring it back for 2024)
• Calculation of problems re: June 1 rule, a key concept that's always part of the exam
• Calculation of agent fees, including split between two agents after one has been terminated. This is another key "math" topic the NFLPA likes to include on the exam
• Introduction of accrued seasons, seasons credited for salary, and seasons credited for benefits

Missed it, but still want the video? We got your back. For $35 plus tax, we’ll put the link in your hands ASAP. Want more? Our next session is tentatively set for Thursday, March 21, at 9:30 p.m. ET. See you there.

Next week: Indianapolis is just around the corner, and we’ve still got a lot of work to do before it’s wheels-up for Indy. We’ve got lots of content still on the way, too. Here’s what’s ahead this week. 

• We’re looking at passing along the Agent Changes for November to December early next week and the same for December to January sometime afterwards. We’re still working our way back. We’ll get there.
• Once again, we’ll prioritize our NFL head coaches and agents grid. Maybe we’ll finally get it done. Thanks for your patience.
• We’re no longer making promises on our college coaches and agents grid, for obvious reasons. In the meantime, we’ll keep updating our College Coaching Changes board.
• Same goes for our Scouting Changes Grid. It’s already been a busy offseason in scouting, but there’s no slowing down now. 
• We introduced the 2024 Combine Grid this week, but we’re still collecting training locations for many of the invitees. We’ll hammer away at that this week. 
• Same is true for the 2024 Signings Grid. We’ll stay at it.
• For our Catching Up feature, we’ll talk to former Jags scout (and NFL kick returner extraordinaire) David Allen.
• Rep Rumblings should be busy this week with the UFL opening camp plus all the usual developments of a busy offseason. 
• Our focus will be on our programs at the NFL Combine this year in our Succeed in Football blog. 
• For the Scouting the League podcast, we’ll be joined by transfer portal specialist Oscar Monnier, who’ll give a preview of his presentation in Indy. Check in on all the shows so far here.

Is that all? Maybe. Maybe not. We’ve got all the football news fit to print at Inside the League. Check us out if you’re not already part of the family.