Wyoming’s refreshing pitch to transfer players is a rare moment of honesty in college football

Craig Bohl just telling it like it is

Someday very soon, statements like the one released by Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl on Friday won’t seem noteworthy. Just another press release in a long of line them throughout the college football offseason and into the spring.

We’re just not there yet. Which is what makes Bohl’s straightforward and honest assessment of where his program is following National Signing Day so eye-catching. The Cowboys coach plainly stated that his program did not have an adequate quarterback on the roster, that he’s actively looking for one in the transfer portal and, with NIL endorsements in play, joining Wyoming will help earn money for whomever does join the program.

The Cowboys went 7-6 this season, earned a 52-38 victory over Kent State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl and have the eighth-best 2022 recruiting class in the Mountain West (per 247Sports). By no means is this a program without momentum, but adding a more-talented QB to the roster would certainly move things along at a faster pace.

That’s exactly what happened when Bohl convinced Josh Allen to transfer to Wyoming from JUCO in 2015. After earning just six wins combined in his first two seasons with the Cowboys, Bohl and Allen lifted the team to an 8-6 record and first-place conference finish in Year 3. The recipe for success at Wyoming was made clear then. NIL and new transfer rules have made it more accessible.

Recruit where you can, whenever you can, however you can.

It took Bohl barely 100 words to say what most programs in the sport refuse to—or in Dabo Swinney’s case, actively rage against: the bare truth about the transactional relationship that’s always existed in college sports.

Propped up next to an image of Josh Allen in his Buffalo Bills uniform (so no one ever forgets Bohl’s credentials), the coach’s words present a simple free agency pitch. As much as luminaries like Swinney want to convince their peers this is bad, it’s hard to see NIL in this instance as anything but leveling the playing field.

Want a chance to leave your school and start at quarterback for a Group of 5 program? Wyoming wants to hear from you and will even help make it lucrative.

See, wasn’t that easy?

One day more coaches will feel comfortable spelling out the same message.