Michigan will be searching transfer portal to bolster roster

A sizable portion of Michigan’s 2021 class signed their letters of intent on Wednesday, which marked the first day of the early signing period.

While U-M likely won’t have any other commitments the final two days of the early period, head coach Jim Harbaugh noted that the team is still looking to add on to the class.

Equally as important, Michigan will be looking to bolster their roster via the transfer portal.

There should be a sizable pool of talent to choose from with the new one-time transfer rule taking effect along with the 2020 pandemic-laden season that has led to all players receiving an extra year of eligibility.

“We’ll look for both,” Harbaugh said on Wednesday night. ”Guys like Mike Danna, guys like Jack Rudock that came in here and really added to our football team. We’ll be looking and searching there. Very much open to that. There are also players that aren’t signing in this first initial signing period that we can’t talk about right not but we are recruiting.”

While the early signing period gave a good picture of what Michigan’s roster is going to look like in 2021, a few key additions during the late signing period or on the transfer front will be necessary. Michigan already has a grad transfer headed their way for 2021 in former 6-foot-6 Louisiana Tech offensive lineman Willie Allen (this piece of news was tweeted out by Allen in October, but has yet to be formally announced). And Allen won’t be the last transfer heading to Ann Arbor.

With the football season nearing its end and the early signing period soon to be in the rear view mirror, the transfer portal is about to start getting busy. The portal should have enough talent to really aid the immediate hopes of some contending programs. However, there’s a fine line and an inexact science behind how much a team should attempt to bolster their roster via portal.

The construct is becoming a little harder to quantify due to new rules that will lead to an influx of players seeking transfers. It would seem natural, by that standard, for programs to bring more players along transfer-wise than in prior years. Recruiting high school players to come to a program out of the gate will remain paramount, but transfers have never had more of an expeditious impact to a team than they currently have. The times have changed, and so have the rules, therefore adaptation is necessary.