Iowa State football recruiters getting a do-over on near-misses as transfers tick up
AMES – There's a feature of coaches’ pursuits that Dimitri Stanley found to be consistent when he was a prep player and later a Power 5 transfer.
“A lot of the time through the recruiting process,” Stanley said, “you get fed a lot of bullcrap.”
Given that propensity, the tools to move that manure – flattery, over-promises and downright deception – are paramount for players trying to navigate that messy landscape.
In the fast-paced, high-stakes world created by the transfer portal in college football, an increasingly important shovel has become the pre-existing relationships between players and coaching staffs that previously recruited them.
That was certainly the case for Stanley as he made his way from Colorado to Iowa State and coach Matt Campbell.
“Being that veteran and being able to weed out the right from wrong in that scenario and already having an idea of who coach Campbell was,” Stanley said, “that made the decision a lot easier just from what I was being told and what I was believing.”
With players now able to move from one program to another without the penalty of a sit-out season along with the allure of potential name, image and likeness dollars, the transfer portal has become a progressively busier and important place for programs to mine.
“I think there will be a lot to be written about over the course of the next 10 years,” Campbell said Tuesday ahead of his team’s home matchup with West Virginia (2:30 p.m.; ESPN+). “That whole philosophical shift makes a major play in college athletics and especially in the world of football now.”
Both Stanley and defensive end MJ Anderson were Iowa State prep recruiting targets turned transfer wins who are now standouts for the struggling Cyclones (3-5, 0-5).
“I’d already had a relationship with (defensive line) coach (Eli) Rasheed and coach Campbell,” Anderson said, “and being able to know that I had people I knew at a sustainable place and somebody that’s been there a long time and I was going to go to a secure environment.
“That’s the hardest thing – going into the portal and knowing the coach can be gone the next year and you just left a school and it’s unfortunate. That’s what pushed me to come here.”
Speed is often of the essence both for transfers and those courting them. With seasons often ending not long before the start of the second semester – and the strength and conditioning programs and spring practices that come with them – there's not a lot of time for transfers to find their new homes.
The multi-year recruiting process that many players underwent as prep players is compressed into weeks.
“It was easy to pick coach Campbell,” Anderson said. “It was a no brainer. I talked to my parents about it – and my mom sent me some pictures recently of five years ago. I came up here on a visit when they played TCU and they stormed the field.
“It was a great experience. Things all come full circle. Things happen for a reason.”
For Stanley, reservations about Iowa State’s offense – and the presence of Allen Lazard, one of the program’s best-ever wideouts – ultimately led him to pick the alma mater of his father, Walter Stanley, a 10-year NFL wideout.
“We felt very confident we at least had a real chance to get Dimitri,” Campbell recalled. “It was actually the spring into Allen’s senior year. At that time we were painting a vision of who we wanted to be and where we wanted to go. We ended up not winning in that recruiting battle.
“For us, when it came full circle, those relationships at the beginning built really helped us in terms of this past offseason when we had the opportunity to re-recruit Dimiti and his family to come to Iowa State.”
Iowa State has also built a culture of maturity and consistency in seven years under Campbell that may not be initially attractive to some teenage recruits, but could later be a draw as they look for a second home in their careers.
“The philosophy has always been we’re never going to disrespect anybody that doesn’t choose to come to our institution or our school,” Campbell said. “We know we’re not for everybody. We’re kind of our own entity.
“I do think it’s helped us at times somebody has made a different decision, and you fast forward three years and maybe there’s a phone call at the end that is the right fit for both people at that time.
“What you’re looking for as an 18-year-old sometimes and what you’re looking for at 20 is maybe drastically different.”
As transferring becomes easier and more of the norm, it’s easier to look at recruiting as a longer-term game that doesn’t necessarily end even when a player attends another school.
“It’s important to keep the relationships intact with people,” Anderson said, “because you never know when you’re going to come back and meet someone again, and they might want to lend a hand to you.”
Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State football turns recruiting misses to transfer wins
