Master the Transfer Portal with Hudl IQ's Scouting Tools

I love to read. I especially like to dive into books on football and coaching. When I first got into coaching, one book in particular kept coming to my attention, Bill Walsh’s Finding the Winning Edge. It is currently out of print, but luckily I was able to grab one before it went to over $350 on Amazon (I somehow got a signed copy too). This is the Bible of coaching fundamentals, and I was excited to dive in as a young coach.

Walsh goes in depth into so many different categories: constructing a staff, preparing a winning game plan, schematics of plays, and much more. But one thing that stuck out to me then, and has always been in the back of my mind since I read it, is how he talked about roster construction:

“Without question, one of the primary factors affecting success in the National Football League is having talented players. While acquiring those players is a multifaceted issue that every team addresses in its own way…the most important step in securing the players a team needs is evaluating the available talent pool.

Several factors have resulted in even higher value being placed on the ability to evaluate and assimilate talent into the organization, including the advent of the salary cap and free agency…In addition, free agency has also affected the need for a team to have a systematic process for evaluating the players who are already on its roster.

Each team has its own criteria and procedures for evaluating players…In the final analysis, one critical question must be answered: “Can this individual make a meaningful contribution to the team?”

There are so many nuggets in this chapter, and even more that I wasn’t able to include (if you’ve got an extra $350, or can hopefully find a much cheaper version of the book, grab it. Seriously, so good!!). The idea behind roster construction has always been at the forefront of football teams, but in college it has taken on new meaning. With the advent of the transfer portal, changing scholarship limits, and NIL; teams are working harder than ever to figure out how best to set up a roster. The driving fact behind the roster construction has always been, and will always be, finding/signing the best players.

Using Hudl IQ for Player Scout

Finding the Winning Edge goes through an extended position by position breakdown of the top traits that make up a successful football player. For today’s analysis, I wanted to look at Edge Defenders. Because FTWE was written over 25 years ago, he doesn’t have Edge as it’s own position, but using a combination of the 4-3 Defensive End, and 3-4 Outside Linebacker will give us workable information as a template. The listed ideal size for an End is 6’5”, 275 pounds; and for an Outside Linebacker it is 6’3”, 245 pounds. Combining these two gives us a good guess for today’s Edge defender: 6’4” and 250 pounds. This initial cutdown brings us to 61 players that we can start analyzing. 

The first thing that Coach Walsh talks about in his profile of an ideal Defensive End is “moving in an explosive manner”. He then goes on to say, “In order to be a good pass rusher, a defensive end must have the ability to cover ground quickly in three to five yards of space.” As part of our tracking data offering, we try to take our metrics like speed, acceleration, distance covered, and contextualize them into a football specific metric. For edge defenders, our contextualized metric is get off distance. We measure the distance an edge defender moves upfield in the first second of a true pass rush. Using the top ⅓ as a cutoff for average get-off distance (at least 2.7 yards), this cuts our list to 37 players. 

Walsh’s next criteria for an Edge defender is extraordinary upper body strength. An Edge defender “uses his hands and skills to get past a blocker.” Our line engagement data can help us look at how well a defender “gets past a blocker”. For every block that happens in the “box” we collect a multitude of data points: 

1. Who is involved in the block (this can include double/triple teams).
2. Where on the field the block starts and stops, including distance moved.
3. When the block starts and stops, including the length of the block.

Using this information we collect a proprietary Hudl IQ stat called Average Length of Engagement (ALOE). We further break this down into pass and run plays to get Pass ALOE and Run ALOE. For a defensive player, the goal is to get off blocks as fast as possible, so a lower ALOE is good. Using the top about ⅓ mark for Pass ALOE further cuts our list down to 15 players.

Both of the metrics we have used so far to whittle down our list have been pass rush related. Though rushing the passer, and creating pressure, is the most important part of an Edge defender’s position; they still have to be stout in the run game. For run game efficiency I added solo tackle success % (STS) which gives a more nuanced view of tackling success. As you could infer from the name, only tackles where the defender is the first tackler (a solo attempt) count. A tackler gets .5 credit for a solo attempt that ends in an assisted tackle when someone else joins the party. Using the top ⅓ as a cutoff again cuts our list down to 4 players:

Using our seminal radars as the blueprint, our player comparison is able to compare a specific player to all players across college football for their position. This then returns the 5 players that are most similar and gives the user the ability to choose how much weight to give to traits or performance. The top 5 most similar players to Nussmeier this year have been Brendan Sorsby (Cincinnati), Tyler Shough (Louisville), Miller Moss (USC), Chandler Morris (North Texas), and Devon Dampier (New Mexico). Brendan Sorsby, Tyler Shough, and Miller Moss seem like unlikely transfer prospects, but keep an eye out for Chandler Morris (can he transfer again?!) or Devon Dampier as potential transfer portal darlings this offseason.

This tool also gives users the ability to pick specific players to add to the visual and see how they compare. This can be used as a tool for teams that have a few targets at a specific position. For example, last season Texas and LSU both lost 2 first round WR. Texas really attacked the transfer portal bringing in Isaiah Bond, Silas Bolden, and Matthew Golden. A team that might be in a similar spot this offseason is Oregon. Traeshon Holden and Tez Johnson are both Seniors. And Evan Stewart is a Junior that might leave early after a big season (and potential deep playoff run). Using our tool, let’s find a few players Oregon might be interested in targeting!

Here are 6 WR that have eligibility left and are at G5 schools currently. With this tool, we can quickly evaluate multiple players at once, and compare their radars. Eric Rivers is a downfield/explosive threat that has a low Catch Rate Over Expected. DT Sheffield is more of a slot receiver with low depth of target, but high yards after catch and yards after contact. 

Hudl IQ has the Best Transfer Portal Tools on the Market

Teams using Hudl IQ are proactive with transfer portal recruiting. They use the player scout and player comparison tools to build lists of potential transfer targets as the season is going. And then once the transfer portal opens, use these tools to be more efficient finding the right players that fit into their systems. Over 1,000 players enter the transfer portal within the first two days, and if you aren’t using Hudl IQ, you are going to be left trying to sort through hundreds of players to find targets that might be a good fit for you.

Discover how Hudl IQ can transform your team's transfer portal strategy, start your free trial now.