Here's the link to the following from Frank Rossi of In The D3FB Huddle:
https://www.facebook.com/D3Huddle
(I copied and pasted because not all of you are on FaceBook.)
IT TOOK A NATIONAL CHAMPION TO SHOW US THE HARD WAY THAT THE SYSTEM IS ABSOLUTELY BROKEN
By Frank Rossi - "In the (D3FB) Huddle"
In over 30 years of covering #d3fb, I am watching, along with @D3FBHuddle, something I have never witnessed before -- and there are aspects of it that I'm hoping we never see again.
First, there was the natural progression of life and college for UWRF Football. The team packed with insane levels of talent wins a National Championship, and a number of key seniors graduate off. Names like Kaleb Blaha and Gage Timm would be part of D3FB legend -- not just UWRF legend. These types of losses are nothing unusual, and it was often where the story would end before we moved to the next season.
Yet, the story was just beginning there. The new paradigm in NCAA College Football took hold with the Falcons players that realized they might have an opportunity to play at a higher level. We saw phenom WR Blake Rohrer jump into the Transfer Portal, along with OL D.J. Fox and others. Fox landed at James Madison quickly, but Rohrer's story and the stories of others showed us the tough reality of what Nick Saban pointed out in 2025 -- the Portal's calendar approach makes zero sense. Either those players needed to find quality representation to navigate the system in record time and strike instant gold, or they would be unable to make a jump in time for Spring practice and would face months of uncertainty. Yet, what it also showed was an instability inside the foundation of the National Champs for players that had not made that decision to enter the Portal yet but who were already concerned about the graduation losses.
With things seeming to stabilize in late-January to early-February, the story was still not over. With Drake's Head Coach resigning on February 9th, an opportunity opened for UWRF Head Coach Matt Walker to parlay his success over especially the post-Covid years into his own chance to go to a higher NCAA level. An unheard-of Sunday night announcement of a National Champion coach leaving created yet another domino effect starting on February 22nd, with rumblings of most of the offensive staff joining Walker making things even more unstable. Even with the quick naming of Interim Head Coach Jake Wissing, the Defensive Coordinator who masterminded the defense that held North Central to just 14 points on D3's biggest stage, the next round of bleeding was inevitable. Jake Hilton -- a monster WR in size and speed -- highlighted another Portal escapade from the Falcons at a time that we never really saw in the offseason before.
The timing further has blurred how this process works for everyone involved since UWRF, like most other schools, is over a month into their Spring term. Would an upper-level school really demand a transfer occur immediately for Spring practice purposes? How would that affect the academics of a player making such a move? Could an upper-level school even promise an athletic scholarship in this timeframe? For as much as we think we know about the Transfer Portal, the Wild West that exists in D3 is creating a level of confusion and uncertainty that is exposing the weaknesses of the system daily and making more and more people say out loud, "Saban was right."
Several folks have told me we will likely see a few more players hit the Transfer Portal from UWRF at some point based on this newest wave. Several eyes have gone to Rising Freshman Taylor Sussner, who proved in 2025 that he was a Freshman in class year only. His statistics and game play were awesome for a young player on the other side of the ball from a frenetic offensive style. One person familiar with the situation said to me this week about Sussner, "I think he's the guy that could make the jump [to upper-level FBS]." Others have told me that many teams are literally waiting to see what he decides to do because they see huge tangibles and intangibles in Sussner. Again, I have never witnessed something like this in my 30 years where an 18- or 19-year-old player is the focus in the offseason to this extreme, especially in late February. Yet, even though I hate this situation for many reasons, we have to look to ensuring the players understand their options and maximize their potential. Knowing this is what Sussner may be facing, my best advice to him and anyone else in his position is to take a deep breath, talk with knowledgable and trusted potential representation before making any final decision, and ONLY THEN make your decision known to everyone involved -- be it through a Portal entry or the decision to stay at his current school. The likelihood is that any transfer at this point is a Summer transfer, meaning this is a marathon and not a sprint.
Can River Falls successfully defend their WIAC title and National Championship in 2026 with these unheard-of developments, known and unknown at this point? Well, they proved in 2025 to many of us doubters that anything is possible. Yet, Coach Wissing has his hands full and probably still doesn't know for sure exactly who his returning players are or aren't -- which again, in D3 without any actual Portal windows and without the 5/15 rule (and the 30-day Interim Coach delay to talk to players and try to convince them to stay and play at least for one more year), is an epic weakness in the D3 Portal system. While some look at windows as an unfair way to "trap" players at schools, they also try to maintain some semblance of a reality of how academic schedules work. Yet, the academic-facing Division -- D3 -- seems to refuse to embrace these academically-important windows. I can't understand how we got here or why we aren't quickly making changes that are completely necessary.
None of this is UWRF's fault -- not the players who have graduated, not the players who have left via the Portal, not the players who remain in the Portal, not the coaches that have left, and not the next wave of players that have or will enter the Portal. These players and coaches are just trying to maximize their positions and finances in the ways we have told them the past few years they can. This is our fault -- the NCAA, the folks who are close enough to the system to provide input, and the folks that didn't take a step back to understand that 18-22 year olds might have needed a bit more structure and guidance before we just let them dive into shark-infested waters as they make what seem to be justifiable and sensible decisions inside an unjustifiable and insensible system. It's just sad that a National Champion had to potentially experience this level of collateral damage for us to really become fully aware of how much the system sucks.
https://www.facebook.com/D3Huddle
(I copied and pasted because not all of you are on FaceBook.)
IT TOOK A NATIONAL CHAMPION TO SHOW US THE HARD WAY THAT THE SYSTEM IS ABSOLUTELY BROKEN
By Frank Rossi - "In the (D3FB) Huddle"
In over 30 years of covering #d3fb, I am watching, along with @D3FBHuddle, something I have never witnessed before -- and there are aspects of it that I'm hoping we never see again.
First, there was the natural progression of life and college for UWRF Football. The team packed with insane levels of talent wins a National Championship, and a number of key seniors graduate off. Names like Kaleb Blaha and Gage Timm would be part of D3FB legend -- not just UWRF legend. These types of losses are nothing unusual, and it was often where the story would end before we moved to the next season.
Yet, the story was just beginning there. The new paradigm in NCAA College Football took hold with the Falcons players that realized they might have an opportunity to play at a higher level. We saw phenom WR Blake Rohrer jump into the Transfer Portal, along with OL D.J. Fox and others. Fox landed at James Madison quickly, but Rohrer's story and the stories of others showed us the tough reality of what Nick Saban pointed out in 2025 -- the Portal's calendar approach makes zero sense. Either those players needed to find quality representation to navigate the system in record time and strike instant gold, or they would be unable to make a jump in time for Spring practice and would face months of uncertainty. Yet, what it also showed was an instability inside the foundation of the National Champs for players that had not made that decision to enter the Portal yet but who were already concerned about the graduation losses.
With things seeming to stabilize in late-January to early-February, the story was still not over. With Drake's Head Coach resigning on February 9th, an opportunity opened for UWRF Head Coach Matt Walker to parlay his success over especially the post-Covid years into his own chance to go to a higher NCAA level. An unheard-of Sunday night announcement of a National Champion coach leaving created yet another domino effect starting on February 22nd, with rumblings of most of the offensive staff joining Walker making things even more unstable. Even with the quick naming of Interim Head Coach Jake Wissing, the Defensive Coordinator who masterminded the defense that held North Central to just 14 points on D3's biggest stage, the next round of bleeding was inevitable. Jake Hilton -- a monster WR in size and speed -- highlighted another Portal escapade from the Falcons at a time that we never really saw in the offseason before.
The timing further has blurred how this process works for everyone involved since UWRF, like most other schools, is over a month into their Spring term. Would an upper-level school really demand a transfer occur immediately for Spring practice purposes? How would that affect the academics of a player making such a move? Could an upper-level school even promise an athletic scholarship in this timeframe? For as much as we think we know about the Transfer Portal, the Wild West that exists in D3 is creating a level of confusion and uncertainty that is exposing the weaknesses of the system daily and making more and more people say out loud, "Saban was right."
Several folks have told me we will likely see a few more players hit the Transfer Portal from UWRF at some point based on this newest wave. Several eyes have gone to Rising Freshman Taylor Sussner, who proved in 2025 that he was a Freshman in class year only. His statistics and game play were awesome for a young player on the other side of the ball from a frenetic offensive style. One person familiar with the situation said to me this week about Sussner, "I think he's the guy that could make the jump [to upper-level FBS]." Others have told me that many teams are literally waiting to see what he decides to do because they see huge tangibles and intangibles in Sussner. Again, I have never witnessed something like this in my 30 years where an 18- or 19-year-old player is the focus in the offseason to this extreme, especially in late February. Yet, even though I hate this situation for many reasons, we have to look to ensuring the players understand their options and maximize their potential. Knowing this is what Sussner may be facing, my best advice to him and anyone else in his position is to take a deep breath, talk with knowledgable and trusted potential representation before making any final decision, and ONLY THEN make your decision known to everyone involved -- be it through a Portal entry or the decision to stay at his current school. The likelihood is that any transfer at this point is a Summer transfer, meaning this is a marathon and not a sprint.
Can River Falls successfully defend their WIAC title and National Championship in 2026 with these unheard-of developments, known and unknown at this point? Well, they proved in 2025 to many of us doubters that anything is possible. Yet, Coach Wissing has his hands full and probably still doesn't know for sure exactly who his returning players are or aren't -- which again, in D3 without any actual Portal windows and without the 5/15 rule (and the 30-day Interim Coach delay to talk to players and try to convince them to stay and play at least for one more year), is an epic weakness in the D3 Portal system. While some look at windows as an unfair way to "trap" players at schools, they also try to maintain some semblance of a reality of how academic schedules work. Yet, the academic-facing Division -- D3 -- seems to refuse to embrace these academically-important windows. I can't understand how we got here or why we aren't quickly making changes that are completely necessary.
None of this is UWRF's fault -- not the players who have graduated, not the players who have left via the Portal, not the players who remain in the Portal, not the coaches that have left, and not the next wave of players that have or will enter the Portal. These players and coaches are just trying to maximize their positions and finances in the ways we have told them the past few years they can. This is our fault -- the NCAA, the folks who are close enough to the system to provide input, and the folks that didn't take a step back to understand that 18-22 year olds might have needed a bit more structure and guidance before we just let them dive into shark-infested waters as they make what seem to be justifiable and sensible decisions inside an unjustifiable and insensible system. It's just sad that a National Champion had to potentially experience this level of collateral damage for us to really become fully aware of how much the system sucks.
