Home college coaches consider them a “quick fix” and many deem them a “big risk.”
As the quick fix, they bring age and size, experience from a level of competition well above high school, and the hope of making an immediate contribution to a program.
But as the big risks, they often have questionable academic backgrounds. And even if things work out, they’re around only for two years.
They, of course, are junior college transfers. They are nowhere to be found at Northwestern, but there is no denying that “jucos” have become an integral part of college football.
Banking on it
If you believe Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, every college football coach in America should be feeling pretty stupid right now.
“Anybody in the country could have had Brad Banks,” Ferentz says.
Banks, who will take snaps on Saturday against Northwestern, is currently the top-ranked quarterback in the nation.
He originally attended Central Florida but lasted only a year. He ended up at Hines Junior College and happened to be spotted by Iowa coaches who were there scouting a defensive lineman.
“We weren’t necessarily looking for a junior college quarterback – in fact, we weren’t looking for one at all,” says Ferentz, who adds that his staff doesn’t usually “beat the bushes” for JC transfers. “But we brought him in for a visit and felt very comfortable with him as a person. It’s been good news since that time.”
Iowa was the only school to offer Banks a scholarship to play quarterback.
Questionable Qualifiers
Players land at junior and community colleges for a variety of reasons. Many of them are NCAA “non-qualifiers,” meaning they don’t have the grades or the test scores coming out of high school. Some are overlooked in the high school recruiting process while others, such as Banks, actually went to a four-year college on scholarship but turned into “bounce-backs” looking for a second chance.
For the most part, the players are not at junior colleges by choice, said ESPN recruiting guru Tom Lemming.
“They’re there because there’s no other place for them to go,” Lemming says. “There’s a lot of good talent (in the junior college ranks), but the majority are poor students. Every once in a while you get a kid that was a good student who needed to prove himself academically, but it’s rare.”
Under NCAA rules, non-qualifiers must complete an associate’s degree (AA) before transferring.
San Diego State coach Tom Craft has been on both sides of the recruiting equation. Prior to becoming the Aztecs’ coach, Craft was the head coach at Palomar College in San Marcos, Calif., one of the most successful junior college programs in the country.
He says the non-qualifiers rule takes away part of the academic risk of recruiting junior college players.
“It’s not easy to get an AA degree,” Craft says. “You’d like to think that somebody who goes through that program has a good chance to be successful.”
Craft won three junior college national championships in 10 years at Palomar and lured talented high school players from around the country. He says Palomar is a successful program largely because of its academic advising program, instituted in 1997.
“(Palomar) went from transferring five or six kids (before 1997) to sending off 18 to 21 now,” Craft says. “Kids from all over are attracted to Palomar because they see that when you finish there, you’re a great (four-year college) prospect.”
quick Starters
Recruiting junior college transfers is risky, but many big-time programs choose to gamble.
After arriving in 1989, Bill Snyder rebuilt the Kansas State program with junior college transfers. The Kansas State roster currently includes 35 junior college transfers, 14 of whom came from three in-state junior colleges.
Oregon State set an NCAA record with 28 consecutive losing seasons before coach Dennis Erickson took over in 1999. As many coaches do when they first arrive, Erickson brought in junior college transfers to fill out the roster. The Beavers’ 11-1 season in 2000 was led by junior college transfer Chad Johnson, a wide receiver who was drafted by the Bengals in the second round of the 2001 NFL draft.
Oklahoma, another school with an affinity for junior college transfers, won the national championship in 2000. The Sooners’ leaders that season? Heisman candidate Josh Heupel and Orange Bowl MVP Torrance Marshall, both junior college transfers.
Junior college recruiting is largely need-based. Most coaches prefer high school athletes who can be molded into their program, keeping them around for up to five years. But when a coach looks at the depth chart and realizes it is thin at certain positions, junior college players provide instant gratification.
“Our philosophy is mostly based around high school recruiting, but because of our needs, we had to look to community colleges to fill our voids,” Craft says. “And we’re going to continue to do that, because in our situation, we’d have a real hard time existing and being competitive if we didn’t.”
a pacific pipeline
Southern California is a hotbed of junior college football. Programs such as Palomar, Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut and Grossmont College in El Cajon have been churning out Division I-A standouts for decades.
“There’s a heavy concentration of community colleges located very close together (in Southern California),” Craft says. “When somebody comes down to recruit, they can hit five or six within a half hour. That visibility draws a lot of kids.”
NU coach Randy Walker recalls being impressed by the talent in the area when he recruited at Grossmont as a coach at Miami (Ohio).
“The talent level is well above the high school level, and probably above a lot of small colleges,” Walker says. “There are very, very good players out there. I don’t think they’ve ever been overlooked, especially the good players that are good academically. Oh my gosh, (coaches are) all over them.”
Craft says there is so much talent that the jump from a good junior college league to the college level was a smooth transition for most players he coached at Palomar.
locked out
While many schools are chock full of junior college transfers, NU doesn’t have any on its roster.
And it’s not because the Cats don’t look. Both Walker and NU recruiting coordinator and running backs coach Jeff Genyk say they investigate junior college prospects every year.
But the fact of the matter is, very few junior college students are eligible to transfer into NU, whether they are athletes or not.
NU doesn’t take non-qualifiers, so transfers must be academically eligible coming out of high school and opt not to attend a four-year college for other reasons. And NU looks at high school records, so those who qualify by the skin of their teeth have little chance of being admitted.
Also, students have to have nine transferrable courses to be eligible to apply to NU. This is especially problematic because many athletes trying to transfer have credits that NU does not accept. According to Maureen Harty, NU’s director of compliance, physical education and business courses are the two “downfalls” of most transfer applicants.
“There are very few guys in the junior college ranks that meet our deal,” Walker says. “There’s some kids that had two solid years at any school, let alone junior colleges, that wouldn’t be able to transfer in here. If we had lower academic standards, it would be different.”
Currently, NU has only two junior college transfer athletes — a volleyball player and a women’s basketball player. The school’s last football player to come from a junior college was quarterback Tim Hughes, who came from Butte County Community College in California and graduated from NU in 1997.
Walker says that junior college transfers provide a huge boost to many programs. But, for the most part, they are not a viable option at NU.
“I think every institution has their own design,” Walker says. “There’s a plan for what kids are supposed to be and how we do it here. And while I think it’s good for a lot of kids and it works in a lot of places, I don’t
think this is a place where it would typically work.”
NU doesn’t entirely rule out junior college transfers, but for now it plays it safe and sticks to high school kids — even though gambling could potentially be money in the Bank(s).
