With all the talk of NCAA transfer portals and player movement, high school players are often left out in the cold.

Last weekend, McNeese State’s football staff brought them back into the fold.

In a throwback of sorts, the Cowboys said they hosted 12 high school players from Louisiana and East Texas on a recruiting visit. The goal was to revive the old-school method of pursuing prep players.

A dozen might seem like a small class when you go back in time, but when you consider the work already done through the portal, you find out 12 is about all the room McNeese has for a new group.

In his first months back leading the program, head coach Matt Viator continued to say that he would combine modern methods with those that have worked in the past, sticking to one common theme: whatever works best for McNeese.

Having added key experienced pieces through the portal, McNeese said it was time to work on the second signing day for high schools. This is to keep building on younger classes and ensure a balance on the roster, not just by positions but also by age.

“This is going back to right the ship,” said McNeese’s chief of staff and head of recruiting, Aaron Ingram. “Just working in the portal is not sustainable.”

Coming off a season in which the Cowboys improved to 6-6, Viator was brought in to bring McNeese all the way back by getting back to what made the program so effective. That was recruitment and development.

Both have suffered in recent years as McNeese has tried to regain its footing since the 2020 storms. For a few years, the program had little to sell, as the athletic facilities, the campus and Lake Charles were down.

Not many kids want to come and play as part of a total rebuild.

With much more to sell, McNeese returned to some old ways with a new sales pitch. The school says it’s worked well.

Two days after the players returned home, 11 of the 12 announced on social media that they were heading to the Cowboys. Six of the 11 are from Louisiana. While verbal commitments are not binding and get flipped more than a stack of pancakes these days, the timing seems to indicate that this is a good sign for the Cowboys.

They expect to sign up to 13 on Feb. 5, the traditional national signing day. It doesn’t hold the power as in the past, because all the big names now come from the portal and sign earlier, it still is a big part of a program’s future, especially on the Football Championship Subdivision level.

McNeese got in trouble in recent years by not having equal class numbers. For too many seasons the Cowboys were too young to compete on a high level.

“We wanted to balance things out in our rooms, not just positions but also by years,” Ingram explained. “It was important to coach that we get kids from the four classes at each spot.”

So while McNeese is trying to win this season, the coaches are also working to develop players for the future. That is the only way to sustain success, especially in the current landscape.

There is, of course, no guarantee once a player is developed that he will stay with the program. The portal works both ways and there are always schools looking to poach talent.

The Cowboys are still expected to jump back into the transfer portal after spring workouts when Viator gets his first full look at his roster. He will see what holes need to be filled. But fixing the age gap is a good start.

It also made for McNeese’s first winning weekend under the new management.
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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers McNeese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com