Three Thoughts From The Weekend: Charlie Jones, point guards and more

Three Thoughts is a new feature GoldandBlack.com will run every Monday morning in-season.

Last week served as a reminder that the transfer portal can be the gift that keeps on givin' the whole year.

Just as it seemed as if Purdue's transfer class was finalized by defensive lineman Cole Brevard, Charlie Jones bolted Iowa with plans to enroll in West Lafayette, the sort of canned-hunt decision that's been so prevalent with this Portal Era thus far.

That's 10 transfer additions now for Purdue.

You may or may not have known that Jones is the reigning Big Ten Return Man of the Year. You may or may not have even known that was a thing. The run-of-the-mill college football fan may not have known either.

So quietly, Purdue may have just really helped itself, in June, roughly two months before training camp kicks off.

Obviously, Purdue would love to benefit from more impactful special teams this season, and Jones seems qualified to be part of the solution there, though it must be kept in mind that most return men are only as good as those in front of him. The assumption that this is a plug-and-play panacea for Purdue's return game may be premature.

Nevertheless, Jones' addition to the return game is significant. That his value-added lies at wide receiver, where Purdue needs help, is too.

Purdue's only going to go as far this season as COVID-senior Aidan O'Connell can take it, but with COVID seniors and portal products Mitchell Fineran and Jones on special teams, maybe that phase of the game can carry a little more weight, too.

Matt Painter has said that he's set a "hard line" this spring and summer as he's searched for a guard on the transfer wire, a high standard for the caliber of player he wants.

Purdue's actions have reflected that, as it's recruited heavily a bunch of the best guards to come across the portal the past few weeks and months.

They're going to get somebody eventually, I'm quite certain, but obviously this has not been a straight line for Purdue in its first full-fledged foray into both the Transfer Portal and NIL eras.

Nijel Pack was almost certainly Purdue-bound before Miami bought him. Tough break for the Boilermakers, and one that continues to resonate, because the best-case scenario was right there for the taking if not for this unique moment in time in college sports and specifically college sports recruiting.

Since then, Tyrese Hunter has committed to Texas, Jahmir Young to Maryland, Kyle Lofton to Florida and Malachi Smith to Gonzaga. All of them were offered the keys to a team that could be outstanding next season and all of them went someplace else. Good places, but someplace else nonetheless.

Beating those schools out for players before NIL was a chore unto itself. Now, things are different.

I can't say that NIL mattered as much with those other players as it did Pack, for which it was the singular reason for his decision. But chances are, it was a factor for some of them.

That said, if there was no NIL — nil NIL — what's to say Purdue would have gotten one of those other players? There were no guarantees. They'd have gotten Pack, I'm quite certain, but I don't know about any of those other guys, and it doesn't matter now.

I've always said this about Purdue basketball and transfers, that I don't think the quick-turnaround plays to its strengths in recruiting. Purdue does best in recruiting when it can build a long-standing relationship, be around a player and his family a lot, get them to town for games, etc. None of that is really possible on the transfer market, which was like speed-dating before and now has essentially turned to Tinder.

With short-runway decisions, substance doesn't always jump out right away and that's a big part of what Purdue sells to recruits.

Purdue's still a great option for a lot of these players, but I don't think musical chairs is going to be its game.

That said, this is everyone's game now, and everyone's going to have to make the best of it.

For Purdue, the process for this cycle to do just that continues.

This weekend, Purdue hosted its first summer football camp of the year, as June's long been highlighted by that segment of the recruiting process.

Now, I don't know how much camps mean for short-term recruiting.

They're still — and always will be — extremely important for getting underclassmen on campus, getting them evaluated and offered and so on.

But the days of those under-the-radar seniors showing up, showing out and jumping to the front of the offer line, those days may be dwindling.

With the transfer portal looming over college football like the Death Star, coaches are working with reduced margins from a scholarship resources perspective.

Many of them will max out their numbers each year — I'd imagine Purdue will be among them, because that's how it's been operating — and often work with small full-term senior classes, the groups you can plan in advance on replacing.

The camp-offer guy, more often than not, either becomes a luxury — an extra, so to speak — or a replacement, a new priority player who'd then rule out another longer-standing priority player by virtue of the sheer numbers. Not sure the scholarship dynamics of this moment in recruiting history are going to make those scenarios all that palatable anymore, if that makes sense.

More notably, the process has accelerated to the point that schools are filling their classes in June, not finding them. A June offer is now kinda sorta a "late" offer, because right now, coaches' recruiting boards have to be written mostly in ink. Things change, of course. They always do, but I don't think coaches can go into camp season with the same sort of open mind they could a few years back.

Right now, the high school recruit is important and always will be, but less important than ever. I think you can say the exact same thing about camps.

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