WEST LONG BRANCH – As Monmouth football conducted its annual Blue-White scrimmage Sunday at Kessler Stadium, it was the culmination of a tumultuous final week of spring practice.
In the latest sign of just how transient college football has become, particularly at the FCS level, fifth-year lineman Jordan Hall, penciled in to start at left tackle, suddenly entered the transfer portal, along with fifth-year defensive lineman Antonio Colclough, who led the team in sacks a year ago.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for a program looking to rebound from back-to-back 4-7 seasons in their first two CAA campaigns.
“It disrupts your planning. You’re counting on Jordan to come back and play left tackle, you’re counting on Antonio to be there and then they go into the portal last week,” said Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan, entering his 32nds season on the sideline as the only head coach the program’s ever had. “Unfortunately, that is going to be the nature of college football, and certainly on this level, because they all think they can go to the next level, maybe the FBS level, and get a huge payday, because that is what’s happening on that level right now.”
Monmouth has lot a host of key players to the transfer portal in recent years, including record-setting wide receiver Dymere Miller, who left for Rutgers after rewriting much of the program’s receiving record book last season, with Miller telling Monmouth officials he received $200,000 in NIL money.
Now, as the transfer portal fills up again after players around the country reassess their status after spring workouts, the Hawks are looking to replace Hall and Colclough, while bolstering several other positions.
“You’ve got to be able to replace what we’re losing,” Callahan said. “And you’d like to do that with veteran players. If you lose a senior or junior, you’d like to get a senior or junior.
“We’ve got a list of every position, probably five or six deep, and there’s more going into the portal every single day. There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s got to be the right fit for Monmouth. The right fit for the program. You can’t just go out and get a hired gun we don’t know anything about. Locker room chemistry is realy important to me.”
The loss of Colclough, who transferred to Monmouth from James Madison last season, is a big blow for a defense looking to take a big step forward under new coordinator Lewis Walker, a former Monmouth assistant who spent the past two seasons as the defensive backs coach at FBS national power North Dakota State.
“I think its the nature of college football now,” Walker said. “You have guys leaving your program so you have to replace them. If you have guys leaving who have experience, you have to fill in with experience and I think that is where we are looking in the portal, to replace some leadership and experience and continue to let our guys grow up. Because it might happen too fast for them and you want them to continue to grow.”
One of the standouts from Sunday’s scrimmage was defensive end Justin O’Bannon, credited with a pair of sacks and several pressures. O’Bannon, a senior, had 13 tackles and 1.5 sacks last season in a reserve role, but will be asked to take a leading role, particularly in the pas rush, this season.
“Edge-wise we have gotten better pressure and pass rush, and on the interior as well, with guys using their hands more,” O’Bannon said. “It’s going to be exciting to see this year.”
“O’Bannon did a good job. He really showed his quickness off the edge,” Callahan said
The quarterbacks looked sharp all afternoon. Derek Robertson, a transfer from Maine, started with the first team, with junior Enzo Arjona, who he is in a quarterback competition with, ending the scrimmage with a 36-yard TD pass to Tra Neal during a two-minute drill. Robertson threw a 42-yard TD strike to Max James, a transfer receiver from Lackawana who began his college career at James Madison.
“We have a great group of receivers, a lot of guys with speed a lot of guys who can catch the ball,” Robertson said. “We’ve obviously been blessed with some pretty good receivbers in the past, but these guys are up for the challenge. They’re motivated, and they want to do well.”
And while Monmouth only has four running backs on the roster, they have four pretty good ones, even with record-setting back Jaden Shirden declaring for the NFL Draft. Sone Ntoh, a power back who ran for 14 TDs last season, scored the first TD of the day on a 3-yard run, while junior Makhi Green showed his speed and quickness on several nice gains. Rodney Nelson and Jamir Barnes also had good days.
