Transfer players serve OSU well

By Hannah Gordon
Daily Bruin Reporter

Dennis Erickson knows where to get his fix.

Call them thugs or late-bloomers, mercenaries or kids with fewer
opportunities, but junior college transfers get the job done for
Erickson. He was hired as head coach at Oregon State in 1999 after
achieving instant success at Miami 10 years earlier, where he
earned national championships in his first and third seasons. As in
Miami, Erickson depended on signing junior college transfers. In
his first year in Corvalis, he signed 16 transfers. They served him
well, giving OSU its first winning season since 1970.

“Sometimes JC is for when you need a quick fix,”
UCLA offensive coordinator Kelly Skipper said. “(Erickson)
has success at getting the right parts.”

Since turning OSU from perennial loser to powerhouse, Erickson
has been able to recruit more prep stars. Of 85 possible
scholarships, Erickson has given 12 to junior college transfers.
That number is four times as high as UCLA’s three
transfers.

“I like junior college players,” Erickson said.
“They’re very hungry. They are guys who had to earn a
lot of things. I have respect for what they go through to get to
play.”

Hungry is one way to put it. Some think the Beavers are
renegades, evidenced by last season’s 81.0 penalty yards per
game and Pac-10 worst last season with 137 penalty yards against
Oregon ““ as well as five personal foul and taunting calls in
a 41-9 Fiesta Bowl drubbing of Notre Dame on Jan. 1.

“Some people on our team might think that (transfers) are
thugs because some have gotten into trouble previously,” said
UCLA sophomore wide receiver Tab Perry. “I think it was just
grades and opportunity. They just had to go a different
route.”

Chad Johnson, drafted last season by the Cincinnati Bengals
after becoming OSU’s top wide receiver, was one such junior
college transfer. Players like Johnson may not have had the grades
or SAT scores to play for a Division I school immediately after
high school, or they just may not have been developed enough.

“Most of the time the guys that don’t have the best
grades are the best players,” UCLA senior wide receiver Brian
Poli-Dixon said.

The fact that junior college transfers do not need to meet the
SAT minimum like prep players raises the question of whether these
schools are using “mercenaries” ““ players who are
only in school to play football and not to be student-athletes in
the sense the NCAA intends. Because transfers are only eligible for
two years, they are at less risk of becoming academically
ineligible. OSU’s 53% overall football graduation rate
according to the NCAA’s latest report does not prove or
disprove the accusation.

“We have a disadvantage with a lot of schools, because
there are a lot of players that a lot of schools can get in that we
can’t,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said. Toledo also
noted that there are enough academic athletes to go around.

Whether or not other people agree with his philosophy, Erickson
won’t be changing anytime soon.

“(Junior college transfers) have done a lot of good things
for this program and a lot of programs throughout the
country,” he said. “I always have and I always will
(recruit them).”