Illinois a proving ground for JUCO transfers

Sep. 2—CHAMPAIGN — How college football rosters come together has changed in the last several years.

The transfer portal, combined with the NCAA doing away with its rigid yearly scholarship limits, has created new opportunities for coaches either looking to bolster a roster or blow it up. First-year Colorado coach Deion Sanders took the latter path, adding 51 total FBS and FCS transfers to go with 21 incoming freshmen in Boulder, Colo.

Illinois coach Bret Bielema — and basically every other coach in the country — is a little more surgical in his forays into the transfer portal. The Illini added just nine FBS, FCS or Division II transfers this offseason. A group that includes starting quarterback Luke Altmyer (Mississippi), his backup John Paddock (Ball State), starting safety Clayton Bush (Southern Illinois) and his backups Demetrius Hill (Florida International) and Nicario Harper (Louisville).

The retooling of the 2023 Illinois roster also included the addition of six junior-college transfers. After hitting big a year prior with day one offensive line starters Isaiah Adams, who is now a team captain, and Zy Crisler, Bielema is more inclined to pursue those options.

"They came in really as JUCO players who were, in my opinion, underrecruited and underdeveloped," Bielema said of Adams and Crisler. "We're definitely looking to repeat that behavior in every class. To me, it's kind of a new wave. Because of the portal world, I think that world is getting ignored a little bit, and also there are more players getting into it because less players are getting signed out of high school because of the portal world. It's a combing effect."

JUCO football wasn't Alex Capka-Jones' only option out of Oak Park (Calif.) High School. What options the 6-foot-4 wide receiver did have, however, were limited. He graduated from high school in 2021 on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic. Roster spots at nearly every college level were limited.

"Nobody needed players," Capka-Jones said. "Everybody came back for another year. I was ranked in California stats wise, and I was getting D-II preferred walk-ons. I was like, 'Man, this just isn't right for me.'"

Prince Ford had a similar experience. He also graduated in 2021 from Cox Mill High School in Concord, N.C. Already not a bastion of college football recruiting, Ford only received preferred walk-on offers. It wasn't his desired path either.

Capka-Jones and Ford opted for the JUCO route instead. The former didn't go far from home, just a 25-minute drive away to Moorpark College northwest of Los Angeles. Ford crossed the country, winding up at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Both were betting on themselves.

"It was tough, but, honestly, the entire time I told myself I'm going to make it work," Ford said. "I didn't want to redshirt or nothing. I have two years max to make this happen, and I'm going to make it happen no matter what. That was my mindset the whole time no matter what I faced. I chose this, so I'm going to make it work."

Capka-Jones eventually got to that point. Initially, though? Moorpark College was — or any JUCO program for that matter — the last place he wanted to be. It wasn't the college football path he envisioned following after racking up 136 receptions for 2,129 yards and 27 touchdowns in 27 varsity games at Oak Park.

"I'm going to be flat out honest with you," Capka-Jones said. "I didn't want go to JUCO. I was mad for a while — I was really angry — because I felt like I deserved better than that. I kind of realized, 'Man, I've got to stop looking at it like I shouldn't be here and look at it like it's a blessing to be here.'

"I learned a lot of things I learned in junior college I never would have learned at the Power Five level, like being humble and realizing it's not always about you. It put that chip on my shoulder. I think that's going to drive me more than if I just had a Power Five offer out of high school."

Capka-Jones led Moorpark College with 26 receptions as a freshman in 2021 and then caught 36 passes for 541 yards and six touchdowns in 2022. Ford played in 21 games across two seasons at Golden West College and totaled 42 tackles, six pass breakups and three interceptions.

Neither's path to Illinois wound up straightforward. Illinois' assistant director for personnel Drake Leeper found Ford on social media before the requisite due diligence led to an offer for the 5-11, 170-pound cornerback. Capka-Jones turned a camp invite this summer into a scholarship offer.

"Capka-Jones has probably been the most impressive guy that we didn't know a lot about," Bielema said. "We saw the film and liked what we saw. He actually came to camp, and we had seen him work out. He has a huge catch radius. Prince Ford was a guy that was really, again, probably an under-recruited player and a little bit off the radar."

Bielema is hoping Illinois' latest forays into the "market that's been really good for us" pays off after the success of Adams and Crisler. The other four JUCO additions this offseason helped bolster the Illini's offensive line with Will Keys and Dezmond Schuster and the secondary with Kaleb Patterson. Centennial graduate Tyler McClure, who played baseball at Kaskaskia College, gives the wide receiver room another solid athlete.

"I think JUCO, there's a lot of hidden gems in there, but you've got to find the kids that can keep up with the schooling part," Adams said. "In JUCO, there's a lot of talent there, but there's the off-the-field stuff you want to make sure is right. Me and Zy, when we were in JUCO, we took it serious. We treated JUCO like a Division I, and now that we're at a Division I, it was an easy transition. With JUCO, the talent is there, but you want to see professionalism and guys who care about it like me and Zy."

Capka-Jones and Ford appear to come from that same mold. The motivation derived from their unexpected — and, at first, unwanted — path to the Big Ten still fuels them.

"I don't think people get a fair chance in JUCO," Capka-Jones said. "A lot of people there have chips on their shoulders. That's what pushes us to be the best. Us being doubted is what makes us better."

There's an ulterior motive for Capka-Jones and Ford to prove their worth at Illinois. An altruistic one, though.

"If I can come out and be that guy at the Power Five level or be a part of a team where we're showing out for the JUCO guys, it gives more JUCO guys an opportunity to get picked up by Power Five schools and D-I schools," Capka-Jones said. "If we can put on, it helps other people get help, too. It's not just about us."