He doesn't care for the graduate transfer rule, but Marshall coach Doc Holliday knows he has to play the game, too.
You know the drill: If you earn your degree from School A and have eligibility remaining, you can transfer to School B for your final season (in some cases, two) without sitting out a year.
It has become a new drug for roster junkies, but that's not important. This is: A mid-major team's fortunes can turn upward with a player who has gone south on a power conference team's depth chart.
Some coaches have called for a change, and Holliday is among them. He would like to see graduate transfers sit out a year, then play the next.
"I look around the country and talk to a lot of people; that graduate transfer rule, it's a problem for everybody, not just us," Holliday said before the start of preseason camp. "We were studying Pitt and some people throughout the country and, 'Who was their backup quarterback?' They don't have one."
The Thundering Herd has lost three quarterbacks after they earned their degrees - Blake Frohnapfel, Gunnar Holcombe and Michael Birdsong. Frohnapfel earned his finance degree and was able to start for two seasons at Massachusetts.
To be sure, Holcombe and Birdsong would have benefited from either the graduate transfer rule or the rule allowing a free transfer to the Football Championship Subdivision. Whatever the case, their departure after 2015 will force the Herd to name a true freshman the No. 2 quarterback.
But the Herd also has benefited. In 2012, two safeties from Boston College may have saved the program's worst-ever defense from being the universe's worst-ever defense. Today, former Michigan Wolverine Terry Richardson could be a solid second-team cornerback, even a starting nickel.
Richardson couldn't stay in Michigan's two-deep, which is the near-unanimous motive for a graduate to transfer. But Holliday not only sees ability if Richardson is given the opportunity, He sees some intangibles.
"Well, he's a great kid, number one," he said. "He's a talented guy who, hopefully, can provide some leadership and play some there for us."
In eight conference games plus the Sept. 17 contest against Akron, the Herd is going to run into several of these cases once again. In my cross-eyed examination of rosters, the Herd may face about a dozen graduate transfers.
A chronological rundown:
Akron: Big tackle Logan Tuley-Tillman didn't leave Michigan on his own accord; coach Jim Harbaugh tossed him last September. Three felony charges were the cause - two counts of capturing/distributing an image of an unclothed person and one count of using a computer to commit a crime.
Tuley-Tillman eventually pleaded to a misdemeanor of filming a woman without consent during sex and received two years' probation in March. The 6-foot-7, 317-pounder was a reserve at Michigan, but could be taking on Herd pass-rushers in about a month.
North Texas: Quarterback Alec Morris is one of the biggies, coming from Alabama to pump life into the moribund Mean Green. Do you remember the quarterback in NT's visit to Huntington last year?
(DaMarcus Smith, 15 of 37, 128 yards, a touchdown and a pick.)
Many moons ago, recruiting-oriented websites listed Morris 26th on a national list of pro-style quarterbacks, and that promise could be revived under new NT offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. The former Texas Tech quarterback arrives from Washington State, which went 9-4 in 2015.
Dermonte Hood from Kansas State is a late addition. At 6-0, 310, he had 13 career tackles for the Wildcats.
Florida Atlantic: Tight end Tyler Cameron is in his second year at FAU after earning his Wake Forest degree in three years. The Herd knows this guy, who caught six passes for 111 yards last year in Boca Raton.
Cameron arrived as a quarterback, but quickly switched positions last summer.
Charlotte: The 49ers need all the help they can get, and could get some in former North Carolina cornerback Kedrick Davis. He played 10 games in 2014 with an interception, a fumble recovery and a blocked kick, but played only three games last year. The Charlotte native was once the No. 32 overall prospect in the state of North Carolina.
Southern Mississippi: Cornerback Devontre Parnell was one of South Carolina's top-10 prospects, but played just four career games for Louisville.
Old Dominion: Josh Marriner gained 12 yards on four carries against Marshall for Connecticut in the St. Petersburg Bowl, and now he's in the Monarch mix. He has played 23 games, returning some kickoffs.
He has two years' eligibility.
Middle Tennessee: As if Brent Stockstill needed more weapons, the Blue Raiders nabbed Dennis Andrews from Georgia Tech and is making him a wide receiver. Andrews played "A-back" in Tech's triple-option attack.
He has been called a "Swiss army knife" because of his versatility.
Western Kentucky: As you will find out, Louisville has a surplus of top-notch linebackers, so many that Keith Brown headed down Interstate 65 and could be an All-Conference USA talent. He has 33 tackles in 37 games.
Louisville also "donated" defensive lineman Nick Dawson-Brents and quarterback Tyler Ferguson. Dawson-Brents is a 37-game veteran and Ferguson is splitting first-team reps with South Florida transfer Mike White in the battle to replace Brandon Doughty.
Stevie Donatelli comes from Wake Forest, where he played linebacker before switching to tight end.
Marshall is not playing the most interesting grad transfer in C-USA - Texas-San Antonio quarterback Jared Johnson, who was the Southland Conference offensive player of the year at Sam Houston State.
The Herd also avoids Louisiana Tech linebacker Jordan Harris, who was the third-leading tackler at Iowa State last year, and former Texas linebacker Dalton Santos.
I'm not against graduate transfers as they are now. They throw some chaos into year-to-year roster changes, but not nearly as much as you would see if all transfers were liberalized. That would be anarchy.
As it is, this issue will affect Marshall's fortunes this fall. But in which way?