In case there are doubters about the transfer portal or people wanting the late 20th century college model back, let's use the quarterback position at Illinois as an example on why it's a boon for programs like our beloved. Here are the likely starting QBs if Illinois only used home-grown options that were available post-Scheelhaase:
2014: Riley O'Toole (senior)
2015: Chayce Crouch (freshman) or Jimmy Fitzgerald (freshman)
2016: Chayce Crouch (sophomore) or Jeff George Jr. (freshman)
2017: Chayce Crouch (junior) or Jeff George Jr. (sophomore)
2018: MJ Rivers (freshman) or Matt Robinson (freshman)
2019: Matt Robinson (sophomore)
2020: Matt Robinson or Coran Taylor (COVID year)
2021: Deuce Spann (freshman) or Samari Collier (freshman)
2022: Ryan Johnson (senior) or Donovan Leary (freshman)
The program hasn't had a single scholarship quarterback reach their senior year of eligibility at Illinois after signing with Illinois since O'Toole. The earliest that streak can be broken will be 2026. Going from this list, easy to see that Illinois has done a poor job of identifying and recruiting a meaningful prep quarterback. Things will get a lot easier if Leary or Swanson break the streak but, until then, there are worse things than bringing in guys in transfer options. Say what you want about Lunt, Bush, Peters, Sitkowski, TDV, and now Altmyer, but they are lot better than the list above.