MCKINNEY, TEXAS – DECEMBER 21: Ahlston Ware #22 of the Ferris State Bulldogs celebrates with teammates after defeating the Valdosta State Blazers to win the Division II Football Championship held at McKinney ISD Stadium on December 21, 2024 in McKinney, Texas. (Photo by C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Ferris State football coach Tony Annese sat in front of his television at home in Michigan late last month, the rare chance to watch a game not involving his team. The Bulldogs, the reigning Division II national champions, had the week off, so Annese saw his quarterback from last year, Trinidad Chambliss, play for Ole Miss. Chambliss threw for 314 yards and a touchdown and ran for 71 yards as the Rebels defeated LSU and remained undefeated.
“I told his Mom I felt like I was as nervous in that game as I would be for my own game,” Annese said. “And then when Ole Miss won the game, it almost felt like a victory for us.”
Such is the new reality for Annese. He has led Ferris State, a school located in Big Rapids, Mich., to three national titles in the past four seasons, but he now has to deal with major Division I programs recruiting his players and tempting them with Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals and revenue share money. After last season, Chambliss and seven other starters transferred to Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs.
Still, Ferris State is as dominant as ever. The Bulldogs are 6-0 and No. 1 in the country and are winning by an average of 47 points per game. They have won the past three games by a combined 201-0, continuing to roll over their opponents even as the college football world changes.
“It’s just a different dynamic, a different time with NIL money and the transfer portal,” Annese said. “There weren’t that many people who were, for lack of a better word, preying on our guys. It’s a different time.”
Indeed, until this season, Ferris State had only had a few players transfer, and it wasn’t like the Bulldogs were devoid of talent in previous years. In fact, they entered this season having gone 122-14 since 2014, winning national titles in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Three of their former players are in the NFL in defensive tackle Zach Sieler (a captain with the Miami Dolphins), safety Tavierre Thomas (Minnesota Vikings) and linebacker Caleb Murphy (Los Angeles Chargers), while Ferris State has had two quarterbacks (Jason Vander Laan in 2014 and 2015 and Jayru Campbell in 2018) win the Harlon Hill Trophy for Division II’s top player. Numerous others have made All-American teams.
Still, Annese didn’t have to worry about losing players until shortly after Ferris State defeated Valdosta State, 49-14, in the national title game last December. Within days, agents contacted Chambliss and others, gauging their interest in entering the transfer portal.
Besides Chambliss, four other Ferris State offensive players from last season are now on FBS rosters: running back Kannon Katzer (West Virginia), receiver Tyrese Hunt-Thompson (North Texas) and offensive tackles Bryce George (Iowa) and Lawrence Hattar (Michigan). Two Bulldogs’ defensive players from a year ago are in DI in linebacker Sefa Saipaia (Western Michigan) and safety Lento Smith Jr. (Tulsa), while cornerback Jacarvis Alexandre committed to Jacksonville State earlier this year but is now back in the transfer portal.
The movement not only reflects the talent of Ferris State’s roster but also the willingness of Division I coaches to search for players who until the past year had almost always been overlooked. The pressure on DI coaches to win is as acute as ever, and those programs can lure players with the promise of NIL deals and even a salary because nearly all Division I programs now pay players directly via revenue sharing, which was part of the House v. NCAA settlement that passed earlier this year.
While Ferris State wasn’t part of the House settlement and doesn’t pay players directly, the football program does have a multi-year partnership with Opendorse to help facilitate NIL deals, although even Annese and athletics director Steve Brockelbank admit the Bulldogs can’t compete with the major Division I programs when it comes to money.
“Guys are being bombarded with people who are saying, ‘Hey, I can get you $100,000 if you get in the transfer portal,’” Annese said. “It’s just a crazy dynamic out there.”
Said Brockelbank: “Do I think (the Opendorse deal) helps? Yes. Is it going to stop a Power Four (conference) school from taking one of our student athletes if they want to leave? We’re never going to match the financial offers that those folks are going to make towards our student athletes.”
Still, Brockelbank added that “anytime we can help student athletes out, whether it be academically, financially, socially, character development, whatever it is, I think it all adds up. And it all helps us retain them.”
Despite the defections, Ferris State was able to keep five players who had put their names in the transfer portal before pulling out, and the Bulldogs continue to have a strong roster, which has been a mainstay since Annese’s early days. After graduating from Alma College in 1983, Annese coached and taught at six high schools in Michigan, winning more than 82% of his games in 22 seasons as a head coach, before taking over in January 2009 at Grand Rapids Community College.
In December 2011, Ferris State hired Annese, who was 30-4 the previous three seasons at the junior college level. After going 7-4 and 8-3 in his first two seasons at Ferris State, the Bulldogs won their first 11 games in 2014 before losing to Ohio Dominican in the second round of the NCAA playoffs, the first time in 18 years that they made the NCAAs since 1996. Since then, Ferris State has been the nation’s best Division II program.
The Bulldogs benefit from having a large roster (139 players), with 85 of them coming from Michigan and 30 from Florida, a state that Annese has recruited hard since his junior college days. He has built strong relationships with high school coaches in Florida who see Ferris State as a good landing spot for players who are under the radar of Division I coaches. Of the 33 high school players Ferris State signed in February, 11 are from Florida.
Annesse has also had less assistant coaching turnover compared with most other programs. His son, Steve, is the offensive coordinator and has been on the staff since Annese arrived 14 years ago, as has Ryan Hodges, the senior defensive assistant, and Jack Schugars, the special teams coordinator. Tony Annese and Grant Caserta, the co-defensive coordinators, have been on the staff for several years, while assistant head coach Brian Rock has known Annese since 1991.
“It’s been really good, really a stable situation,” Annese said. “That helps a lot when you’ve got guys that are committed to being with you for a long time.”
Said Brockelbank: “There’s a great level of trust that those kids have with his entire staff. He just pours a lot of love and attention in the young people…What has happened here, as the results have come, it’s allowed us to recruit a higher and higher caliber football player, but he continues to do the same thing and pour that time and love and attention into them. And the results follow.”
Ferris State is currently on a 20-game winning streak, including six consecutive victories this season. The Bulldogs lead Division II in scoring offense (56.5 points per game) and are third in scoring defense (9.5 points allowed per game). Quarterback Wyatt Bower, a redshirt freshman from Michigan, has completed 65.4% of his passes for 12 touchdowns and no interceptions and run for a team-high 471 yards and eight touchdowns.
When Annese recruited Bower, he thought he would bring Bower along slowly, just like he had done with Chambliss, who didn’t play at all his first two seasons and only threw 33 passes before having a breakthrough last season when he threw for 2,925 yards and 31 touchdowns and ran for 1,019 yards and 25 touchdowns. But as Chambliss continued to shine last season, Annese knew Division I programs would be interested. Annese said Chambliss didn’t initially want to leave Ferris State, but he eventually couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play at Ole Miss.
“(The transfer portal) is over time potentially going to be a (problem),” Annese said. “The realization is that we either sell it (to recruits) about Trinidad and the success of our guys or we’re negligent. We’ve got to sell our success. We’ve got to sell the success of the guys that have moved on.”
Brockelbank and the Ferris State administration has been contacting donors and boosters and local companies about the new reality, where recruits and players are considering NIL deals when making decisions.
“It’s happening slowly,” Brockelbank said. “I think it’s a lot for people to digest. It’s quite a change in college football. And certainly, I think it took a while for people to understand it at the Division I level. It’s trickled down to our level. Now, we’re going through an education process with the folks that engage with our football program and the importance of (NIL) and how to get involved with it. It takes time, but we’re certainly seeing increased engagement.”
At the same time, Annese and Brocklebank understand the portal may even help Ferris State. Yes, the Bulldogs can only offer a total of 36 scholarships, the maximum allowed in Division II, compared with 105 scholarships at DI. And they can’t compete with the NIL and revenue share figures that DI programs offer. Still, as DI schools continue targeting transfers, that leaves fewer opportunities for high school players, who may instead start looking at DII schools such as Ferris State. From there, Annese is betting that the program’s success of winning championships and graduating players can help with roster continuity.
“Our hope is to be so profoundly connected with young people that you get them to just want to be part of your program,” Annese said “Some of our better players are so loyal, and they could move on, but they’re just so loyal…From my perspective, our culture is the best in the nation. That’s my selling point. Some of them may not believe that, but that’s just the way I approach it.”