William Watson III threw 63 passes in three seasons at Virginia Tech.

In January he went home to Massachusetts, to a program 25 miles from Springfield that had just gone 0-12. Three weeks ago he went 19 of 22 at Rutgers, and UMass beat a Power Four team for the first time since 1978.

He is one row in a 272-row count, at one of five programs where the second portal cycle looked nothing like the first.

The second post in The Ledger, our count of what the portal did from the network's own record, takes the 29 programs that hired a head coach for 2025. Twenty-five of those coaches are still in the chair. Every one of them ran a second January with a full season of film on his own first class, and the record shows five different answers to the same question.

We counted every completed transfer the network recorded, in and out, at five of them: West Virginia, North Carolina, Purdue, UMass and Bowling Green. Counted September 22. Between them, 272 transfers. 131 in, 141 out. It is a long read, and the people in it are the point.

West Virginia turned its roster over a second time and got smaller doing it. North Carolina, a year after replacing 71 players, took 19 and let 28 go. Purdue went to Power Four rooms for 18 of its 29 arrivals. UMass went to FCS for nine of 26. Bowling Green sent 14 players up to Power Four programs and replaced its quarterback with the Division II conference MVP from Assumption, who beat out a transfer from Oregon for the job.

Most of the people in the count are not famous. A redshirt from a Division II program an hour from Morgantown, now on a Big 12 roster at safety. A Richmond linebacker with 120 tackles who got a call from Bill Belichick's staff within a day or two of entering the portal. A Bowling Green captain with 38 straight starts and one season left, now at Florida State.

The Senate is on the bill. On September 17 it voted 77 to 22 to take up the Protect College Sports Act, two days after invoking cloture on the motion to proceed, and the bill is now before the full Senate. So what: the 25 coaches in this week's count ran their second cycles under the rules as they stand. The rules the next January boards are built under are on the Senate floor.

Read a second cycle against the first before you read it against anyone else's.

1. Count the second January on its own. A staff's first cycle is a rebuild. The second one is the choice, and it is the one to count on its own. Pull the in and out columns for the current cycle only, and leave last year's numbers where they are.

2. Look at the shelf before the total. Purdue and UMass both added more players than they lost. Purdue added Power Four depth, 18 of 29. UMass added FCS starters, nine of 26. Same shape on the chart, a different answer to where a rebuild recruits.

3. Put the coach's own words next to the column. Rich Rodriguez in March: "A year ago, it was everything." And: "This year, we intentionally took a lot more high school guys." The record shows 38 in and 46 out. When the words and the column agree, you are reading the staff right.

Where each staff shopped, level by level, and who walked in the door: The second January

Twenty-five coaches ran a second January with a season of their own film. The record shows five different answers, and 272 rows with a person behind each one.

Explore the network.