National Signing Day is supposed to be a day of optimism in college football. Every program in the country signs a new group of players and looks toward a future when they will appear on the field for their team.

But at Northwestern, and countless other programs across the country, the cold reality of the transfer portal darkened what would normally be a bright day.

The Wildcats welcomed 20 new signees on Wednesday, announcing them each with social media posts. Yet on the same day, three multi-year starters announced their intention to transfer. Think about it: the program holds the door open for their future freshmen to come in, and a trio of seasoned veterans slip out the back door.

It’s a vicious circle, and one made all the more troublesome by the fact that two players who announced their intentions to leave — guard Josh Thompson and safety Devin Turner – received All-Big Ten honorable mention accolades just the day before. Then, later in the day came a report that two-year starting cornerback Theran Johnson, a second-team All-Big Ten pick and the Wildcats’ best cover corner, was also entering the portal.

Head coach David Braun not only has to accept this new reality, but embrace it. Both Thompson and Turner got their degrees; all of them contributed to the program for three or four years. They gave their hearts and souls to Northwestern football for both Braun and previous head coach Pat Fitzgerald.

Braun tips his cap to them, even if he didn’t mention them by name.

“You know, anyone that decides to leave our program, [I] wish them nothing but the best,” he said during his signing day press conference, which is supposed to be about the 20 new Wildcats but became more about other issues within the sport. “But the thing that I've completely embraced, you know, in this landscape is, I'm not going to put any energy into being concerned about those that leave. I'm going to put all my effort and energy into the young men that that that want to be here, that understand the value of being here.”

That’s true. While some fans may view a player leaving a program as something akin to treason, many within the football industry now look at them more like you or I would view an employee leaving your company for another. A colleague switching jobs is generally not something held against a person.

The same goes for football players. Teammates and coaches may be saddened by their departure, but they generally don’t take it personally. The player is doing what’s best for himself, and no one blames them for that.

But my question for Braun was whether the departures of starters like Thompson, Turner or Johnson, or even of long snapper Will Halkyard the day before, damage a school like Northwestern more than most other programs. Braun likes to say over and over that Northwestern is a development program. So they develop players who eventually earn All-Big Ten recognition, only to lose them to another program that can reap the benefits of their work.

It has to be frustrating. Does Northwestern have a more difficult time absorbing losses like those?

“Yeah, that's a good question,” said Braun. “I mean, the whole thing is flipped on its head and we're trying to figure it out.”

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Then he talked about some new developments within the football office and the athletic department that WildcatReport wrote about a week ago. He believes that Northwestern is now better positioned to replace players like that in the transfer portal due to some process improvements.

“I think there was really unique opportunity in the new landscape for us to do it better than we've ever done,” he said. “Clearly from this class, signing 20 guys shows a true commitment to continue to be a developmental program, and [we want] to build it from the high school ranks, up.

“But moving forward, you know, I think with the way that things are structured, and some of the things that we're going to be able to [do], things that we've already put into place from a process standpoint, I think now more than ever, we're structured to strategically identify the right transfers that we think fit our culture that can help us immediately. And that's something that we're really excited about.”

He should be. Northwestern in the past has moved about as quickly as tectonic plates to react to new forces within college sports. Things seem to have accelerated significantly since Braun, and new athletic director Mark Jackson, jumped on board. Fundraising efforts have also been increased; sources tell WildcatReport that TrueNU, Northwestern’s NIL collective, now has significantly more NIL money than they did in the past to go after transfers.

Braun said that his coaching and recruiting staffs have been combing the portal “absolutely full tilt from Sunday morning on” to identify and contact prospects in the portal.

More than that, however, some changes that have streamlined the admissions process will enable the Wildcats to be much more active in the first transfer portal window that runs from Dec. 9 through 28.

That represents a seismic change for the program. In the past, because of Northwestern’s quarter system and the time it took for Northwestern’s admissions department to make decisions on players, the overwhelming majority of Wildcat transfers were added in the spring portal window, well after most transfers found new homes in the winter.

Northwestern, for example, landed transfers like quarterback Peyton Ramsey in March, quarterback Ben Bryant in May and wide receiver AJ Henning in April. All three turned out to be fantastic additions to the program, but NU had to pick from a limited pool of mostly players who found out in spring practice at their previous school that they weren’t in their plans for the upcoming season.

If the Wildcats can now identify targets in the early window and enroll them into school in January, it will benefit them in two ways: one, the pool of potential players will be increased greatly; and two, the new transfers will be able to take part in winter workouts and then spring practice.

There’s already some evidence: Northwestern on Monday offered Tulsa transfer tackle Jack Tanner, within hours of his entering the transfer portal. He plans to enroll with his new team in January and has three years of eligibility remaining. He’s a player the Wildcats likely couldn’t have considered last season.

Braun thanked Jackson, interim deputy athletic director Pat Goss and TrueNU executive director Jacob Schmidt for their roles in this effort, as well as the leaders of the university itself, such as president Michael Schill and provost Kathleen Hagerty.

“There's still a lot to work through, and still a lot of conversations that need to be had, but there's also been an awareness that this landscape is changing and we need to be willing to adapt,” said Braun. “I've been really grateful for the willingness to have those conversations, and I think there's truly is the ability for us to find some, some ways to successfully get transfers in, not just in June, but at the mid-year and at the spring quarter break point, before the majority of spring ball starts, that will be really critical to us developing in evaluating our team.”

The landscape of college football continues to shift. Braun and Northwestern are making every effort to change along with them.