Freeze has publicly stated that he wants a portal QB, one that can help us win. That, to me, is crystal clear that he has looked at the QB room and is not satisfied.
I can’t state with absolute certainty, but I would bet the ranch that NIL deals can only be made with scholarship players. If that isn’t the case then there would be no point In scholarship limits.
In years past that was done to circumvent scholarship limits, but that practice is no longer available. An academic scholarship to a football player is now counted as one of the 85 scholarships.