When transfer portal prospects arrived in Tulsa for hurried, 24-hour visits a year ago, Tre Lamb’s new staff ran the usual playbook.

Show them downtown. Take them out for a fancy steak dinner. Tulsa treated it similarly to official visits for high schoolers, just shorter.

But the feedback from players who did sign with Tulsa was clear.

“They were like, ‘Yeah, that wasn’t that important to me. I’ve done all that,’” Lamb said.

This year, Tulsa wanted something outside the box that gave portal prospects what they did want. It landed on what Lamb and his staff are calling the Portal House.

When the transfer portal opens on Friday, Tulsa will be headquartered in a five-bedroom house near campus that spans around 5,000 square feet. Lamb, offensive coordinator Brad Robbins, defensive coordinator Josh Reardon and general manager Mason Behiel plan to sleep there every night, and position coaches will come and go. The rest of the house will be HQ for the Golden Hurricane during the portal window — with plenty to entertain prospects as they come in and out of the city over a whirlwind two weeks.

It’s a unique approach aimed at building relationships as deep as possible in visits that usually last only 24 hours and doing so in a low-stress environment that feels more like a hangout than a job interview.

“We can really see their true colors. And we’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing us,” Lamb said. “For guys we’re paying money to, we can’t miss. We can’t afford to miss on character. We wanted something different that gave us a chance to know them and them a chance to know us in a short 24-hour window.”

Tulsa found the house on Airbnb and booked it for the portal window. It has 11 beds, a seven-hole mini-golf course in the backyard, a heated pool, a yoga studio, a karaoke room and game room as well a fire pit and grill outside. (It’s not the home used in Tulsa’s graphic announcing the Portal House on Monday.)

There will be pool tables, ping pong and Xboxes with EA Sports’ College Football 26 ready for players to showcase their skills. The games could help reveal a player’s competitive fire, but Lamb says a player’s skill in the video game can reveal his football IQ, too.

“We have an Xbox in our players’ lounge in our facility and we keep tally of wins and losses throughout the year,” Lamb said.

There will be offensive and defensive film rooms in the house. When prospects visit, coaches can boot up Tulsa’s film to show how prospects could be used in the Golden Hurricanes’ systems.

Donors who will visit the house can watch film of prospects whose contracts they’re helping fund, too. Former players, including the Tulsa mayor, Monroe Nichols, will also visit. Current players aren’t on campus, but the 30ish players on the roster who are still in town plan to drop by from time to time.

This year, for the first time since players were given immediate eligibility after transfers, there is only one window in which prospects can enter the transfer portal. After Jan. 16, the portal closes. In previous years, there was a 30-day window in December and a second 15-day window in April.

That has put added pressure on coaching staffs.

“We all know how important this is. This is a new deal for all of us. You can’t fix it again in May if you mess it up,” Lamb said. “We have to be great during these 14 days and be efficient with our time and resources. If you miss on a kid, you can’t fix it. Our kids’ and coaches’ lives will be determined by these next 14 days. That’s just the fact of life in today’s college football.”

Tulsa will spend New Year’s Day setting up the decorations and film rooms to prepare for two weeks of visits. They want to be ready to bring in as many visitors as possible this weekend.

Prospects will usually arrive mid-morning. The player and whoever is with him — usually a parent, girlfriend or agent — will go with a coach to a nearby restaurant for lunch and an introductory conversation. For most players, it will be the first time they’ve met the coach in person.

They’ll get to know each other before checking out campus for a quick tour and a look at H.A. Chapman Stadium. If a player wants to meet with professors, the staff can arrange that. They’ll show him the coaches’ offices and team facility, as well as the weight room and a quick meeting with the strength coach and nutritionist to lay out the plan for that player over the next year.

Then they’ll show some film and break down where they see him fitting before taking him over to the Portal House.

At Tulsa, classes don’t begin until Jan. 21. That means campus will be quiet. There won’t be parties. Players can’t get a true feel for campus life. The Portal House is Tulsa’s attempt to combat that.

At night, Lamb plans to man the grill with hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks. Prospects will hang out at the house until after dinner. If they want to go out in town, they can. If they want to go back to the hotel, they can. If they want to crash at the house, they can do that, too.

The morning of their second day, Lamb will meet with prospects and, ideally, put a contract in front of a player. If he signs, it’s time to celebrate.

If he goes home with nothing signed, the staff knows it may be an uphill battle to land him. And if he doesn’t sign, the staff will arrange for another player at the position to come visit as soon as possible. Usually, there will be 4-6 visits happening simultaneously throughout the portal window.

But Tulsa’s strategy is to dial back the wining and dining and dial up the quality time to slow down an exercise often compared to speed dating.

“They want to know their incentives. How much am I being paid? How much am I going to play? Who’s coaching me? What’s my grad program? Where’s the locker room? Where am I walking to class?” Lamb said. “The factors are way different for transfers than for high school kids.”

The money for the house is coming out of Tulsa’s recruiting budget, Lamb said. The home is listed on Airbnb for about $5,200 for a week after the portal closes.

“You’re saving money because you’re not taking guys to Ruth’s Chris and Polo Grill every night where it’s $2,000-$3,000 dinners every single night,” Lamb said. “We flew in 40 transfers last year and took them all on $3,000 visits. You start doing the math there. You’ve got $180,000 in your recruiting budget. We would rather bring guys to campus and to this house than to go spend it on the road recruiting or taking them to fancy places.”

So far, the approach, which went public on social media on Monday, is working, Lamb said.

“We’ve already had a lot of traction with a lot of top transfers we know are going in the portal,” Lamb said. “Their agent has hit our GM up and said like, ‘Man, he really wants to see the house and come on a visit.’”

In addition to the on-the-ground recruiting operation, The Portal House will also be a content machine. Tulsa hired a creative team to create a content plan that includes daily skits.

The school can’t publish any content featuring players who haven’t signed, but plans to release short videos on each signee’s experience in the house and information about them to introduce them to Tulsa’s fan base.

The Golden Hurricane already invested in retaining freshman quarterback Baylor Hayes and most of the offensive line to keep them out of the portal. Tulsa beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater but finished 4-8 and 1-7 in American play in Lamb’s first year as head coach.

It signed 24 high school prospects in December, and hopes its outside-the-box approach leads to around 20 transfer additions in January.

“We’re going to try and adapt with the times and stay ahead of the times. We’re disruptive on defense, offense and special teams. We try to be creative,” Lamb said. “It’s no different in our approach to the portal.”