Once upon a time, there was a blue-chip recruit who attended a nationally premier program hoping to compete immediately. However, when the quarterback arrived, he found himself seventh on the depth chart and spent three years trying to improve, playing only a handful of snaps on game day.
But the quarterback persevered and continued to fight for playing time, eventually starting his redshirt junior season — and even then having to share time with another highly touted prospect. It wasn’t easy, but it was a formative experience for Tom Brady, whose trials and tribulations at Michigan were rewarded in the NFL when he became the best to play his position.
If that sounds like a fairy tale to today’s budding Bradys, well, it is. In 2018, it certainly wouldn’t have happened this way – and it’s easy to wonder if Brady would have stayed at all.
As attention turns this week to the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six bowl games, the quarterback transfer market is the story that has the sport buzzing behind the scenes, having now become a as important a part of the college football zeitgeist as fanfares and playoff expansion. arguments.
In one way or another, this has affected each of the four playoff teams this year:
►Clemson’s quarterback room, which included several five-star prospects and a starter at the start of spring practice, is down to freshman Trevor Lawrence following the mid-season departure of Kelly Bryant.
►According to multiple reports Monday, Notre Dame backup Brandon Wimbush, who lost his starting job after three games this season, will soon be looking for a new team.
►Oklahoma has made the playoffs in consecutive years with transfer quarterbacks, both of whom won the Heisman Trophy along the way.
►And while nothing has been announced from former Alabama starter Jalen Hurts, he is expected to leave after the season and play his final year elsewhere after losing his job to Tua Tagovailoa.
In college football, this is now the norm. Last week, Justin Fields, who some analysts considered one of the most gifted prospects to come out of high school in years, began the process of transferring out of Georgia because he didn’t have a clear path to winning the starting job before 2020 or 2021 with Jake. Fromm on the way.
Fields could very well end up at Ohio State, which last spring had a glut of quarterbacks, prompting Joe Burrow to transfer to LSU, where he beat out Justin McMillan, who left in August and played a big role in bringing Tulane in its first bowl game since 2013.
Or sometimes the quarterback food chain runs the other way, like Gardner Minshew, who was basically unknown at East Carolina but threw for nearly 4,500 yards at Washington State.
Every year, these are the stories that define college football seasons, not Brady-style parables of patience. And for fans and coaches who bemoan the culture around the quarterback position, they better understand that it’s not going to go back to the way it was.
While it’s much easier for football professionals to talk about how loyalty and competition can build character and provide great life lessons, the smart business decision is often to leave. And the fundamental tension between ideal and reality came to the fore last week when Georgia coach Kirby Smart talked about Fields’ potential departure.
On the one hand, it’s a pretty devastating turn of events for Georgia to lose one of the most famous recruits in state history, someone whose recruiting took time and effort and months of communication and planning. At the same time, Smart essentially acknowledged that Georgia continued to recruit quarterbacks throughout the year because he understood what happened when big recruits didn’t play.
“I’m not the one who has to sit here and say whether this is right or wrong,” Smart said. “It’s our job as coaches to deal with that. This is the landscape we face today.
But it’s also a landscape that, in some ways, is self-inflicted. The quarterback position is unique because, barring injury, only one will play. And with the prevalence of private coaching, 7-on-7 football and spread offenses, quarterbacks are prepared to come in and contribute significantly as freshmen and sophomores. If they don’t, they will inevitably consider their options.
At the same time, a coach must recruit as many good quarterbacks as possible to account for the risk of injuries or other problems. For programs like Georgia, Alabama, or Clemson, having just one good QB on the roster puts you at risk of losing a chance to win a championship.
While there’s certainly an interesting debate over whether Hurts made the right choice for his career by staying at Alabama as a backup rather than retaining a season of eligibility, it was certainly a good move for Nick Saban. With Tagovailoa injured in the second half of the SEC Championship Game, Hurts played his first significant snaps of the season and led Alabama to a come-from-behind victory over Georgia.
“I think it’s a great example of why guys don’t need to run away and just transfer every chance they get or every time something isn’t working ” Saban said.
While it’s possible that this moment of redemption made the whole year worth it for Hurts, you could also make the case that his career and development would have been better served by going elsewhere and starting his final two college seasons in a program that really needed a quarterback. Instead, he’ll graduate from Alabama and likely look for a one-year landing spot, whether at Maryland with outgoing Alabama offensive coordinator Mike Locksley or at any number of programs that will be looking for someone with Hurts’ abilities.
And when it happens, applaud it.
Transferring is not a character flaw, and with the NCAA opening loopholes like the graduate transfer waiver that allow some players to transfer schools without having to sit out, players are going to do whatever it takes to get on the court and maximize the court. window of their career.
Fans may not like that this will hurt their favorite show, but they better get used to it. Tom Brady type stories are gone from college football and they’re not coming back.
