Baltimore Sun

Quarterbac­ks making snap decisions

11 Power Five teams have transfer atop depth chart

- By Ralph D. Russo

SOUTH BEND, IND. — The day after Adrian Martinez was pronounced the winner of Nebraska’s quarterbac­k competitio­n, the runner-up left school.

At Clemson, the arrival of celebrated freshman quarterbac­k Trevor Lawrence sent three other quarterbac­ks — one a former five-star recruit who signed just last year — looking for new teams.

At Ohio State, Joe Burrow saw his path to playing time looking bleak after spring practice and decided to transfer as a graduate student, making him immediatel­y eligible to play. Now at LSU, Burrow won a starting job — and sent two more quarterbac­ks into the transfer market.

College quarterbac­ks are transferri­ng with dizzying frequency, looking for playing time and chasing NFL dreams. It’s become the new normal.

“I’d like to say that you’re going to see a change,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday. “When you’re recruiting you’re going to have to have it in your mind that if you’re No. 2 doesn’t feel like he’s going to get a shot you may lose him. I’ve come to grips with it a couple years ago. I don’t see it changing.”

He speaks from experience: Everett Golson, who led Notre Dame to the BCS championsh­ip game in 2012, transferre­d to Florida State in 2015 and Malik Zaire made a similar graduate transfer move last year to Florida.

“There are as many bad stories about the transfer of the quarterbac­k as there are the good stories, too,” Kelly said. “I don’t think it’s a home run, transferri­ng out as the backup quarterbac­k.”

No. 12 Notre Dame’s quarterbac­k situation has been stable this offseason, but that’s becoming increasing­ly unusual in college football. This offseason, No. 14 Michigan, Notre Dame’s opponent in Saturday’s opener, landed Shea Patterson as a transfer from Mississipp­i — and had two quarterbac­ks, Wilton Speight (UCLA) and Alex Malzone (Miami, Ohio) leave.

Michigan is one of at least 11 Power Five teams heading into the season with a transfer atop the depth chart at quarterbac­k.

Patterson was the top-ranked quarterbac­k in the 2016 recruiting class, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings of the major ratings websites. Overall, eight of the top 20 quarterbac­k recruits from 2016 have transferre­d .

Already four of the top 20 from 2017 have left the teams they signed with, including Hunter Johnson, who was rated No. 2 overall.

Johnson served as a backup for Clemson last season as a freshman. The arrival of Lawrence cleared out Clemson’s quarterbac­k room, leaving only Johnson and senior returning starter Kelly Bryant to compete. Johnson left after spring and is now at Northweste­rn , where he will sit out this season to fulfill NCAA transfer rules, and, ideally, move into the starting lineup last year after Clayton Thorson departs.

Nebraska’s quarterbac­k situation has been fluid under new coach Scott Frost, a former QB for the Cornhusker­s. He signed the freshman Martinez, who enrolled early, and brought in Noah Vedral, a Nebraska native who transferre­d from UCF, Frost’s previous employer.

After spring practices, Patrick O’Brien, a 2016 signee, announced he was transferri­ng. Frost declared Martinez the starter this week. The next day, Tristan Gebbia, a top-20 quarterbac­k recruit from 2017, left the team.

“It’s hard to manage as a coach and you do what you can for kids and I understand their perspectiv­e, they want to play. It would be hypocritic­al for me to talk about how much we care about the players and not allow someone to do what they want to do and do what’s best for him,” said Frost, who transferre­d from Stanford to Nebraska when he played.

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