Quarterback transfers 2022: Many high profile QBs on the move Opinion

Eric Kjar, Corner Canyon High School head football coach and quarterback guru, recently taught a class when messages from the country’s most prestigious football schools from head coaches and offensive coordinators were suddenly bombarded on his phone.

“My phone just exploded,” he said. “I was wondering what the hell is going on?”

It turned out that one of his former game hailstones, Jaxson Dart, who started at USC last season and was considered the future game builder of the Trojans, had entered the transfer portal. The coaches called to read about the quarterback’s plans and perhaps sign him. Dart himself called Kjar to tell him the news and discuss his options and has continued to be in touch with his former coach. So did Lincoln Riley, who had just switched from head coach in Oklahoma to head coach at USC.

“The coaching carousel is starting again,” says Kjar, whose former quarterback includes players from Ohio State, USC and the New York Jets.

Over the past week or so, Kjar has continued to receive calls from coaches in the USC, Iowa, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Nebraska, UCLA, Arizona State, BYU, Utah and others as they try to attract an award-winning QB. Dart has visited Ole Miss, Oklahoma and BYU. Ole Miss is probably a pioneer at the moment.

Dart’s move is part of a growing trend in college football and just one link in a chain reaction that began while he was still in high school. Welcome to the world of Quarterback Domino, a game that originated from the creation of the transfer portal.

Let’s start here: JT Daniels, recruited for five stars, was the starting point for USC until he broke his knee in the opening match of the 2019 season and lost his starting job to Kedon Slovis. So Daniels moved to Georgia in time for the 2020 season. He won the starting job in 2021 but was injured again and eventually knocked out the task from Stetson Bennett, who led the team to the national championship. Daniels has come to the portal for the second time.

Slovis in the meantime – Do you remember him? – started three seasons at USC, but then injured himself in 2021, opening the door for Dart, who played well enough in six games to win the job. He did what Slovis did to Daniels. Slovis moved to Pitti.

And yet the dominoes continued to fall. When Spencer Rattler, a Heisman Trophy candidate in Oklahoma earlier this season, lost his starting job to Caleb Williams in the 2021 season, he moved to South Carolina. This left the job to Williams alone. But wait…

After Riley left Oklahoma to take on the job of head coach at USC, Williams has announced that he will follow the coach to Los Angeles, leaving Oklahoma without either of last season’s starting players. It brings us back to where we started. As a result of Williams ’decision, Dart packed his bags and stepped into the transfer portal.

Follow it all?

Thanks to the transfer portal, university players have more mobility than NFL players; it has created what one coach called a “free agency” in the ranks of colleges. And of course, no station uses the portal more than quarterbacks for the simple reason that there is only one starting point per team and there are only 130 FBS Teams.

247 According to Sports, 24 start-up FBS quarter-builders have entered the portal during the current offseason – or 18.5% of start-up quarter-builders. This doesn’t even include former blue-chip colors Quinn Ewers (from Ohio to Texas), Rattler (Oklahoma to South Carolina) and Connor Bazelak (leaving Missouri), who are almost certain to start in new schools next season.

Speaking to the quarterbuilder movement, one quarterback said to 247, “It’s literally wild.”

Literally? (People still use that word; I don’t think it means what they think it means.)

Talented quarter builders flee to the portal to be guided to other schools. Dillon Gabriel, who threw 8,000 yards at UCF before being injured in 2021, announced his move to UCLA. just to change his mind 18 days later and instead was transferred to Oklahoma. Bazelak was the SEC’s freshman of the year in 2020; Ewers was the best quarterback in his class. And Rattler was a Heisman Trophy nominee in 2021 after his 2020 breakthrough performance.

The transfer portal has also played a big role as a quarterback in Utah schools. Charlie Brewer, Baylor’s four-year beginner, moved to Utah in 2021, started three games, and then moved to Liberty after losing his starting job to Cam Rising, who moved to Utah from Texas in 2019. Rising took Utes to the Rosen Bowl.

After starting 24 games in Arkansas State, Logan Bonner followed his coach Blake Anderson as the latter became the new head coach of Utah State. He led the Aggies for season 11-3. Baylor Romney, a brilliant and frequently used backup, was moved out of BYU (target unknown) because often injured Jaren Hall has a main lock in the start-up – that is, unless Dart moves to BYU. Dart visited the school recently.

274 According to Sports, there were 248 four- and five-star quarter-builders between 2010 and 2019, 63% of whom moved at least once. The number increased with the creation of the transfer portal in the fall of 2018. 247 According to Sports, since 2016 – the first category able to use the transfer portal – 21 out of 20 four- and five-star quarter-builders have moved at least once, and 68% of these quarter-builders moved at least once (and more may still leave in the future).

It seems like a long time ago that players had to sit outside a year after moving to another school. It’s a different era in college gaming.