KRAGTHORPE: Utah's college QBs are on the move
In September, when Brigham Young is appearing at the Rose Bowl, the Cougars will be facing former BYU quarterback Ben Olson of UCLA, while Arizona State transfer Max Hall is quarterbacking them, another ex-BYU quarterback is playing for a California junior college and yet another former Cougar is continuing his rehabilitation . . . somewhere.
Welcome to college football's version of free agency.
Cade Cooper's decision to leave BYU before ever playing, which followed Jimmy Barnes' transfer from Alabama to Weber State, drove home the point again last week. As South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier once said, "Quarterbacks transfer."
It is the shortest sentence Spurrier has ever uttered. And the truest.
The reasons vary, the circumstances change, but the phenomenon persists - with no guaranteed results for either party. There will always be a market for a talented, unhappy quarterback, whatever the source of his displeasure. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham called it "a no-brainer" for his program when Tommy Grady wanted to leave Oklahoma and join the Utes, a move Grady should be having serious second thoughts about, as it turns out.
Just as the Jazz drafted Morris Almond mostly for his shooting skills and, two days later, began pursuing free agent Morris Peterson for his shooting ability, college football coaches will always find room for another arm.
Any obligation they may have to the current quarterbacks in the program is apparently overriden by their responsibility to the rest of the team, the fans, the administration and, let's be honest, themselves to keep bringing in the best athletes available at the moment.
So they also have to be forgiving when their own QBs are looking to leave.
Cooper became the latest quarterback to transfer from BYU, believing the timing of the foot injury that will sideline him this season will keep him from ever taking the job away from Hall, who probably never would have transferred from ASU if Olson had not transferred to UCLA. Follow that? And at this point, Jacob Bower might be BYU's No. 2 quarterback, except he transferred to a junior college last winter after coaches suggested he try another position.
In Ogden, the arrival of the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Barnes had to come as a shock to the quarterbacks who expected to resume their competition for the starting job next month. If it's not fair to them, it's definitely rewarding to Wildcat fans who lived with the losses of former quarterbacks Brad Otton (USC) and Josh Heupel (Oklahoma) to big-name schools in the 1990s.
Big Sky Conference rival Montana has continually thrived with transfers who, like Barnes, were eligible to play immediately at the lower level. That's a strong national trend lately, and so is the movement of QBs from one Bowl Championship Series conference to another.
Max Keller, who went from Arizona State to Nebraska, and Allan Evridge, who moved from Kansas State to Wisconsin, could be quarterbacking Top 10 teams this season. Mitch Mustain, once the country's most celebrated recruits, moved from Arkansas to USC after his freshman year and will redshirt.
It's just the nature of the position. As soon as BYU began developing and stockpiling quarterback talent in the 1970s, players started leaving. Some of them went on to have at least moderate success elsewhere. Quarterbacks who have transferred to Utah schools, however, have generally struggled in the 35 years since ex-Texas quarterback Tony Adams starred for Utah State.
And then there are the cases of QBs including Steve Young, Brandon Doman and Alex Smith, who were rewarded for staying, amid the temptation to transfer.
As for Cooper and Barnes, here are three examples each of success stories and cautionary tales that fit their situations: Inspired Moves
- Josh Heupel. The plan, as of 1998 when Dave Arslanian moved from Weber State to Utah State as head coach, was for Heupel to play a season at Snow College and then join the Aggies. Except Oklahoma's new staff - with coach Bob Stoops and offensive coordinator Mike Leach - needed a passing quarterback for its new system and grabbed Heupel, who ended up leading the Sooners to a national championship and finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting as a senior.
- Drew Miller. Figuring he was stuck behind Kevin Feterik and would have to compete with Bret Engemann, Charlie Peterson and Doman, Miller transferred to Montana. The move worked out well, despite Miller's subsequent injuries. He took the Grizzlies to the national championship game as a junior in 2000.
- Brett Elliott. An injury in the second game of his junior season ended Elliott's Utah career in '03, thanks mostly to Smith. Elliott transferred to Division III Linfield College in Oregon and posted astounding numbers during an unbeaten, national championship season, earning an NFL contract.
The disasters
- Tommy Grady. With two years of fast-forwarding, it's easy to say Grady made a huge mistake by leaving Oklahoma in August 2005. The way things appear, he will spend five years in college without ever starting a game, after once being the country's No. 2 quarterback recruit. Grady likely would have played in '06, amid the Sooners' quarterbacking problems, and certainly would have taken over last year after Rhett Bomar was declared ineligible. At Utah, he could not unseat Brett Ratliff, and now Brian Johnson's healthy again.
- Steve Clements. He left Texas after the 1990 season and figured he could follow another Texan, Ty Detmer, as BYU's quarterback after redshirting. Instead, injuries and John Walsh's play kept Clements from ever owning the position.
- Mike Affleck. He may have been forever lost among Keller, Hall and others at Arizona State, but one of the state's top prep QB recruits did not help himself by transferring initially to BYU, then to Utah State. Of Timpview High's acclaimed quarterbacks - Affleck, Danny Southwick (Oregon State) and Cooper - none has stayed at his original four-year school, or profited from moving.
At least, not yet, as Cooper can only hope.
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