August 28, Wall Street Journal
There’s a Quarterback Who’s About to Destroy College Football. You’ve Probably Never Heard of Him.
Aug. 28, 2024 7:00 am ET
As the new college football season kicks off in earnest this weekend, there’s one thing that counts as a near certainty.
We’re about to witness a quarterback emerge from complete obscurity to become one of the most prolific passers in the country. Over the next four months, he’ll carve up opposing defenses, rewrite a bunch of school records, and put his team squarely in contention for a national championship.
There’s just one thing we don’t know: who that quarterback actually is.
In the years since a little-known benchwarmer named Joe Burrow came out of nowhere to pilot the most productive offense in college football history at Louisiana State, the sport has seen a succession of unheralded quarterbacks explode into the spotlight after switching schools for their final seasons of eligibility.
Burrow laid out the blueprint for these late bloomers five years ago. He transferred to get a shot at starting. He blossomed into a laser-accurate passer. Then he won the Heisman Trophy, led his team to a national championship, and became the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
At the time, it seemed like Burrow’s jaw-dropping rise was the sort of fairy tale that wouldn’t be repeated for a generation. Now, these out-of-nowhere quarterbacks are suddenly everywhere.
Last season, the top three players in the Heisman Trophy voting all belonged to this new quarterback archetype. Jayden Daniels won the Heisman at LSU as a fifth-year senior after transferring from Arizona State. Michael Penix Jr. finished second, leaving Indiana and a trail of injuries behind him as he emerged as the leading passer in the nation in his sixth year at Washington. And Bo Nix came in third, resurrecting his career as a fifth-year senior at Oregon following a tumultuous start at Auburn.
All three of those players were drafted in the top 12 of the NFL draft in April. Before they broke out during their final seasons on campus, none of them was considered a likely first-rounder.
The upshot is that the quarterback who might shred your favorite team in the newly expanded 12-team playoff come December is most likely someone that you’ve never heard of before.
This phenomenon owes something to the series of rules changes that have been implemented since Burrow blazed a trail in 2019. In 2021, the NCAA did away with the one-time transfer exemption that required football players to sit out a season after switching schools for the first time. Later that year, the NCAA allowed players to start cashing in on their name, image and likeness, creating powerful financial incentives for athletes to seek out starting opportunities.
Thanks to a wave of lawsuits, those rules were relaxed even further this spring. Previously players still had to sit out after transferring a second time. Now, athletes can transfer as many times as they like, provided they remain academically eligible.
The upshot is that every offseason, a growing number of quarterbacks are testing their luck and entering the transfer portal in search of more snaps, more talented teammates and more opportunities to win titles. Likewise, teams are actively hunting for those formerly overlooked and under-recruited passers who just might lift them to the national title game, like Burrow did with LSU.
That makes it almost impossible to identify which under-the-radar quarterback will become college football’s next superstar passer ahead of time. But it’s likely to be someone who looks a lot like Cam Ward.
Ward was a zero-star recruit who began his college football career at Incarnate Word, a small Catholic school in Texas. When his coach took a job at Washington State, Ward followed him to Pullman, Wash. There, his star grew—but not quite enough to make his dream of playing in the NFL a reality. So this spring, he became the most tantalizing quarterback in the transfer portal.
After a flood of interest, Ward ended up about as far away from Washington State as college football could take him. On Saturday, he’ll start his first game under center at the University of Miami.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal is betting that Ward, like Burrow, can help Miami get back to winning conference titles—and beyond.
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“We believe,” Cristobal said in July, “that Cam Ward will allow Miami to do things that Miami hasn’t been able to do in a long, long time.”
There are plenty more passers like Ward across the top level of college football in 2024. Riley Leonard parlayed a breakout year at Duke in 2023 into the starting job at Notre Dame. Grayson McCall, a former standout at Coastal Carolina, is now the starter at North Carolina State.
This quarterback shuffle has become so common that the players on the move aren’t just no-name backups in search of a break. They’re multiyear starters from major programs. Dillon Gabriel, a five-year starter (three at Central Florida, two at Oklahoma), is about to embark on his sixth season as a starter at Oregon.
Not every program engages in these kinds of roster gambles. Carson Beck at No. 1-ranked Georgia and Jalen Milroe at Alabama are homegrown talents. Quinn Ewers played all of two downs at Ohio State before leaving for Texas, where he’s spent the last two years starting for the Longhorns. Ewers returns for 2024, with sophomore Arch Manning nipping at his heels.
Not every move in this nationwide game of quarterback musical chairs pans out, either. For every Joe Burrow, there’s plenty of passers who turn out to be average joes.
D.J. Uiagalelei found some success at Oregon State after a tough two years at Clemson to start his career. This spring, he transferred to Florida State, where he struggled through a difficult debut in Ireland last weekend that culminated in an upset loss to Georgia Tech.
It was a defeat few saw coming, though maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise. The man starting for the Yellow Jackets was Haynes King, another fifth-year quarterback transfer.
There’s a Quarterback Who’s About to Destroy College Football. You’ve Probably Never Heard of Him.
Aug. 28, 2024 7:00 am ET
As the new college football season kicks off in earnest this weekend, there’s one thing that counts as a near certainty.
We’re about to witness a quarterback emerge from complete obscurity to become one of the most prolific passers in the country. Over the next four months, he’ll carve up opposing defenses, rewrite a bunch of school records, and put his team squarely in contention for a national championship.
There’s just one thing we don’t know: who that quarterback actually is.
In the years since a little-known benchwarmer named Joe Burrow came out of nowhere to pilot the most productive offense in college football history at Louisiana State, the sport has seen a succession of unheralded quarterbacks explode into the spotlight after switching schools for their final seasons of eligibility.
Burrow laid out the blueprint for these late bloomers five years ago. He transferred to get a shot at starting. He blossomed into a laser-accurate passer. Then he won the Heisman Trophy, led his team to a national championship, and became the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft.
At the time, it seemed like Burrow’s jaw-dropping rise was the sort of fairy tale that wouldn’t be repeated for a generation. Now, these out-of-nowhere quarterbacks are suddenly everywhere.
Last season, the top three players in the Heisman Trophy voting all belonged to this new quarterback archetype. Jayden Daniels won the Heisman at LSU as a fifth-year senior after transferring from Arizona State. Michael Penix Jr. finished second, leaving Indiana and a trail of injuries behind him as he emerged as the leading passer in the nation in his sixth year at Washington. And Bo Nix came in third, resurrecting his career as a fifth-year senior at Oregon following a tumultuous start at Auburn.
All three of those players were drafted in the top 12 of the NFL draft in April. Before they broke out during their final seasons on campus, none of them was considered a likely first-rounder.
The upshot is that the quarterback who might shred your favorite team in the newly expanded 12-team playoff come December is most likely someone that you’ve never heard of before.
This phenomenon owes something to the series of rules changes that have been implemented since Burrow blazed a trail in 2019. In 2021, the NCAA did away with the one-time transfer exemption that required football players to sit out a season after switching schools for the first time. Later that year, the NCAA allowed players to start cashing in on their name, image and likeness, creating powerful financial incentives for athletes to seek out starting opportunities.
Thanks to a wave of lawsuits, those rules were relaxed even further this spring. Previously players still had to sit out after transferring a second time. Now, athletes can transfer as many times as they like, provided they remain academically eligible.
The upshot is that every offseason, a growing number of quarterbacks are testing their luck and entering the transfer portal in search of more snaps, more talented teammates and more opportunities to win titles. Likewise, teams are actively hunting for those formerly overlooked and under-recruited passers who just might lift them to the national title game, like Burrow did with LSU.
That makes it almost impossible to identify which under-the-radar quarterback will become college football’s next superstar passer ahead of time. But it’s likely to be someone who looks a lot like Cam Ward.
Ward was a zero-star recruit who began his college football career at Incarnate Word, a small Catholic school in Texas. When his coach took a job at Washington State, Ward followed him to Pullman, Wash. There, his star grew—but not quite enough to make his dream of playing in the NFL a reality. So this spring, he became the most tantalizing quarterback in the transfer portal.
After a flood of interest, Ward ended up about as far away from Washington State as college football could take him. On Saturday, he’ll start his first game under center at the University of Miami.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal is betting that Ward, like Burrow, can help Miami get back to winning conference titles—and beyond.
Advertisement
“We believe,” Cristobal said in July, “that Cam Ward will allow Miami to do things that Miami hasn’t been able to do in a long, long time.”
There are plenty more passers like Ward across the top level of college football in 2024. Riley Leonard parlayed a breakout year at Duke in 2023 into the starting job at Notre Dame. Grayson McCall, a former standout at Coastal Carolina, is now the starter at North Carolina State.
This quarterback shuffle has become so common that the players on the move aren’t just no-name backups in search of a break. They’re multiyear starters from major programs. Dillon Gabriel, a five-year starter (three at Central Florida, two at Oklahoma), is about to embark on his sixth season as a starter at Oregon.
Not every program engages in these kinds of roster gambles. Carson Beck at No. 1-ranked Georgia and Jalen Milroe at Alabama are homegrown talents. Quinn Ewers played all of two downs at Ohio State before leaving for Texas, where he’s spent the last two years starting for the Longhorns. Ewers returns for 2024, with sophomore Arch Manning nipping at his heels.
Not every move in this nationwide game of quarterback musical chairs pans out, either. For every Joe Burrow, there’s plenty of passers who turn out to be average joes.
D.J. Uiagalelei found some success at Oregon State after a tough two years at Clemson to start his career. This spring, he transferred to Florida State, where he struggled through a difficult debut in Ireland last weekend that culminated in an upset loss to Georgia Tech.
It was a defeat few saw coming, though maybe it shouldn’t have been such a surprise. The man starting for the Yellow Jackets was Haynes King, another fifth-year quarterback transfer.
