Tuesdays with Gorni: Transfer of a QB who achieves success at the highest levels

Lady will face Ohio State for the national championship on Monday night and both teams have transfer quarterbacks like the Irish Riley Leonard came from Duke and the Buckeyes’ Will Howard played on Kansas State.

Three of the top four quarterbacks – Howard, Leonard and Texas‘ Quinn Ewers – in the final four of the college football playoff there were transfers like Penn State‘s Drew Aller was the only one to sign the same program from high school.

From 2017 to this season, six quarterbacks have won the Heisman Trophy. Alabama‘s Bryce Young was the only non-transfer as Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels started on other programs.

What’s also amazing about that list is that by moving almost all of them except Williams, who was great in Oklahoma before it shines in USC after following the coach Lincoln Rileythey rejuvenated their careers at their other schools.

Ex Ohio State coach Urban Meyer he famously told Burrow that he pitches like a girl. Burrow was then transferred to LSU where he had one of his best seasons ever and turned it into a #1 overall pick.

Mayfield started in the Texas Tech before rising to stardom at Oklahoma where he was the No. 1. Murray threw for five touchdowns and seven interceptions in his one season Texas A&Mtransferred to play for the Sooners and two years later threw for 4,361 yards and 42 TDs before becoming the No. 1 selection.

Williams was the Chicago Bears’ most straightforward No. 1 overall draft pick in the last draft, and Daniels, who led the Washington Commanders to the franchise’s first playoff win in nearly two decades, was the second overall pick.

This year’s Heisman Trophy winner? Travis Huntertransfer to Colorado from Jackson State, and while not a quarterback, is the first two-way player to win college football’s most prestigious individual award since Charles Woodson 1997 (Hunter would be born six years later).

There were six quarterbacks in the first 12 picks of the 2024 NFL Draft, an incredible streak, and at the time some of those selections – Atlanta took Michael Penix Jr. and Denver is going for Bo Nix – it looked questionable.

Four of those QBs (Williams, Daniels, Penix and Nix) were transfers. Penix’s career was going nowhere Indianahe moved to Washington and led the Huskies to the state championship. Nix, a former five-star, was wandering Auburntransferred to Oregonentered the Heisman race and became a superstar for the Ducks.

Mock drafts heading into this draft cycle look super heavy on transfer quarterbacks as well.

Miami‘s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders likely to be a top 10 pick, and both are transfers. Ward is actually a double transfer who starred in Incarnate Word before acting Washington State before starring with the Hurricanes.

There used to be a belief that a transfer, especially at quarterback, was a red flag for NFL scouts, an indication that a player had decided to run when the going got tough. Those days and those beliefs are long gone as many players – especially at quarterback – find greater success by not sticking with the program they chose out of high school.