There are few more reliable sources of offseason hope in college football these days than the arrival of a transfer quarterback. A fresh face behind center can entice fans into changing their whole outlook on a team.
But some transfer quarterbacks hit, and others don’t. The 2024 season has had plenty of both so far. Now that we’ve reached the season’s midpoint, let’s take a look at which teams have done well with their transfer takes, which ones are still looking for answers and which ones have had injuries and other details create an uncertain outlook in mid-October.
ACC
Winner: Miami. The Hurricanes are undefeated thanks in large part to Heisman Trophy candidate Cam Ward. No transfer quarterback has thrown for more yards than Ward’s 2,219. The former Washington State and Incarnate Word passer is 15th among all FBS QBs in completion percentage (69.2) and is tied for the FBS lead with 20 touchdown passes.
Loser: Florida State. The Seminoles’ season has been a disaster, and the play of DJ Uiagalelei hasn’t helped. Of the 41 transfer quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks this season, Uiagalelei has the worst passing efficiency, according to TruMedia. He has completed just 53.8 percent of his passes for four touchdowns and six interceptions and missed the Clemson game with a finger injury. After going 13-1 a year ago, FSU is 1-5 in 2024.
Winner: Syracuse. Former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord has been a huge addition for the surprisingly 5-1 Orange. He ranks third nationally in passing yards (2,160) and second in the ACC in passing yards per game (360) and touchdown passes (19).
Incomplete: North Carolina. Former LSU and Texas A&M quarterback Max Johnson entered the year as the starter but broke his right leg in the season opener and will miss the rest of the year. It’s tough luck for Johnson, who suffered season-ending injuries in each of his two seasons at A&M. Jacolby Criswell, who started his career at UNC but spent 2023 at Arkansas and returned to Chapel Hill via the portal this offseason, has started the last four games, but the Tar Heels have lost all four. UNC’s issues have gone well beyond the quarterback position.
Winner: Pitt. Eli Holstein, a former blue-chip signee at Alabama, has dazzled in new coordinator Kade Bell’s offense. Holstein threw three touchdown passes in each of his first five starts before turning in his first underwhelming performance of the year in Saturday’s tight win over Cal. But Pitt is 6-0, and Holstein is a big reason. He’s third in the ACC in passing yards and has 15 touchdowns with five interceptions.
Incomplete: NC State. Coastal Carolina transfer Grayson McCall has only played two full games during the Wolfpack’s frustrating first half. He left a Week 3 win over Louisiana Tech with an injury and missed the next two games, pressing freshman CJ Bailey into action. McCall returned against Wake Forest on Oct. 5, took a huge hit from multiple defenders and was stretchered off and taken to the hospital before being released.
Winner: Louisville. Seventh-year senior and former Oregon and Texas Tech starter Tyler Shough had a terrific first three weeks, averaging 11.2 yards per attempt with no interceptions in the Cardinals’ 3-0 start. The last three weeks have been much more uneven, as Shough has posted a 59.8 completion percentage and thrown for 824 yards, six touchdowns and three interceptions while the Cards have gone 1-2. But he led a clutch game-winning drive Saturday to lift Louisville to a win over Virginia and keep the Cards in the ACC chase, and he has the league’s best touchdown-to-interception ratio (14-to-3).
Incomplete: Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are 2-4, but Hank Bachmeier, the former Louisiana Tech and Boise State starter, put up solid numbers in narrow losses to Virginia and Louisiana and also led a win at NC State.
Winner: Duke. Texas transfer Maalik Murphy led Duke to a 5-1 start but still has some room to grow in his first year as a full-time starter. His 14-to-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio is solid, but his completion percentage (60.1 percent) could stand to rise. He was over 61 percent in each of his first four starts but under that mark in the last two weeks, a 21-20 win over North Carolina and a 24-14 loss to Georgia Tech.
Big Ten
Winner: Oregon. Dillon Gabriel has been a key reason why the Ducks are No. 2 in the AP poll at the midway point. The former Oklahoma and UCF quarterback was nails in Saturday’s win against Ohio State, throwing for 341 yards with two touchdowns and averaging 10 yards per attempt. Gabriel leads his new conference in passing yards per game and has 13 touchdown passes, four touchdown runs and just three interceptions so far.
Loser: Northwestern. The Wildcats started former Mississippi State and Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright to begin the season but benched him after two games in favor of Jack Lausch. Wright did not throw a touchdown pass in his two outings.
Winner: Ohio State. Setting aside the game-ending slide that came a second too late in the Buckeyes’ loss to Oregon, former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard has been an excellent addition. He’s second in the Big Ten and sixth in the FBS in passer rating, and he has accounted for 19 touchdowns (14 passing, five rushing), adding an extra dimension to the Ohio State offense with his mobility.
Incomplete: Michigan State. The raw talent of Aidan Chiles is evident. He can make some impressive throws but he has been inconsistent and he has turned the ball over quite a bit, with eight interceptions and two fumbles lost so far. The ceiling for Chiles is high, but there’s a lot of work and patience required to get there.
Winner: Indiana. The Hoosiers have been one of the best stories of the season, and Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke has been the catalyst. He leads the nation in passing efficiency (192.1), is second in the Big Ten in completion percentage (73.8) and has an impressive 14-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Incomplete: Rutgers. Minnesota transfer Athan Kaliakmanis had a nice start to the year, but his last two games have been clunkers, completing just 39.1 percent of his passes for 289 yards and one touchdown with three interceptions in losses to Nebraska and Wisconsin. The Scarlet Knights scored a combined 14 points in the two defeats.
Winner: Washington. Mississippi State transfer Will Rogers has quietly had a solid season taking over for Michael Penix Jr., completing 72.2 percent of his passes and leading the Big Ten with 1,820 passing yards. He didn’t throw a pick in his first five games.
Incomplete: Wisconsin. The Badgers brought in Tyler Van Dyke from Miami, but a torn ACL suffered in the first series of Wisconsin’s loss to Alabama cut his season short.
Winner: Minnesota. New Hampshire transfer Max Brosmer has led the Gophers offense on a game-winning touchdown drive in two consecutive weeks. It hasn’t been perfect, but so far, Brosmer is showing why the Gophers’ staff was so excited about him, completing 68 percent of his passes and accounting for 12 touchdowns.
Big 12
Winner: Arizona State. The Sun Devils, picked last in the preseason Big 12 media poll, have been the surprise of the conference with their 5-1 start. There are a lot of reasons for that, and the play of Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt is one of them. He doesn’t jump off the page statistically, but he has made big plays in Arizona State’s upset of Utah, double-digit comeback win at Texas State and nail-biting win against Kansas, capped off by this touchdown pass in the final seconds.
ARIZONA STATE PUTS A TOUCHDOWN ON THE BOARD WITH SECONDS LEFT 😱‼️#Big12FB | 📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/JW8V6mFkRI
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) October 6, 2024
Loser: Baylor. Things haven’t gone according to plan for the Bears at quarterback. Toledo transfer Dequan Finn arrived with high expectations because of his extensive experience, but his first two starts left much to be desired and he hasn’t seen the field since suffering an injury in the loss to Utah. Even if he’s healthy, Sawyer Robertson — a 2023 transfer from Mississippi State — has played at a higher level.
Winner: Cincinnati. The Bearcats, another team picked to finish near the bottom of the league, are a pleasant surprise at 4-2 thanks to Indiana transfer Brendan Sorsby, who sits third in the Big 12 in passing yards and fourth in passing efficiency, with 13 touchdowns against just three interceptions.
Incomplete: UCF. Arkansas transfer KJ Jefferson seemed to be a nice fit for Gus Malzahn’s run-heavy offense, and the Knights’ 3-0 start gave them the look of an intriguing Big 12 contender, but things have gone sideways of late with three consecutive losses. Jefferson committed a total of four turnovers in losses to Colorado and Florida.
SEC
Winner: Vanderbilt. The acquisition of former New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia will go down in Commodore lore. The former unranked recruit who had to start out in junior college before getting an FBS sniff has turned Vandy into one of the stories of the season, leading it to an upset win over Alabama. His 9.1 yards per pass attempt, 10-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio and 388 rushing yards have made him a headache for opposing defenses.
Incomplete: Kentucky. Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff, a former five-star recruit, has completed 67 percent of his passes and averaged 9.3 yards per attempt in the Wildcats’ three wins. In their three losses, those numbers are 51.6 percent and 4.9 yards per attempt. Clearly, Kentucky needs more of the former from Vandagriff.
Winner: Arkansas. Former Boise State quarterback Taylen Green has provided a real boost to the Razorbacks’ offense during their nice 4-2 start. Green threw for 266 yards and completed 70 percent of his passes in an upset win over Tennessee and sits fourth in the SEC in passing yards. He’s also second in the SEC among QBs in rushing yards, with 326.
Incomplete: Mississippi State. Blake Shapen, the Baylor transfer quarterback brought in by new coach Jeff Lebby, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in a Week 4 loss to Florida. Shapen had eight touchdown passes and just one interception on the season and was averaging 9 yards per attempt when he suffered the injury.
Independents, Pac-12, Group of 5
Winner: North Texas. Few transfers have worked out as well as Chandler Morris has for the Mean Green. He’s the FBS co-leader in passing touchdowns with 20 alongside Cam Ward (another disciple of UNT coach Eric Morris). Chandler Morris is seventh in the FBS in passing yards and has the Mean Green off to their best start through six games since 1967.
Incomplete: Notre Dame. Duke transfer Riley Leonard had a rough start to the year, but is he finally figuring it out? After failing to throw a touchdown pass in his first three starts, he has six in his last three and hasn’t thrown an interception since the Week 2 loss to Northern Illinois. Notre Dame is 5-1, and Leonard’s completion percentage has been above 68 percent three of the last four weeks. His progress in the second half of the year will be key to the Fighting Irish’s College Football Playoff hopes.
Winner: UNLV. Although the Rebels became the center of attention following the Matthew Sluka NIL saga, there’s no denying that they did well with portal quarterbacks this offseason. Sluka, previously at Holy Cross, was effective when in the lineup while leading the Rebels to a 3-0 start. Once he exited, Campbell transfer Hajj-Malik Williams took over and excelled. Williams has completed 77 percent of his passes and averaged 10.5 yards per attempt, with nine touchdown passes and just one pick, plus two rushing touchdowns while leading the Rebels to a 2-1 record, with the only loss an overtime thriller against Syracuse.
Winner: Texas State. Landing last year’s Sun Belt Player of the Year was a fortunate turn of events for the Bobcats after Jayden de Laura withdrew and TJ Finley transferred out. Jordan McCloud, a James Madison transfer, has delivered on expectations with 19 touchdown passes — tied for third in the FBS — four touchdown runs and 1,713 passing yards. The Bobcats are in the thick of the Sun Belt race as one of four teams yet to lose a conference game.
Incomplete: San Jose State. Washington State transfer Emmett Brown leads the Mountain West with 16 touchdown passes amid the Spartans’ 4-2 start. He came oh-so-close to pulling an upset of his old team, throwing for a season-high 375 yards and four touchdowns in a 54-52 loss to Wazzu in September. But San Jose State offensive coordinator Craig Stutzmann has given time to backup Walker Eget in the last two weeks. Playing multiple QBs is something Stutzmann has done before, but it will be interesting to see how this situation plays out.
Winner: Jacksonville State. It took a little time for Furman transfer Tyler Huff to adjust to Rich Rodriguez’s up-tempo offense, but now that he has, the Gamecocks are trending up. Jax State has won three in a row behind Huff, who is one of just four FBS quarterbacks with at least 500 rushing yards this season. He has thrown it well, too, with 1,269 passing yards, a 66.4 percent completion rate, 9.5 yards per attempt and seven passing touchdowns to go with his six rushing scores.
(Top illustration photos: Michael Reaves, James Gilbert / Getty Images)
