Wednesday at ACC Kickoff put into focus how much things have changed in college football. It wasn’t intentional. But it was transfer quarterback day for the ACC. The conference has been promoting itself all week as the best conference in the country for quarterbacks. That was on display to a degree with the five schools in attendance. Four of them brought their transfer quarterback to meet with the media.
The ACC is not alone in the moving quarterback world. But the evidence of the current situation in college football was as evident as anything in Charlotte Wednesday.
Quarterbacks on the Move
Miami had Cam Ward, who comes to the Hurricanes from Washington State, (and FCS football prior to that). With his athletic ability, he is getting a lot of pre-season looks for the Heisman. He threw for 3,736 yards and 25 touchdowns in Pullman last season.
Head coach Mario Cristobal talked about the importance of a transfer quarterback. “The use of the portal and how you build your roster is all dependent upon what the starting point is in a program,” Cristobal told the assembled media. “You have them at all levels and different positions. That allows us for higher-level play, allows for a great mentorship and development for the younger guys.”
Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm had quarterback Tyler Shough with him. Shough has put transfer in the transfer portal. He is entering his seventh year of college football, factoring in the Covid year, a redshirt year, an injury waiver year, etc. He spent three years at Oregon and three at Texas Tech before moving on to Louisville.
Win Now
Brohm said the immediacy of expectations in coaching in college football makes the portal more viable. “Our philosophy is we want to win now. We want to win this year. Yes, you can build for the future and get your young players ready to play, which is great. But you want to win now,” he said from the interview podium. “Not only do our fans want that, but your own team wants that. Whether it comes to building a roster, we have some really good guys coming back that have done a great job for us.”
Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos was at the event. Ok, technically he is not a new transfer. He played for BC in 2023. But that was after transferring from UCF after the 2022 season.
Head coach Bill O’Brien dealt with the transfer portal differently as the head coach at Penn State from 2012-2013. That was after the school was hit with sanctions as part of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Players were allowed to leave.
He told Last Word that it taught him that adaptability is the key to running a successful program.
Competition
First-year Duke head coach Manny Diaz had both sides of the coin. He brought two quarterbacks to media days with him. Grayson Loftis is back after being Riley Leonard’s backup last year. Maalik Murphy played sparingly at Texas last year. With a tough quarterback rotation facing him, he moves on to Duke.
Murphy called the seven months since he moved on to Duke the best of his college life.
The only school that did not bring its quarterback on Wednesday was Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons do have a transfer signal caller. Hank Bachmeier is entering his sixth college football season after time at Louisiana and Boise State. He is competing with Wake Forest veteran Michael Kern for the starting job.
