In case you haven’t been paying attention the last couple of days, quarterback transfers has been the hot topic.
That’s because, well, it’s the thing they do these days if they don’t like the way things are working out where they are.
Or, in the case of Shea Patterson leaving Ole Miss for Michigan, suddenly discovering he didn’t want to be around the Rebels after the NCAA investigation finally concluded. Of course that was ongoing when he signed with Ole Miss.
Naturally it had nothing to do with the emergence of Jordan Ta’amu who took over when Patterson was injured and promptly had a passing efficiency of 164.5, with nearly a 3-to-1 touchdowns to interceptions ratio. As much as the Rebels fling it around, that’s not bad.
At Arkansas, everyone is already assuming SOMEBODY’s going to be transferring after North Panola, Mississippi, quarterback K.J. Jefferson committed to the Razorbacks last week.
Don’t get confused. South Panola is the long-established powerhouse high school program in that region and North Panola is just a 3A school, but Jefferson has put that program on the map.
The quarterback room in Fayetteville is going to get crowded.
Let’s see, in the spring you had Cole Kelley, Ty Storey and Daulton Hyatt are on scholarship while Carson Proctor and Jack Lindsey are walk-ons.
Interestingly, it’s Lindsey that apparently picked up the offense quickest, even being told to quit having the answers before everybody else in quarterback meetings, according to one insider.
Others have said incoming freshmen Connor Noland and John Stephen Jones already know the offense and have won championships with it.
“Connor’s been running that identical offense for years,” said one person close to the Greenwood football program.
That’s at least seven guys vying for the quarterback spot. Storey will be a redshirt junior and Kelley a redshirt sophomore. In today’s world of transfers, Storey might do a graduate transfer situation if he’s not happy, but Kelly is between a rock and a hard spot unless he’s graduating soon.
There are some that feel Noland and Jones are better than anybody on the roster right now. In case you’re wondering, that’s not coming from the Razorback staff, but people who do a lot more evaluating than me.
From what I’ve seen of both, though, they do look better suited for Chad Morris’ offense.
Kelley hasn’t shown he can run it and Storey isn’t fluent in it. Hyatt showed some running ability, but it’s critical in the offense to be able to make the proper reads quickly and be able to utilize the passing part of the RPO equation.
Players-only practices will be starting in a couple of weeks. Noland admitted after Greenwood’s state championship baseball win Saturday he’s not in football shape because he didn’t lift a lot of weights during baseball season.
Don’t read too much into that. The guess here is he’ll be ready by August.
While I can’t speak for everybody else, I’m guessing there will be at least one direct and two indirect questions every media avail when practices start.
We probably won’t get any answers.
Unless somebody decides to transfer in August.
Which is not unprecedented in these matters.
