Starkel becomes fifth starting QB past two seasons to leave Hogs

The good news for everybody in the SEC West may be that if Chad Morris continues on his current pace of quarterbacks leaving, Bo Nix at Auburn will be in the transfer portal by Halloween next year.

On Friday, junior graduate transfer quarterback Nick Starkel announced he was leaving the program to either try his hand in the NFL or at a lower classification.

Thank you to everyone who has believed in me this far! The fight isn’t over yet! pic.twitter.com/MSD1FvUvD3

— Nicholas Starkel (@NickStarkel) December 13, 2019

As a result, since Morris’ first season in 2018, the Razorbacks have now seen five starting quarterbacks leave out of eight different quarterbacks that started games. Morris was announced this week as the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Gus Malzahn with the Tigers.

After the 2018 season, Cole Kelley and Ty Storey transferred while Connor Noland chose to focus exclusively on baseball. This year Ben Hicks ran out of eligibility and now Starkel has left.

The starting quarterbacks left on the roster for newly-hired Sam Pittman are freshman K.J. Jefferson, redshirt freshman John Stephen Jones and redshirt junior Jack Lindsey.