Boulder – To anyone who had seen him in person, Brian White was the physical definition of what every college quarterback should be – 6-feet-5 and a lean 220 pounds. He could see over any offensive line and had the arm to rifle the ball wherever he needed it to go.
It just wasn’t going to any Colorado receiver.
Eventually, that wore on him to the point he told Buffaloes coach Dan Hawkins on Sunday he was leaving in search of a school that wants to utilize his skills. He is not alone. Somewhere, the clock is ticking down on the next quarterback transfer.
Their time is suddenly more valuable, their patience increasingly thin. Of all the positions on a team, quarterbacks have become the unparalleled jet-setters, making tracks to a destination of greener pastures at the drop of a dime. No football program is immune.
“What you’re having is, I think, one, the world is becoming a small place,” Hawkins said. “I think due to the nature of recruiting in general and the exposure that the kids get now, also the expectation of ‘I want to play right away.’ I think you see more of that in recent years than you used to. And I’m not saying it’s all a bad thing, but I think it’s inevitable where you get to a point where a guy goes, ‘Well, if I’m not going to play, I’m going to leave.”‘
In the Big 12 alone, Kansas State, Nebraska and Colorado have had four quarterbacks leave their teams since the beginning of August.
“I think it’s very simple,” Nebraska coach Bill Callahan said. “Quarterbacks want to play. There’s one ball, 11 players, one quarterback. And these guys want to play, and they want to be in systems and programs where they are going to get an opportunity to play immediately.”
Nebraska recouped its loss of Harrison Beck by adding an incoming transfer quarterback, Sam Keller from Arizona State after a messy divorce in Tempe. Arizona State coach Dirk Koetter initially named Keller the starter in August after competition with sophomore Rudy Carpenter. Then Koetter did a quick about-face and chose Carpenter, who apparently had more support from teammates. Jilted, Keller decided to transfer at the start of the semester.
Keller’s father blamed Koetter for intentionally making the decision on a starter late to discourage the loser from leaving school.
“The situation was decided based on what they thought was best for their program,” Keller told reporters. “I can only control what I can control.”
Arizona quarterback Richard Kovalcheck was a starter for the Wildcats much of last season before losing the job to freshman phenom Willie Tuitama. Kovalcheck transferred to Vanderbilt this year.
Virginia starter Christian Olsen transferred from Notre Dame. Hawaii starter Colt Brennan is a record-setting transfer quarterback from Colorado. Seeing no future for himself between the end of the Chris Leak era and the beginning of the Tim Tebow era at Florida, Josh Portis transferred to Maryland.
The NCAA doesn’t keep statistics on the dizzying movement of players from school to school, but it’s likely the quarterback spot is the leader.
“It’s tough,” said CU backup quarterback James Cox, a senior. “We don’t rotate like most of the other positions. And obviously guys want to compete. They come to play, to be on the field. When you don’t do that, it can be frustrating.”
At Arkansas, incumbent Robert Johnson took the road-less- traveled approach.
He accepted the challenge of competition from an existing teammate and incoming Gatorade high school player of the year Mitch Mustain, telling the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “I decided I was going to man up and do what I’ve got to do to get the job done.”
He won the position battle only to struggle in the Razorbacks’ season opener against Southern California. He since has been replaced by Mustain.
“There’s so much pressure on young people to go and be successful and be ‘the guy’ that I think that that’s the overriding emphasis at that position nationally,” Kansas State coach Ron Prince said. “There’s obviously more communication, more coverage of this phenomenon. I just see that these players, who are some of the best players in our game, they just want to have a chance to play.”
Two of Prince’s quarterbacks, Allan Evridge and Allen Webb, transferred in August when they felt they weren’t going to win the starting job this season. Evridge landed at Wisconsin and Webb, a senior from Denver, went to Texas College, an NAIA school where he is immediately eligible. After spring ball, redshirt freshman Kevin Lopina transferred to Washington State.
Hawkins said the trend toward transferring will have no effect on how he recruits.
“I tell our guys every year that I’m trying to recruit somebody that’s better than that guy, and the next year I’m trying to get somebody better than that guy,” he said. “And you hope that through it all that you have guys that can see the big picture and be patient and work through the stuff. But you understand that sometimes they can’t and they won’t and they don’t if they are not seeing that their immediate future is what they want it to be. Those are the realities.”
MOVING ON
Since August, four quarterbacks have left or plan to leave Big 12 schools:
BRIAN WHITE
Plans to leave: Colorado
Year: Junior
New school: TBA
Comment: Buried at No. 3 on Buffs’ depth chart
HARRISON BECK
Left: Nebraska
Year: Sophomore
New school: North Carolina State
Comment: Highly touted 2005 recruit
ALLAN EVRIDGE
Left: Kansas State
Year: Sophomore
New school: Wisconsin
Comment: Set K-State freshman passing records
ALLEN WEBB
Left: Kansas St.
Year: Senior
New school: Texas College (NAIA)
Comment: Part-time starter in 2005
