How coaches are prepping for when, not if, QBs transfer

When Georgia and Clemson signed the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked quarterbacks in the 2018 class in Justin Fields and Trevor Lawrence, it only seemed natural that the respective coaches would have to find a way to get them on the field.

The talent of both prospects would make it difficult to keep them on the sidelines, and sure enough, three games in and we've seen both Fields and Lawrence splitting time with the incumbent starters, Jake Fromm and Kelly Bryant, respectively.

That situation is becoming more and more normal as coaches grapple with roster management and trying to keep players happy. According to the NCAA, the number of FBS players transferring is at an all-time high at 13.3 percent.

Because of the rising number in transfers, coaches must either try to appease all the quarterbacks on their roster or deal with holes that require recruiting to fill.

"I think it changes the way you recruit at times, because you just never know when somebody's going to say, 'OK, well, I wanted to be the starter, I'm not the starter, I'm going to leave,'" Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck said. "I don't blame the young players that want to go play somewhere else, I don't. It just happens at a rapid rate in 2018, maybe different than 10 years (ago) in how much it's happening.

"But again, I think it's more of, 'OK, you might want to take more than one quarterback a year in recruiting, because you just never know which one is going to pick up and leave and transfer.'"

Saying you're going to take two quarterbacks in one class and accomplishing the feat are two different things. Convincing two prospects who will be competing for one spot to sign up at the same time obviously has its challenges.

ESPN 300 quarterback Ethan Long committed to Arizona State six days before fellow ESPN 300 signal-caller Joey Yellen also pledged to the Sun Devils. ASU is is one of six programs with more than one quarterback committed in the 2019 class, and there were 11 schools that signed more than one signal-caller in the 2018 class. Long said the coaches at Arizona State were very up front about the fact that they would be taking two quarterbacks in the class, and while he isn't too keen on splitting playing time, Long isn't afraid of the competition, either.

"I think that everybody is just caught up in the one guy going into a school and being the main guy of that class," Long said. "That's usually how it is in recruiting, but there comes a time where pretty much wherever you go into the [Division I] level, all the athletes coming out of high school were the star in their town or team, and when you get to the college level it restarts. You have to prove yourself to be able to make it to where you want to be, and I think whether I'm competing against a senior, junior, sophomore or another freshman, there really isn't going to be a difference other than that we're both the new kids on the block."

Recruiting two quarterbacks is one way coaches are attempting to safeguard against a drop off at the position. It's something Penn State coach James Franklin has done with his 2019 class to prepare for senior starter Trace McSorley's departure postseason.

"I think that's the biggest thing, then I think the other is it's challenging to get to your scholarship number, whether that is four or five or whatever it may be," Franklin said. "I think for some programs it may be that they've had quarterbacks transfer out. Say you've gone with a true freshman or a redshirt freshman as your starting quarterback, then it's difficult to have the amount of depth that you want because a lot of times the upperclass kids have left."

Alabama has dealt with its share of quarterback transfers, seeing Blake Barnett, David Cornwell and Cooper Bateman all transfer the same year after Jalen Hurts came in and took the job. Because of those transfers, Alabama took two quarterbacks in the 2017 class with Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones.

Alabama initially had Fromm committed and was still recruiting Tagovailoa in the class to land two prospects to fill the holes. Then-offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin was a big part of that recruitment and said it became necessary to have two recruits because of the transfers.

"We were recruiting [Tagovailoa] the whole time because you don't know what's going to happen with the kids," Kiffin said. "We were projecting our numbers to be pretty low that we would potentially take Tua in the class, which we ended up doing. Now there's three quarterbacks on the roster, and if you didn't take two, there's only two."

Now Hurts finds himself in a situation with Tagovailoa in which he's splitting time on the field. Hurts came into the situation knowing he would be competing with quarterbacks older than him, but he eventually beat them out and is now competing with Tagovailoa to take the lead spot.

Hurts has completed 19 passes for four touchdowns this season compared to Tagovailoa's 36 completions and eight touchdowns. Despite the fact that Tagovailoa looks to be taking over as the leader of the team, head coach Nick Saban continues to stress that both have value to the roster and both quarterbacks are going to continue to play.

The two-quarterback system is one way coaches are trying to prevent transfers. If Hurts were to leave, the Tide would be thin at the position. The coaches have already landed, you guessed it, two quarterbacks in the 2019 class to help mitigate any future holes on the roster, but keeping Hurts on the team is a valuable accomplishment.

Penn State's Franklin said he hasn't had to deal with this situation himself, but he postures that much of playing two quarterbacks could be to appease a player and keep him happy.

"I would probably say even more so than that, though, say your backup is a true freshman or redshirt freshman and he hasn't gotten any experience," Franklin said. "You're saying, 'Well OK, if we're going with this guy as our No. 2 over maybe an older, more-experienced player, we better get him experience because we have a high-level team, we got a high-level program and we can't afford to be putting a guy on the field that hasn't played a whole lot.'

"If I had to guess, it's a combination of those two things: managing your roster to keep as many guys at that position happy as you possibly can, and then I think the other thing is just gaining that experience so you're not playing a guy who hasn't played before in a critical moment with no experience."

Roster management is becoming more and more difficult as time goes on, and there's a thought process that recruiting two quarterbacks in one class might only increase the number of transfers. Playing two quarterbacks in the same season could help mitigate those transfers, but eventually one guy will win out and coaches will once again have to go back to landing multiple prospects to fill the holes.

"I think the days of having just one quarterback come in -- you gotta have backups, you gotta have a No. 3, you gotta have people who want to stick around, be a part of it, even if they don't win the job," Fleck said. "In a world where everything is immediate gratification and instant playing time or those types of things, it's very difficult for some people to sit on the bench for awhile or be in a backup role."