Mississippi State QB Nick Tiano announces he will transfer from the school
With the emergence of redshirt sophomore Nick Fitzgerald, it was predictable that Mississippi State would lose a quarterback at some point this offseason, but losing one prior to a potential bowl announcement comes as a bit of a surprise.
Redshirt freshman Nick Tiano announced his decision to transfer via his Twitter account Wednesday evening:
To the Bulldog Family, pic.twitter.com/eJqKqzXKg7
— Nick Tiano (@NickTiano) November 30, 2016
Tiano was involved in the four-man race to become the team’s starting quarterback during fall camp but obviously lost out on the job prior to the season opener against South Alabama. Tiano’s only appearance on the field last season was against Auburn.
According to his 247Sports recruiting profile, Tiano was considered a three-star quarterback in the 2015 recruiting class and chose MSU over scholarship offers from Miami and Tennessee-Chattanooga.
With Tiano planning to transfer and Damian Williams planning to leave the Mississippi State program, the Bulldogs will be down to only one scholarship quarterback (Fitzgerald) until the 2017 recruiting class arrives.
Man Damian Williams has also announced he won’t be playing at State next year. Homework.
Geez, we’re running out of QBs. We’ve got a 4 star dual threat coming in that looks incredibly promising so I guess Tiano decided to go ahead and leave. I was really looking forward to seeing that QB battle after Fitz leaves though.
Quarterback transfers are becoming ridiculous. I was hearing good things about this kid . It seemed to be a lot of excitement in Starkville about this guy until the egg bowl.
Wow. That just came on all of a sudden.
Back in August, It was expected that one of the QBs would transfer. This is surprising. I hope Coach Eddie O doesn’t go the New Orleans and flips Keytaon Thompson.
On one hand I can understand. Any chances of winning the starting job next year seemed to dwindle to nothing as Fitz put up one big run after another. Tiano may be a better passer, wouldn’t be surprising, but with a years worth of snaps and experience even that might have been hard to show an advantage in next year. So he’s looking at just one year of possible starting play after Fitz is done… but there is a promising dual threat recruit who looks to be joining the next class so by his senior year, Tiano could still just be the backup. If he is good – and I’ve heard lots of good things about him – and has aspirations of playing at tthe next level, I understand feeling that it is necessary to bolt now and try to get that starting experience somewhere else.
But damn. It seems like its really really hard to keep a good backup on the roster. Transfers are rampant, Oklahoma, tamu, msu, Purdue, bama, etc. OM had a couple throw in the towel. State already had two go, now a third? Is this a new thing or has it always been hard to convince talented guys to ride the pine hoping to get there chance. Has Dak Prescott not taught anyone anything? He waited behind starters and only got opportunities to show his stuff because of injuries at high school, college, and now NFL levels. Is he the lucky exception? Was he dumb for not transferring in college to get assured playing time sooner? Is it that the general level of high school qb talent has been rising and now there are just too many guys with more than a sliver of a shot at being good enough for tge pros, more than one per power five program? P5 plus good goup of 5? Hell, an FCS qb went early first round. Were backups just bad in the past?
Or is this just a symptom of the times, entitlement, arrogance, “experts” in their ears maybe even just via social media, bigger $$ in professional sports by the year etc?
Their, ?, and several other mistakes I can’t edit to fix.
One more point… I think the storyline of Mullen as QB whisperer gains more credibility with each season. What he has done with qb’s at State compared to their historical level of qb play, or even compared to the best of the two decades that came before him, is simply amazing. Transfers are an epidemic but is it really serving him better to leave that environment and go play at La Tech or middle Tennessee or wherever?
I agree players transferring all over the place is getting a little silly and makes it damn near impossible to keep a solid backup on the roster. Seems like you have to get a walk on guy or something just to have enough qb’s on the roster. I understand some of these kids are probably told hey your not really going to play here so you may want to move on but these 4 and 5 star guys that are in the competition to win starting jobs just seem like they don’t have the stones to stay and compete. They all want to be handed something on a silver platter.
I expected this and I think he is making the right decision. Fitz isn’t the type of QB who has a chance to leave early for the NFL. So, Tiano would only have one year of opportunity and that’s not a given unless Fitz got hurt. I don’t think you can keep a good backup on your roster if he is only one year behind. Once the competition was decided and Fitz was the winner it was clear they were going to seek a chance to play. I honestly think Tiano and Elijah will be good QB’s somewhere and I hope they find the right fit. If your team is struggling with finding a QB I would jump on Tiano.
If the young man wants to go somewhere else than he should.
Wouldn’t it be really interesting to know why these players transfer?
If he can find a place where he can start and play, good for him.
In my opinion ncaa/sec needs to come out and form some rules for this to stop some of it. Plus these schools need to have these players to sign and understand a four year scholarship is a paid contract they are paid with four years of free school and what ever else that goes with it so if they break a contract they owe the school for what was invested on them like any other signed contract
I have studied HOURS of the top 3 QB’s at State, and Mullen actually lost the best of the 3 in Tiano. He’ll fit perfectly in Coach Huesman’s Offense at UTC. GO MOCS!