On Monday, we recorded an episode of The Saturday Down South Podcast and talked about how difficult it was to come up with a comp for Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton. So few people have Milton’s skill set, and his journey as someone in Year 6 who started a promising career at Michigan is atypical.

The best comp we came up with was Ryan Mallett.

It was Mallett who had an arm like few human beings who ever played the sport, and like Milton, he went from being Michigan’s quarterback of the future to a household name in the SEC. Of course, Mallett left Michigan because he wasn’t a scheme fit in Rich Rodriguez’s offense, and he went on to have a pair of All-SEC seasons for Arkansas. Milton is still trying to get his footing, which was why we discussed his status as the most intriguing SEC player entering 2023.

Consider that a long-winded way of saying that when the news came out on Tuesday that Mallett died in a drowning accident at a Florida beach — just a day after we had this discussion about Mallett and Milton — there was a feeling of disbelief.

Mallett was just trying to get his post-playing career going and he was the head coach at White Hall High School (Ark.). It was Arkansas where Mallett ultimately found a new home.

In honor of Mallett, who flourished under the guidance of Bobby Petrino after leaving Michigan, I thought it’d be interesting to look at 10 quarterbacks who who the breakup. By “win the breakup,” I mean transfer and prove that they were either underutilized, disregarded or misused by their previous head coach.

This is NOT a list of the top transfer quarterbacks. As we know, not every transfer quarterback leaves by choice. As great as they were at their final destinations, Cam Newton, Chad Kelly and Zach Mettenberger won’t be making the cut today.

This list will not include someone like Caleb Williams, who didn’t break up with his head coach. He did the opposite because he followed Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to USC.

Also, if the team who does the breaking up still has a wildly successful quarterback, I don’t know that we can say that’s “winning the breakup.” There’s a couple pretty famous examples of that, which I’ll get to at the very end.

So, here are the best (somewhat) recent examples of a quarterback who won the breakup with his former head coach:

Ryan Mallett and Rich Rodriguez, Michigan

It’s been well-documented that Rodriguez arrived at Michigan in hopes of implementing his version of the spread offense, which lended itself more to the skill set of Tate Forcier instead of Mallett, who was coming off a true freshman season wherein he showed promise. That meant Mallett, who was the No. 5 overall player in the 2007 class, transferred after his true freshman season upon Rodriguez’s arrival. Originally, Mallett had his sights set on Tennessee, but ultimately, he opted to join Bobby Petrino’s high-octane passing attack at Arkansas.

All Mallett did was earn consecutive second-team All-SEC honors while Michigan sputtered into obscurity under Rodriguez, who was fired after 3 seasons in Ann Arbor. Mallett became arguably the best quarterback in program history, and in many ways, he was the first real big-time quarterback transfer in the SEC.

Russell Wilson and Tom O’Brien, NC State

Ah yes. O’Brien famously wanted Wilson to spend the spring going into his senior year buried in the playbook. Wilson, on the other hand, wanted to play baseball at the Rockies’ spring training. Never mind the fact that Wilson was fresh off an All-ACC season at NC State. O’Brien didn’t bend to accommodate his star quarterback. By the end of spring, he was granted his release and he spent 1 ridiculously prolific season at Wisconsin, where he rewrote passing records and led the Big Ten champs to a Rose Bowl berth. Mike Glennon was solid as a first-time starter for an 8-win NC State team, but he certainly didn’t sniff a top-10 Heisman Trophy finish like Wilson.

It’s a bizarre situation to look back on because 10 years later, there’s no chance O’Brien takes that approach. Granted, that was pre-portal. Wilson did sort of pave the way for the grad transfer quarterback to flourish while O’Brien paved the way for what not to do when you have a superstar quarterback on your roster.

Baker Mayfield and Kliff Kingsbury, Texas Tech

This was one of the nastier breakups on this list. Mayfield, ever the underdog, became Texas Tech’s starter as a true freshman walk-on and led Kingsbury’s squad to a 5-0 start.

But when Mayfield hurt his MCL and was sidelined a month, he later said that Kingsbury totally lost communication with him and he didn’t even offer him a scholarship after that season. Mayfield then transferred to Oklahoma as a walk-on, though he was still forced to sit out, per NCAA rules, which was later changed as “The Baker Mayfield Rule.”

The rest, as we know, was history.

What would Mayfield’s career have been like if he had stayed at Texas Tech? It was ultimately Patrick Mahomes who broke through the Red Raiders’ Air Raid stigma. It was also Mahomes who eventually became the starter after Mayfield transferred to Oklahoma, so you could argue that things worked out pretty well for Kingsbury, although when Mayfield won his Heisman in 2017, the Red Raiders went 6-7 in the first year of the post-Mahomes era. Kingsbury’s first year as a head coach in 2013 produced arguably the biggest mistake of his career.

Kyler Murray and Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M

Speaking of Oklahoma’s former Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks who went No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft after starting off their college careers in the state of Texas, it’s easy to forget how awkward Murray’s career started. After Murray took over for fellow former 5-star recruit Kyle Allen, he ultimately lost the A&M job at the end of the 2015 regular season. Still, Allen transferred early in December. Soon, Murray followed in his footsteps and A&M went from having 2 promising QB options to 0. Murray would’ve been considered the likely starter, but he cited the communication as the reason why he left.

At Oklahoma, Murray sat a year because of NCAA transfer rules and waited behind Mayfield during his Heisman campaign in 2017 before he took over and did the same thing in 2018. Sumlin, on the other hand, didn’t land another quarterback as talented as Murray after his departure. By the time Murray won his Heisman en route to becoming the No. 1 overall pick, Sumlin was out of a job in College Station. Maybe Murray wouldn’t have lived up to the Johnny Manziel standard at A&M, but he sure as heck lived up to the Mayfield standard at Oklahoma.

Justin Fields and Kirby Smart, Georgia

I was tempted to leave Fields off this list because far too many people disregard the fact that he wasn’t going to start as a true freshman when Jake Fromm had just led Georgia to a national championship berth. When you get UGA to a place that it hasn’t been to in 35 years, yes, you get to keep your starting job, especially if you take another step as a sophomore like Fromm did.

But I included Fields for 2 reasons. One is that regardless of how I felt about Fromm, Smart messed up his usage of Fields. He should’ve been allowed to throw more. Yes, even in garbage time. Smart seemed to learn from that mistake this past season when Carson Beck got twice as much passing experience as a backup than Fields did. After a September game against South Carolina, Fields famously went viral for a NSFW clip wherein he looked visibly frustrated with his lack of passing attempts.

Fields had the infamous fake punt attempt in the SEC Championship, which was seen as the final straw before he opted to transfer.

The second reason he was included on this list was because following the awkwardness of his immediate eligibility waiver, Georgia had to watch Fields become a Heisman finalist in 2019 while the Dawgs’ offense regressed. To make matters worse, Fields was even better in a shortened 2020 season for runner-up Ohio State while Georgia shuffled through 3 starting quarterbacks in a rare multi-loss regular season under Smart.

Will Grier and Jim McElwain, Florida

Take your pick of those 2010s Florida quarterbacks, albeit with different coaches. Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett would’ve made sense here, too. But Grier takes the cake because while he was suspended after that blistering start in 2015, McElwain ultimately chose Treon Harris over him as his quarterback of the future. We can’t ever forget that. It’s the biggest “what if” of the McElwain era. It was 1-year PED suspension because of an over-the-counter supplement, so Grier wouldn’t have been able to return until the middle of the 2016, but still. Florida was an offensive train wreck in 2016 and 2017, which was one of the things that led to McElwain’s bizarre midseason firing.

Grier, on the other hand, announced at the end of 2015 that he was transferring to West Virginia, where he sat a season but ultimately became one of the country’s most productive signal-callers in 2017-18. He racked up 76 total touchdowns for a West Virginia squad who boasted a pair of top-25 offenses. Grier’s 10 touchdown passes in a suspension-shortened 2015 season were as many as any Florida quarterback in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. That’s all you need to know about that breakup.

Hendon Hooker and Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech

We’ve got another example of a guy who became a star elsewhere after his former coach lost his job. But Hooker’s post-2020 departure from Virginia Tech came while Fuente was still in Blacksburg. It followed a strange, scary season for Hooker, who was sidelined midseason with a health scare that could’ve ended his career. He underwent a procedure that determined he didn’t need open-heart surgery, and he regained his starting job later that season. But he opted for a fresh start at season’s end.

(People forget that Hooker actually committed to Tennessee while Jeremy Pruitt was still the head coach, albeit one under internal investigation/coup.)

Unfortunately for Fuente, he had to watch Josh Heupel’s system help turn Hooker into one of the eventual 2022 Heisman Trophy favorites for a Tennessee team who had its best AP finish since 2001. Hooker earned the 2022 SEC Offensive Player of the Year honor after finishing with a 27-2 TD-INT ratio for the nation’s top offense. Hooker became one of the best stories of the 2022 season, and he’ll always make Virginia Tech fans wonder what could’ve been.

Michael Penix and Tom Allen, Indiana

This is tricky because there were moments at Indiana in 2021 when it looked like Penix couldn’t throw a forward pass. Injuries and a coordinator change didn’t do him any favors in those 5 pre-AC joint surgery games in 2021, but Penix looked like someone who had regressed after leading IU to its first AP Top 25 finish since 1988. He ultimately chose to leave Bloomington after 4 years and reunite with former IU offensive coordinator Kalen DeBoer at Washington.

Smart move. Penix finished No. 2 in America in passing, and he finished No. 8 in the Heisman voting for an 11-win Washington squad. Indiana, meanwhile, was dead last in Power 5 with 5.4 yards/attempt, and the No. 99 scoring offense produced a 4-win team. Penix ran it back for another year at Washington, who enters 2023 as a possible Playoff contender. Allen, on the other hand, is just trying to reach a bowl game and fend off hot-seat rumors. Yikes.

Malik Willis and Gus Malzahn, Auburn

Bo Nix’s standout 2022 season at Oregon might not make this one look as bad in retrospect, but let’s not forget that coming off Auburn’s 2019 spring game, Malzahn announced Nix as 1 of 2 leaders to win the starting job. The other? Not Willis. Joey Gatewood. No offense to Gatewood, who was getting waaaaaay too many Cam Newton comparisons for someone who was such a raw passer at that point in his career. But yeah, the elder Willis would’ve been the better choice to compete for Auburn’s 2019 starting job. He was the backup for Jarrett Stidham the previous year and he had more SEC experience than Nix and Gatewood combined.

To be fair, Willis always said that he needed to work with Hugh Freeze in order to become one of the nation’s best quarterbacks. That transformation earned him early-round NFL Draft consideration. It was Freeze who worked extensively with Willis during his NCAA-mandated transfer redshirt season at Liberty in 2019. Ultimately, Willis ended up having an extremely successful 2-year run as a starter.

Malzahn, on the other hand, had a frustrating 2019 offense with Nix as a true freshman, and he didn’t show enough improvement in 2020 to save his job.

On the bright side, Malzahn not giving Willis a shot might’ve played a part in him getting a $21.5 million buyout from Auburn, which is still the richest paid to any college football coach … so who really won the breakup?

Jayden Daniels and Herm Edwards, Arizona State

Not every breakup is because a coach lacks belief in a player. This is a good example of that. Multiple reports indicated that immediately following the 2021 season, Daniels and Edwards met, which led to the Sun Devils not pursuing Arizona native Spencer Rattler in the transfer portal. But in February, Daniels announced he was transferring … amidst a bizarre clean out of his locker. Clearly, it was a breakup, even if some saw it as the nail in the coffin for Edwards in Tempe. It was. He was fired after 3 games for an ASU team who went 3-9.

Daniels, on the other hand, transferred to LSU and reminded everyone why he set expectations were set so high for him as a true freshman back in 2019. After a slow start, he took off and helped the Tigers to a victory against Alabama en route to an SEC West title. Daniels led all FBS quarterbacks in rushing attempts and posted a 17-3 TD-INT ratio. He’ll enter his final year of eligibility as one of the top signal-callers in the sport for an LSU team with legitimate national title aspirations while Arizona State is starting over with Kenny Dillingham.

Why I actually don’t want to include Joe Burrow or Jalen Hurts on this list …

If this list was simply “best transfer quarterbacks ever,” yes, Burrow and Hurts are on it. Duh. But let’s remember the context of their departures because many seem to lack that when they dog Ohio State and Alabama for letting them get away.

Burrow left Ohio State because he didn’t feel he was going to beat out Dwayne Haskins. What does everyone forget? In 2018, Haskins was a better player than Burrow. Yes, scheme helped, but don’t overlook the fact that Burrow was still figuring out who he was as a starting quarterback at LSU while Haskins finished No. 3 in the 2018 Heisman race. And in 2019, yes, Burrow had arguably the best single season in the sport’s history once LSU brought in Joe Brady’s offense. Who else was there with him in New York at the Heisman ceremony? Justin Fields. In the 2 non-Ohio State seasons Burrow had, the Buckeyes sent 2 different guys to New York. To me, that pushes back on the notion that Burrow is in the same group as these other guys.

You could say the same thing about Hurts. When he lost his job to Tua Tagovailoa in the national championship, Hurts came back in 2018 and got better as a passer during his time as a backup. That’s really what set the wheels in motion for him to handle Lincoln Riley’s offense at Oklahoma. Let’s also not forget that Tagovailoa still put together an incredible season in 2019 before he suffered the hip injury. Tagovailoa, even at less than full strength, actually played a much more competitive game against Burrow-led LSU than Hurts did.

But I realize many will probably disagree with excluding them on this list because of what happened later. Burrow surpassed the late Haskins and Hurts surpassed Tagovailoa. Nobody wants to remember that there was more to their stories.

There always is in a breakup.