Let’s just say you were in a coma for the past 4 months and you woke up and immediately saw this list of quarterbacks come out.

What would you think this list is?

  • Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma
  • Max Johnson, LSU
  • Kedon Slovis, USC
  • Michael Penix Jr., Indiana
  • Dillon Gabriel, UCF
  • Adrian Martinez, Nebraska
  • Bo Nix, Auburn

You might’ve thought that was a list of the nation’s leaders in quarterback rating, or perhaps a list of potential Heisman candidates.

Be honest. Go back to August. Would you have thought that was a list of quarterbacks who entered the transfer portal? Probably not.

Welcome to the new era of college football, where you no longer need to go through an NCAA waiver process to get immediate eligibility to play at another FBS program. Quarterbacks are leaving left and right. Our heads are spinning trying to keep track of all of it. By the time I finish typing this sentence, there’s probably another household name in the portal.

(Sorry. I need a minute to go check Twitter. You should probably do the same.)

This is the new world, and honestly, I don’t hate it one bit.

Before you tell me that nobody wants to stay and compete, tell me what all of those aforementioned quarterbacks have in common. All of them either have different head coaches from the one they signed up to play for, and/or they have new offensive coordinators.

“Commit to a school, not a coach.”

I know. In theory, you’re right. To a certain extent.

If you’re an 18-year-old quarterback and you’re committing to a school because of the relationship you have with the offensive coordinator, I’ve got news for you. It’d be stunning if that coordinator was still around by the time your college career concluded.

But at the same time, being a quarterback is obviously unique in the transfer portal. I’m not breaking any news by saying that. There are multiple defensive linemen, offensive tackles, linebackers and receivers playing at the same time. Shoot, plenty of offenses utilize multiple running backs at the same time (and not with some I-formation but rather splitting a pass-catching back out wide in the slot).

You’re entitled to have your opinion on this whole transfer portal deal. If you want to be annoyed by quarterbacks hopping from program to program, be my guest. But if your opinion is “quarterbacks only enter the portal if they aren’t good,” well, history suggests you’re wrong.

Here’s a different list. Like, the list of NFL starting quarterbacks who transferred during their college careers:

  • Aaron Rodgers
  • Russell Wilson
  • Josh Allen
  • Joe Burrow
  • Kyler Murray
  • Baker Mayfield
  • Justin Fields
  • Jalen Hurts
  • Cam Newton

That’s 9 of the 32 NFL starting quarterbacks who ended up at a different school from where they started. By the way, 7 of those quarterbacks went in Round 1. That’s not including Hurts, who sat as a backup at Alabama for an entire season behind Tua Tagovailoa before eventually transferring to Oklahoma, where he was a Heisman Trophy runner-up and eventually a second-round pick in the NFL Draft.

Allen and Rodgers were JUCO guys, so perhaps their transfers were a bit more inevitable. But the rest of those guys had someone starting ahead of them, and once they finally got their respective opportunities, they thrived.

By the way, that number — 9 of 32 NFL starting quarterbacks being guys who transferred during college — is only going to increase. In 5 years, it wouldn’t be surprising if half the league’s starters were college transfers. With more guaranteed money at stake than ever for premier quarterbacks — don’t forget about NIL opportunities for being a starting quarterback — you’d be foolish not to weigh all options en route to that path.

Now having said that, that’s not my way of saying every quarterback should hit the portal if they don’t win the starting job as a true freshman. There’s something to be said for waiting a year or 2 for that opportunity. Two of the Heisman Trophy finalists were second-year guys who sat behind future first-round quarterbacks during their true freshmen seasons. Would Bryce Young and CJ Stroud have still found a way to New York in 2021 if they left for other schools last year? My guess is no, though Fields certainly proved that was possible.

That’s not every situation. What all of those aforementioned quarterbacks showed — from the first list, not the second — is that they have talent. They’re household names because they’ve had some level of success. Will they recapture that in a new place? Time will tell.

We can talk all we want about showing improvement in practice, but this still comes down to capitalizing on those game reps. Mac Jones won Alabama’s 2020 starting job ahead of Young. Why? Jones took advantage of his game reps down the stretch after Tagovailoa’s injury in 2019. That gave him something that Young couldn’t have possibly had as a true freshman.

Call me a modernist, but I don’t mind seeing talented quarterbacks find new places to play instead of holding a clipboard while wearing a baseball hat on the sidelines. If that means the Alabamas and Ohio States no longer have 4 blue-chip quarterbacks on the roster, so be it. Personally, I enjoyed Burrow’s college career much more once he actually got to play.

I know, I know. “There’s only 1 Joe Burrow.” That’s true. But there’s not just 1 path to generational wealth at the NFL level.

Sure, there are guys like Justin Herbert. He committed to his hometown school, outperformed the higher-rated quarterback recruit in his class (former Kentucky QB Terry Wilson), stayed 4 years, got drafted in the first round and ultimately became an NFL star. That path is still there. It’s just atypical.

(Herbert also got to start as a true freshman because of an injury to Oregon starter Dakota Prukop, and he benefitted early in his career from injury luck. To his credit, he never looked back.)

What’s much more typical is quarterbacks seeking that new opportunity via the transfer portal. Will bad transfer decisions be made? Absolutely. Bad Signing Day decisions are also a thing that we don’t really talk about. Wrong scheme, wrong coaching staff, wrong surroundings … wrong whatever.

I like seeing quarterbacks get it right. If this transfer portal chaos leads to more of that, sign me up.