Transfers hurting QB depth for Utah programs


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SALT LAKE CITY — Two left last offseason and another followed suit this year, with at least one more probably taking off in the coming weeks.

“Back in the day you never saw it,” said Utah running backs coach Dennis Erickson, who has been in the business since 1969.

But this is a new era, when transfers are commonplace in college football, particularly as it relates to quarterbacks. And as such, some programs get caught short at the game’s most important position.

It happened to BYU last year, after scholarship quarterbacks Ammon Olsen and Billy Green left for Southern Utah and Weber State, respectively. When Taysom Hill got hurt in the fourth game, BYU was forced to go with former walk-on Christian Stewart.

With Hill not fully cleared for spring practice, BYU again had only walk-ons available to scrimmage. In what may have been unprecedented, the coaching staff asked Stewart to come back for spring practice even though he has no eligibility left for next season. As much as the coaches tried to find a diamond in the rough, the bottom line is they wasted a good portion of spring practice giving snaps to an ineligible quarterback.

It’s more about quarterbacks searching for greener grass than it is blaming the coaches.

In potentially a less impactful way, Utah State is also dealing with a quarterback shortage. Junior-to-be Darell Garretson, who played a significant portion of his first two years, recently left the program. Garretson likely could have been in position to start again next season if injury-prone Chuckie Keeton gets hurt again.


They know that they have a chance to be the guy in another year or so. You've got to talk to the quarterbacks and make sure they understand the real deal. It might take some time.

–Dennis Erickson


Utah already had fifth-string quarterback Adam Schulz transfer to Houston after the season. With the emergence of redshirt freshman Chase Hansen, it’s possible either or both redshirt sophomores Conner Manning and Brandon Cox could leave after spring practice.

“The bottom line is competition,” said Erickson.

The trick is getting the other quarterbacks to stick around after not winning the starting job. During his time as a college head coach for seven programs, including two stints at Idaho, Erickson always wanted at least four quarterbacks on scholarship.

At some point, he figured, every quarterback would have the opportunity to compete for the starting position. Erickson communicated the message regularly to the backups in hopes of getting them to remain in the program.

“They know that they have a chance to be the guy in another year or so,” he said. “You’ve got to talk to the quarterbacks and make sure they understand the real deal. It might take some time.”

Photo credit: Scott G Winterton/Deseret News

Some 20 years ago, Erickson didn’t have a tough sell. Players at all positions weren’t as quick to leave as they are now, he said.

Star treatment, particularly at quarterback, has become a problem. From middle school on, quarterbacks get fed a story that may end up being false.

By now, every BYU fan can recite the sad tale of Jake Heaps. The supposed best high school quarterback in his class bombed at BYU and Kansas before failing to resurrect his college career at Miami.

New Oregon State coach Gary Andersen lost a quarterback last week when Luke Del Rio decided to transfer. Del Rio, whose father, Jack, is the Oakland Raiders' head coach, committed to Oklahoma State out of high school but walked on at Alabama before transferring to Oregon State last season.

“Nowadays sometimes with all these quarterback gurus out there, everybody wants to play the day they get on campus. At that position, that’s not going to happen unless you’re really, really special,” Erickson said.

“You’ve just got to tell them what your plan is for them; that they’ll have an opportunity to compete for a starting position at a particular time. If they want to leave and they don’t want to stay and compete, they probably should leave. I think the outside influence has more on quarterbacks leaving than anything.”

As much as we can identify the problem, it isn’t changing anytime soon.

“It’s a different word. It really is,” Erickson said. “I don’t agree with it.”

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