How recently hired Power 5 coaches are using prior connections to quickly pluck transfer quarterbacks from the portal

When the transfer portal window swung wide open on Dec. 5, more than 50 quarterbacks jumped into the portal. 

A little more than two weeks later, On3’s Top 5 transfer quarterbacks continue to flirt with various schools, as NC State’s Devin Leary became the first major domino to come off the board when he committed to Kentucky on Tuesday.

Several less-heralded quarterbacks have found new homes, though, and interestingly, most have teamed up with new head coaches at new schools. 

There were 10 Power 5 openings in the 2023 coaching cycle, and already, half of the first-year head coaches have grabbed a guy from the transfer portal. 

Wisconsin – Nick Evers from Oklahoma

Colorado – Shedeur Sanders from Jackson State

Nebraska – Jeff Sims from Georgia Tech

Arizona State – Drew Pyne from Notre Dame

Georgia Tech – Haynes King from Texas A&M

Meanwhile, Auburn, Louisville and Purdue all want a transfer quarterback, too. 

In the first year of the new portal windows, this is what quarterback free agency looks like. The biggest names haven’t necessarily come off the board just yet, but in today’s college football, it’s paramount that a first-year head coach is aggressive in the transfer market. 

Use any and all prior connections necessary — and get a guy to compete for the job in Year 1. 

Luke Fickell wasted little time finding a replacement for Graham Mertz, recruiting and landing former OU blue-chip quarterback Nick Evers. 

What was the connection? Evers, who wasn’t recruited at all by the previous staff at Wisconsin, did have a prior relationship with Fickell, who knew that the quarterback’s dad and grandparents grew up in Madison.

Boom. Match made. 

Wisconsin may not be done in QB transfer market, either, as the Badgers hosted Brennan Armstrong on an official visit last week. With Phil Longo’s Air Raid offense coming to Wisconsin, the Badgers want to add the former Virginia gunslinger, too, creating a competitive QB room for 2023. 

Shedeur Sanders was going to follow his dad Deion Sanders wherever he ended up this cycle, but Nebraska’s Matt Rhule beat out Cincy’s Scott Stafferfield for Jeff Sims’ services. He benefitted from Sims’ relationship with former Tech coach Geoff Collins, who is a longtime friend of Rhule’s and was his successor at Temple years ago.

Like Fickell at Wisconsin, Rhule was looking to add a high-upside talent — albeit a flawed and underdeveloped quarterback — to a QB room that will return last year’s starter in Casey Thompson, who made that decision public Tuesday night. 

Rhule wasn’t sure if Thompson was going to be back in Lincoln in 2023, so he had to attack the portal quickly. Now he has the best of both worlds. 

Haynes King is set to replace Sims at Georgia Tech, as the former 4-star quarterback used a previous recruiting relationship to land in Atlanta. King did not really know new head coach Brent Key, but the former Texas A&M quarterback had longtime ties with Tech quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke, who recruited King hard when he was an assistant at Tennessee. 

King, who like Evers and Sims isn’t guaranteed a starting job as he’ll compete against Zach Gibson this spring, nearly committed to the Vols out of high school before getting an offer from the in-state Aggies. But that relationship paid off down the road in finding a fresh start. King’s connection and trust in Weinke even helped Tech land another Texas A&M transfer, as the quarterback vouched for Weinke and the staff to teammate Chase Lane — a 3-star wideout who also is now a Yellow Jacket and actually committed to the program first ironically.

Finally, Kenny Dillingham added an extra arm to Arizona State’s QB room with the commitment of former Notre Dame starter Drew Pyne. 

While the Sun Devils return junior Trenton Bourguet, who took over the job from Emory Jones midseason, Dillingham has quickly turned over the roster with more competition — and that includes at quarterback. 

Pyne did not have a prior tie to the former Oregon and FSU OC, but he liked what he saw in Tempe on an official visit (and how Dillingham developed Bo Nix in 2022) and became the 15th transfer the first-year head coach has landed since taking over at ASU.