Looking at the Plight of the Backup Quarterback in the NIL Era
When the Oregon Ducks announced that they would be signing former Oklahoma quarterback Dillion Gabriel from the transfer portal last December, it brought into light an interesting situation about college football. While the hurrahs and commitment posts circulated Twitter, while Ducks fans breathed a sigh of relief when they realized head coach Dan Lanning had found a formidable replacement for outgoing quarterback Bo Nix, and while the team figured to be ready for the transition to the Big Ten– backup quarterback Ty Thompson had entered the transfer portal a mere three days later.
While the backup quarterback for the Oregon Ducks entering the transfer portal may seem like a trivial item at best, the plight of the backup quarterback hasn’t gone unforgotten. In today’s era of NIL and the transfer portal being seen as a tool rather than an option– the pathway for the second-string quarterback has been severely altered. Rather than the segue to being a starter being a smooth, multi-year transition culminated by sitting and watching QB1 play, it’s become a dog-eat-dog world with transfers dominating the starting quarterback landscape.
238 quarterbacks entered the transfer portal in 2023 according to 24/7’s database, with many being backup quarterbacks that were the victim of another quarterback being ferried in by the coaching staff. For quarterbacks that choose to stay and are locked in on a battle, many teams have already chosen a favorite to get first-team reps. It was an uphill battle to begin with, one which hasn’t gotten any easier. The issue lies in the fact that replacements are too readily available– the portal always being one click away and the access to top, known talent is just fingertips away.
Backup quarterbacks, if they can’t get game film as soon as possible face a Goliath in hurdles to ultimately win the starting quarterback spot. Take for example a QB who is forced to redshirt his freshman year. If he’s backing up heavy talent by year two and the starter leaves to go to the NFL in year three, the coaching staff doesn’t know what the second-string quarterback has.
He’s lacked valuable game time and crucial mental reps that can only be achieved by playing in a live matchup. For a coach, the backup is a huge question mark. Maybe he’s seen him in practice enough to give him a shot but when jobs are on the line in the cutthroat world of college football, it’s growing increasingly tough to justify an unknown.
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It’s exponentially tough when the other option involves accessing the transfer portal for the team’s next starter. Big name quarterbacks in the portal have a proven track record. They have game film, the established mental fortitude to hold up in-game, and everything in between. In other words they are by far the safest option.
For college football head coaches at the Power Five level, no season is a given and no job is safe. Every year is a job interview and there is such a small margin of error. As a head coach you must take every available step in order to procure a winning season, which an enigma at quarterback is a huge gamble– not only for the season but the job security of your position as well.
“If you’re a backup and you go somewhere and you’re not playing right away, it’s hard to ever see the field at a Power Five school,” podcaster and former Penn State tight end Adam Breneman said on his podcast. “As a coach too… I see what these transfers do. It’s my job on the line. I’m going to go get the transfer.”
It becomes a story all too well known for quarterbacks across the college football landscape. When Ohio State’s starting quarterback for 2023 in Kyle McCord transferred before the Cotton Bowl last year, junior quarterback Devin Brown was slated to start. When early in the game Brown left with a foot injury and the Buckeyes lost a slugfest bowl game, Ohio State immediately began looking for other options in the portal. The team ultimately landed former Kansas State QB Will Howard, wiping Brown’s chances away. Brown was still slated to be in a deadlock with Howard in spring camp, but even true freshman Julian Sayin became embroiled in a quarterback battle that seemed to have Howard favored from the start.
Brown barely received a chance, marred by an injury he couldn’t help. Some may chalk it up to the tight world of college football but it is a monstrous change from the world of the past.
Ty Thompson ended up transferring to Tulane after Gabriel’s arrival in Eugene. It’s not a Power Five school by any means, but it’s an opportunity for Thompson to play. Thompson received zero playing time during his time with the Ducks which made it a rough and hard situation for Thompson to ever end up playing for the team.
“You either got to go start as a freshman or you got to go somewhere lower where you know you’ll play right away as a quarterback,” Breneman says. “Or you have to transfer yourself but even then you’ve never played so if you don’t see the field early, it’s hard.”
Thompson’s situation, Devin Brown’s conundrum all play into the issue at hand. The transfer portal has completely transformed college football. It was only a couple years ago quarterbacks had a linear path to the throne, sitting and then ultimately proving themselves by way of experience. Loyalty to a program has began to mean less and less, a notion exemplified by the introduction of a plethora of different tools at a college football coach’s fingertips.
There are some budding success stories: Miller Moss at USC has patiently waited for his turn underneath superstar quarterback Caleb Williams’ shadow. Some teams like USC have taken a different approach than the likes of Oregon and Ohio State.
“He was like, ‘Hey, great job. I just want to let you know we’re not going to take an older transfer,'” Moss said speaking about head coach Lincoln Riley. “I think Lincoln really wanted to see me play and then was going to make a decision because I think he wanted to see if what happened in the game confirmed his practice evaluation.”
While the dissection and fall from grace bowl games have had has been a hot topic, there is one silver lining. Bowl games have helped the backup quarterback in this new era of the portal. If a QB decides they want to transfer or enter the draft, it is then the backup who will get the nod. It’s an opportunity for a quarterback and a program to turn a question mark into a period. The issue is it’s only one– Brown’s was squandered with a ankle injury and Thompson was never afforded the luxury to start in the Fiesta due to Bo Nix getting the go-ahead.
This new trend of taking the best option out of the portal instead of trusting your quarterback who you’ve developed in the system for years looks to be here to stay. Some backups thrive as backups and put upward pressure on the starter to leave. Such was the case at Kansas State where five-star QB Avery Johnson exiled Will Howard to enter the portal. The success stories however are few and far between.
With contract incentives and millions of dollars on the line for coaching staffs and programs, teams are stuck between a rock and a hard place for trying to remedy the issue. On one hand, this is the current state of college football which entered a rapidly-unwinding spiral just a couple years ago with the introduction of the transfer portal. On the other, this is a roster problem where backup quarterbacks must learn to deal with it. If anything, the problem seems to be self-correcting by way of bowl games having a new meaning.
The topic of postseason in college football is one for an entirely separate time but the two topics work in tandem. For now, the plight of the college football backup quarterback is one of movement and transferring.
