Brandon Rose, a quarterback who has been waiting in line for playing time at the University of Utah for two years, doesn’t get it. He apparently doesn’t understand the way it works now. The transfer portal opened and closed in the fall, and he stayed put. The transfer portal opened and closed again in the spring, and he stayed put, again.
Who does that anymore?
What is this guy, loyal?
Committed?
Quarterbacks who were once three-star prospects and can’t get on the field don’t stick around. They hit the transfer portal and flee to another school, hoping to find playing time. That’s the modern way.
The Utes have given Rose every excuse to leave. As a freshman, he was stuck behind all-conference quarterback Cam Rising. As a sophomore, he played scout team quarterback while walk-on Bryson Barnes led the team. In the current offseason, the Utes signed freshman Isaac Wilson to compete with Rose just to be the backup. Then they signed another quarterback from the portal early this month — Sam Huard, the No. 3 quarterback recruit in the class of 2021, who has since made stops at the University of Washington and Cal Poly.
Any one of those events would have sent any other backup quarterback catching the first portal ride out of town. Not Rose.
“He’s stuck it out,” says Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. “It speaks to his character and his drive and his confidence in himself. It’s refreshing to see that happen, especially at that position.”
Quarterbacks are the biggest vagabonds in the portal era game because only one can play at a time. They frequently shop for a new team. Kedon Slovis turned his eligibility into a tour of America, starting at USC, moving to Pitt, finishing at BYU — that’s three schools in three time zones in three years.
“It’s the position with the alpha dogs,” says Whittingham. “They’re really competitive guys and if it looks like it will be several years before they get an opportunity, most move on.”
In February, The Athletic reported that 266 FBS scholarship quarterbacks transferred to other Division I schools the last two years, and this year will top that. By the end of January, 148 scholarship quarterbacks had entered the portal — this was before the spring portal opened. Every time one quarterback transfers to a new school, it starts a chain reaction of other transfers.
It has been widely reported that 40 to 50% of those who transfer via the portal fail to find scholarships elsewhere, let alone playing time. But such maneuvering has succeeded, sometimes spectacularly. Jalen Hurts, after losing the starting job to Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama, transferred to Oklahoma, where he finished second in the Heisman Trophy race, took the Sooners to the playoff and was taken in the second round of the NFL draft. Now he’s an NFL star. Caleb Williams transferred from Oklahoma to USC, won the Heisman Trophy and was the first pick of last month’s NFL draft.
“He’s stuck it out. It speaks to his character and his drive and his confidence in himself. It’s refreshing to see that happen, especially at that position.”
— Utah coach Kyle Whittingham on Brandon Rose
Among Utah’s FBS schools, the recent spring portal saw quarterbacks Cooper Legas and McCae Hillstead leave Utah State to go to Tulsa and BYU, respectively, just as two quarterbacks were arriving — Jacob Conover from Arizona State (and BYU before that) and CJ Tiller from Boise State. Ryder Burton left BYU to go to West Virginia.
In January, Barnes transferred from Utah to Utah State.
There was a quarterback stampede getting in and out of the portal.
Rose wasn’t one of them. “He’s chosen to continue to learn and develop and continue in the program,” says Whittingham.
That’s what has been lost in the era of the portal. Few players are willing to exercise the patience and perseverance to work their way through the depth chart; at the first sign of a challenge, they run to the portal.
“As far as staying with something and working through it, they’re more likely to remove themselves from the situation and go somewhere else,” says Whittingham.
It has created a difficult situation for coaches — can they still coach and correct a player without driving him to the transfer portal?
“That’s in the back of your mind,” says Whittingham, “but we’ve got a great culture here. We coach them hard and at the same time we love ‘em up when needed. They know the coaches care about them, and that’s the thing: If they know you care about them, they’ll play for you.”
