The Shifting QB Dynamic in College Football

As with all things, change is a constant. In college football, this seems to be especially true. From shifting conference alliances, playoff format expansion, and NIL, to the no sit-out transfer rule, this isn’t your Grandad’s college football experience, that much is for certain.

These shifting tides have been on my mind often lately, specifically when it comes to the QB position in college football and how it’s rapidly changing due to the ability of players to transfer schools and play immediately. I think this will soon cause a major issue in the sport. Lack of high-quality backup QBs.

Let’s explore this theory in depth.

Play Now

Note Dame’s Spring QB competition is top of mind for this discussion for most who are reading this article. Players that want to play now, think they should play now, but that aren’t going to play now are simply going to move to other schools. This is their right. This is the Tyler Buchner route.

There are no guarantees that he will have success playing for Rees and Alabama, but there is a guarantee that Notre Dame’s QB depth chart just took a big hit and if Sam Hartman goes down for any length of time with an injury, the Irish are in trouble for a second year in a row.

I suspect many depth charts around the country will soon feature the primary starter and young developmental players behind them that are not ready to play. I feel that the days of a quality backup are limited as many of these players will be approached to be starters elsewhere. Why wait right?

NIL Poaching

Aside from backups who do not win starting roles leaving for what they hope are greener pastures of opportunity, coaches must also worry yearly about behind the scenes NIL poaching of their starters. At anytime now, a player who is established can take their talents elsewhere in pursuit of big money NIL deals not available to them at their initial location.

Head coaches must now recruit the players they have on their team to keep them on the team. This adds an entirely new level of complexity to an already increasingly difficult job. The new reality is such that if you have a top flight QB in your program, he is being targeted elsewhere.

NFL Ready

Most if not all high-end college football QBs have NFL dreams. Not all start at schools that can best help fulfill them, however. This is a part of the reason Notre Dame ended up with Sam Hartman. He desired to leave the “nichey” Wake offense for a more traditional NFL-style Notre Dame one to better prepare for the draft.

I think we will see more of this in upcoming years as players will seek to end their college careers at schools that have the most talent around them and that run offenses that NFL GMs love to see to boost draft stock. This will leave a lot of mid-tier team coaches undoubtably frustrated.

Conclusion

Are all of these changing QB trends what is best for the sport? I’m not sure, but it’s also not my place to say. The reality is that players are gaining more autonomy over their careers yearly and coaches and fans alike need to be prepared to adjust the way they think and operate in the new dynamic.

Schools that can adapt the best and not resist these changes will succeed while those that long for the way things used to be will struggle to keep up in an ever-modernizing world and sport.

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Story originally appeared on Fighting Irish Wire