Alabama QB's Through the Years

Alabama quarterbacks David Cornwell (12), Cooper Bateman (18) and Alec Morris (11) are shown during a practice in 2015. All three eventually left the program as graduate transfers, with only Bateman starting a game, and in his case, only one. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

Ole Miss quarterbacks David Morris (left), Romaro Miller (center) and Eli Manning are shown in 1999. Morris backed up both Miller and Manning during his career. (Ole Miss athletics via QB Country)

David Morris faced a dilemma in the winter of 1998-99.

He'd joined the Ole Miss football team as a walk-on quarterback the previous fall, even started the Egg Bowl against archrival Mississippi State when starter Romaro Miller was injured. Then-Rebels coach Tommy Tuberville had promised to put him on scholarship as soon as possible if he earned the backup job over several highly touted signees.

But in November and December of 1998, two major events happened around the Rebels program that shook up Morris' world. One, Tuberville left to take the Auburn job, and was replaced by Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe.

Two, and more ominous for Morris' future, five-star recruit Eli Manning verbally committed to the Rebels. He was the savior Ole Miss fans had been waiting for since his father Archie had starred for the team some thirty years earlier.

But what Morris didn't do sets him apart from others like him, and from those in similar situations in subsequent years. He didn't transfer in search of playing time, instead staying at Ole Miss and becoming a career backup quarterback.

"When you're going through the recruiting process, you just think you're going to be 'the guy,'" said Morris, now a nationally respected private quarterback coach in his hometown of Mobile. "You realize pretty quickly, it's hard to be the guy. When somebody like Eli Manning commits, it makes it harder. But I think the best decision of my life -- not necessarily of my playing career, but of my life -- was staying at Ole Miss and just being a second-stringer.

"It's an emotional thing when you talk about transferring. I think it's gotten out of hand."

Whether or not quarterback transfers have "gotten out of hand," as Morris says, is a matter of a opinion. However, the numbers in recent years are striking.

Numbers are striking

From 2001-2015, SEC schools signed 258 quarterback recruits, an average of 18.42 per school. (This number does not include players who transferred in from other four-year programs, nor does it count walk-ons who later received scholarships. However, it does count junior-college transfers, who are treated as signees).

SEC quarterback transfers, 2001-15 by creg1973 on Scribd

Of those 258 quarterback signees, a whopping 105 -- 40.7 percent -- eventually transferred, either as an undergraduate or as a graduate. That figure dwarfs the number of quarterbacks who either completed their eligibility or are still enrolled (76, or 29.4 percent), those who were dismissed from the team, quit football entirely before their eligibility expired or changed positions in college (63, or 24.4 percent), those who never enrolled either due to grades or choosing to sign professional baseball contacts (8, or 3.1 percent), and those who left school early for the NFL (6, 2.3 percent).

In many cases, quarterbacks are transferring after the spring of their redshirt freshman or true sophomore year, when they've had one (perhaps two) legitimate chances to win the starting job. Morris said that players transferring so quickly from their chosen schools after an often multi-year recruiting process makes little sense.

"I think that at some point in life, you've got to realize that your situation is just not the way you dreamt it up, and you've got to make the most of it," Morris said. "I'm not saying settle. I'm not saying that. I'm saying just have faith that you're here, that you went through this due diligence process. (Because) all of a sudden you get beat out by a guy who's just a tad bit better than you, that doesn't mean you have to pack up and move."

Increasing over time

Not only has the quarterback transfer "epidemic" increased over time, it seems to have gotten much worse recently, which we can see by breaking down the period from 2001-15 into three 5-year increments (the 2016 and 2017 signing classes were excluded because first- and second-year players typically do not transfer, though former South Carolina Brandon McIlwain signee has already done so). From 2001-05, 26 of 87 quarterback signees (29.8 percent) transferred away from their original schools.

Ole Miss quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, shown against Jacksonville State in 2010, was one of the first graduate transfers into the SEC. (AP photo)

From 2006-10, 30 of 81 quarterback signees (37 percent) eventually transferred. From 2011-15, that number shot up to 49 of 90 (54.4 percent), including Tennessee's Sheriron Jones, who announced just Tuesday he was leaving the Volunteers for a yet-to-be-determined school.

One reason players are transferring earlier is that so many are enrolling in college early, during what should be their final semester of high school. By the time a player gets to his redshirt freshman season, he's already had two springs and a fall with the team, ostensibly competing for a starting job.

However, the biggest reason for the increase in recent years is the NCAA's graduate transfer rule, which allows players who are college graduates to transfer to a new school without having to sit out a year. Graduate transfers account for nearly one-third of SEC quarterback transfers from 2011-15.

The rule was first used in the SEC in 2006 when Arizona quarterback Richard Kovalcheck transferred to Vanderbilt, but really ramped up after Jeremiah Masoli joined the team at Ole Miss in 2010 after being dismissed from Oregon. (Russell Wilson, who went from North Carolina State to Wisconsin in 2011 and is now a star with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, was another early, albeit non-SEC, graduate transfer).

Only one SEC quarterback signee from the 2001-05 recruiting classes used the graduate transfer rule -- South Carolina's Tommy Beecher, who transferred to Liberty in 2009. Three did so from the 2006-10 signing classes, but 14 have done so from the 2011-15 recruiting classes.

Morris said despite his reservations about transfers in general, he's totally in favor of the graduate transfer rule, which he says is "handled with integrity" in 9 out of 10 cases. He cites the case of one his pupils, Duke's Thomas Sirk, who was injured in 2016 and eventually lost his starting job to redshirt freshman Daniel Jones (ironically, another Morris client), and last month announced plans to transfer to East Carolina.

"There's a respect factor in the graduate transfer process," Morris said. "Nobody at Duke is going to say 'shame on you, Thomas.' Everybody is going to say 'Thomas, thank you, and what can we do to help?' It's a healthy thing, and they totally get it. Even Daniel would say 'I learned so much from you.' There's a certain amount of nobility to it."

The rest is history, and it all worked out

Another of Morris' pupils is perhaps the most-accomplished of graduate transfers, albeit one who transferred into the SEC, rather than out. Jake Coker first signed with Florida State out of Mobile's St. Paul's Episcopal School in 2011, but lost out on the starting job to 2013 Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston.

Florida State quarterbacks Jameis Winston, left, and Jake Coker are shown in 2012. After Winston won the Heisman Trophy and led the Seminoles to the 2013 BCS national championship as a redshirt freshman, Coker transferred to Alabama. (AP photo/Phil Sears)

With Winston entrenched as the starter (and a year younger than Coker), Coker said he knew he would have to transfer if he were to get meaningful playing time before his college career was over. Coker, of course, transferred to Alabama, and quarterbacked the Crimson Tide to the 2015 national championship in his lone year as the starter.

Still, Coker said he didn't make the move to transfer in a flippant fashion. Instead, he tried multiple times to win the starting job on his own merits, and was actually talked into staying another year by FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher.

"My redshirt freshman year, Jameis had just had that real good spring, and all that hype was going around," Coker said. "I went up to Jimbo and asked him 'if the decision's made, just let me know. Because I need to get somewhere where I can play and move on.' He said 'nah, we're going to wait til (fall) camp.'

"A lot of my teammates were on me about staying and seeing what happens, so I stayed and worked my butt off, but it just didn't work out. So I went through that third season as the back-up. I didn't want to be a distraction or let anybody know I was even thinking about leaving, because that was a national championship run, and the last thing I wanted to do was take anything away from the success we were having.

"So I did my thing, and as soon as the season was over, I made my decision to move to Alabama. And the rest is history, and it all worked out. I'm real happy about everything that came from that decision."

Crimson Tide, Gators, Bulldogs feeling it most

Even removing the graduate transfers, the rate of SEC quarterback transfers has risen. It went from 28.7 percent for 2001-05 recruits, to 34.5 for 2006-10 and 37.7 percent for 2011-15.

Jacoby Brissett began his college career at Florida before transferring to North Carolina State, where he was a two-year starter. He played in the 2016 Senior Bowl and was drafted by the New England Patriots in the third round that spring. (Mike Kittrell/AL.com)

No SEC schools have been more troubled by transfers than Alabama, Florida and Georgia. At those three schools, every quarterback signee from the 2011-15 classes transferred away before his eligibility was complete.

Excluding the 2016 and 2017 recruiting classes, Florida hasn't signed a quarterback who completed his college eligibility as a Gator since 2007 signee John Brantley. The Gators didn't sign a quarterback in 2008 or 2009 (call it the Tim Tebow effect), but the seven they did sign from 2010-14 all transferred away.

Tyler Murphy (Boston College) and Jeff Driskel (Louisiana Tech) left as graduate transfers, while Jacoby Brissett (North Carolina State), Skyler Mornhinweg (Columbia), Max Staver (East Mississippi Community College), Will Grier (West Virginia) and Treon Harris (Tennessee State) all transferred away. Murphy, Driskel and Brissett all became starters with their new teams, with Driskel and Brissett drafted into the NFL last spring.

The rampant transfers clearly frustrate Gators head coach Jim McElwain, who sounded off on what he termed "a societal thing today" during an interview with Gridiron Now at the 2016 SEC spring meetings.

"Each guy is different," McElwain said. "(Some) find their niche and realize the opportunity to maybe sit there and get their feet wet and learn how to do it and go on from there. But that question probably has more to do with a societal thing today, that if I'm not going to get in, I'm going to take my ball and go home.

"Look at the people transferring every single day, running away from competition or whatever it might be. You know what, it happens and you deal with it and try to do what's best for the player. That's one of the things that I think gets lost a little bit ... all of us are in it for what's best for the individual player."

Alabama signed six quarterbacks during the 2011-15 recruiting period, and all of them left without securing the starting job for more than one game. Phillip Ely (transferred to Toledo) and Parker McLeod (Western Kentucky) both saw the writing on the wall early on, and transferred away after their freshman years. Alec Morris (North Texas), Cooper Bateman (Utah) and David Cornwell (Nevada) hung around long enough to graduate before moving on.

Then there is Blake Barnett, a former 5-star recruit who quit the Alabama team midway through his redshirt freshman year after losing the starting job to true freshman Jalen Hurts. Barnett took advantage of a loophole in NCAA rules, which allowed him to be eligible to play at Arizona State this season after spending part of last fall in junior college.

Blake Barnett started Alabama's 2016 season-opener against USC, but left the team less than a month later in order to transfer to a junior college. Thanks to an NCAA loophole and a subsequent appeal, he will be eligible to play at Arizona State this fall. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

Barnett, Bateman and Cornwell all left the Alabama team in 2016, with Bateman and Cornwell staying on through the College Football Playoff. Alabama head coach Nick Saban was supportive of Bateman and Cornwell after they announced their intentions to transfer, saying the two did "a fantastic job for us."

However, he was not as forgiving of Barnett leaving the team in the middle of the season. During the Sept. 29 edition of his "Hey Coach" radio call-in show, Saban all but called Barnett a quitter and longed for the good old days, when such things simply weren't done.

"I played so long ago I don't think anybody even knew you could transfer," Saban said. "I don't think they knew anything about it. It's one of those things where I think the culture has changed a little bit. There's certain pride people have in competition. There's certain things I was taught growing up about not quitting and seeing things through. I think if I'd come home and told my dad that I was going to quit the team, I think he'd have kicked me out of the house."

Barnett has never fully opened up about what all went into his decision to transfer from Alabama, but has said in subsequent interviews -- including one with ESPN's Ted Miller in February -- that whatever negative reputation he has as a result is unfair. Nevertheless, Barnett went through spring practice at Arizona State, and will have an opportunity to win the starting job this fall (coincidentally, former Alabama wide receivers coach Billy Napier is now the Sun Devils' offensive coordinator).

Some success stories

There are a handful of undergraduate quarterback transfer success stories, such as Brissett, who left Florida after two seasons and was later a two-year starter at North Carolina State (he's now a back-up with the New England Patriots). But more common are those who leave SEC schools and never make their mark elsewhere, such as Mitch Mustain (Arkansas to USC), Star Jackson (Alabama to Georgia State) and Kiehl Frazier (Auburn to Ouachita Baptist).

Jeremy Johnson lost his starting quarterback job at Auburn in 2015, but ended up staying with the Tigers rather than transferring. He completed his career in 2016, and has a tryout with the NFL's New York Giants set for next week. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

Auburn has signed 22 quarterbacks since 2001, seven of which transferred away. A bigger problem for the Tigers has been players who never enrolled, were dismissed from the team, quit football entirely or changed position (of which there are eight).

Interestingly enough, however, two of the more-recent "career backups" played at Auburn. One was Neil Caudle, a former four-star recruit who was mostly a holder during his four years with the Tigers.

Then there was Jeremy Johnson, a high school star in Montgomery who was named Auburn's starting quarterback as a junior in 2015 before eventually losing his job to redshirt freshman Sean White. Johnson did not transfer away as many others have done, and even started a handful of games in 2016 when White was injured.

If Johnson regretted his decision not to transfer from Auburn, he never said so. In a March interview with reporters, Johnson didn't blame Tigers head coach Gus Malzahn or offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee for his on-field failures, either.

"It was my fault," Johnson said. "That is what it is and I leave it at that. The past is the past. Whatever questions I'm asked I'm going to answer it truthfully and I'm not here to bash nobody because it was my fault as well.

"I love coach Malzahn, love coach Lashlee, they did a great job. I love being around the players. It's a new beginning now. ... The most important thing was being a man of integrity. I feel like what I've been through helped me become a man and mature me."

A happy ending with no regrets?

Johnson's football story might have a happy ending, as he's been invited to a tryout camp with the NFL's New York Giants next week. Morris never started another game at Ole Miss after his freshman year, and threw a total of 18 in-game passes in his final three seasons.

Former Ole Miss quarterback David Morris now runs QB Country, a private quarterback coaching service based in Mobile that has trained the likes of AJ McCarron, Jake Coker, Thomas Sirk and recent NFL hopefuls Chad Kelly and Eli Jenkins. (Mike Kittrell/AL.com)

Though he admitted his situation is different than many SEC quarterbacks having been a walk-on originally, Morris said he has no regrets about how his football life turned out. Not only did he get a free college education, he built lifelong relationships that have helped him in his current day job with his own company, QB Country.

Morris was able to continue working with Sirk and Jones due to his relationship with Cutcliffe, who is now head coach at Duke. And his Ole Miss ties helped him connect with and agree to train former Rebels quarterback Chad Kelly, who was drafted by the NFL's Denver Broncos on Saturday.

"You're not brought up thinking 'I want to go be a second- or third-stringer,'" Morris said. "You're brought up thinking 'I'm going to be the guy in college one day. I'm going to be a starter and I'm going to be successful.' The problem is, only one guy can be that. And there's going to be four or five guys kind of left scratching their head.

"Not that I was content with it -- my heart was broken. But what I learned was, it's not all about me. I learned to be a better teammate. I was humbled and I probably needed that. I learned how other people feel when things don't work out just right.

"I was like, this is where I'm supposed to be, and let's go compete and see what happens."