Transfer QB Options Becoming Limited For WVU

Two quarterbacks who had expressed interest in transferring to West Virginia could be scratched from the Mountaineers’ list for separate reasons.

Tate Martell, who spent the past two years at Ohio State, had decided to leave Columbus. He visited West Virginia over the weekend, but then took a trip to Miami. Tuesday night he announced via Twitter that he was committing to the Hurricanes.

WVU was still involved with another potential transfer in Oklahoma quarterback Austin Kendall, who recently graduated from OU. As a grad transfer he could potentially be immediately eligible at another school. Besides being interested in West Virginia, Kendall also recently visited Auburn.

But now there appears to be a major hurdle in regards to Kendall landing in Morgantown. ESPN.com’s Jake Trotter is reporting that the University of Oklahoma is intent on blocking Kendall from becoming immediately eligible at WVU. According to ESPN, even though Kendall has earned his bachelor’s degree from OU, the Sooners can still keep him from becoming eligible next season at another Big 12 school. He could still transfer to West Virginia, but would have to sit out the 2019 season and then would have one year of eligibility remaining in 2020. If Kendall went to a school outside the Big 12, like Auburn, or if OU didn’t block him from transferring within the league, he would have two seasons of eligibility left.

Having graduated already from Oklahoma, Kendall is trying to enroll at a new school quickly so he is able to start taking classes and participate in spring drills.

With Martell out and Kendall facing a big hurdle if he wants to attend WVU, the Mountaineers’ opportunities to find an experienced FBS quarterback to add to the position, which at this point features just two scholarship players, Jack Allison and Trey Lowe, starts to become limited.

Alabama’s Jalen Hurts was the biggest name in this year’s grad transfer pool, but he recently committed to Oklahoma. Arkansas’ Ty Storey, California’s Ross Bowers, FAU’s De’Andre Johnson and Florida State’s James Blackmon are other quarterbacks who are potential transfers, but it’s unclear if WVU’s current staff would be interested in any of those. SMU’s Ben Hicks had also been in the transfer pool, but he recently committed to Arkansas.

New West Virginia coach Neal Brown will likely continue to search for additional QB help, but certainly the Mountaineers had hoped either Martell or Kendall was an option, and now neither may be.