The coaching carousel may get busy but the transfer portal is like Grand Central Station it seems with players shifting schools more and more. A look at some of the best to switch schools during their college years, including LSU’s Joe Burrow, who became the third straight transfer to win the Heisman Trophy
Troy Aikman
In 1985, Troy Aikman was named starting quarterback for Barry Switzer’s new passing attack and led the Oklahoma to a 3-0 start. In the fourth game, Aikman broke his ankle when he was sacked by Miami’s Jerome Brown. With Aikman out for the season, Switzer went back to the wishbone with Jamelle Holieway and the Sooners went on to win the national championship that season. Aikman transferred to UCLA. And after sitting out in 1986, he led the Bruins to back-to-back 10-win seasons.
Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield walked on at Texas Tech, didn’t see eye-to-eye with Coach Kliff Kingsbury and walked out of Lubbock and into Norman, OK. The move paid off as Mayfield won the Heisman and became a No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Kyler Murray
Kyler Murray followed Baker Mayfield as a Heisman winner, He, too, did not start his college life in Norman. Murray went to school at Texas A&M and then transferred to the Sooners. He made a wise move, as Murray, too, was a No. 1 overall pick.
Jalen Hurts
Jalen Hurts had incredible success at Alabama, going 26-2 as a starter. The situation at QB for the Crimson Tide became cluttered with Tua Tagovailoa as the starter. So, after two seasons during which Hurts threw for 4,861 yards, 40 touchdowns with 10 interceptions and ran for 1,809 yards and 21 he shifted gears to Oklahoma.
Russell Wilson
The NCAA’s graduate transfer year came into existence in 2006, with quarterback Richard Kovalcheck the first to use it when he transferred from Arizona to Vanderbilt, for academic reasons. Russell Wilson took advantage of the graduate transfer rule. He left North Carolina State for Wisconsin, where where he passed for 3,175 yards and 33 touchdowns and led the Badgers to the Big Ten championship.
J.J. Watt
J.J. Watt began his college career at Central Michigan. Watt’s coaches, led by Butch Jones, suggested that he move to offensive tackle, but Watt decided to forgo his starting spot and scholarship to walk on at the University of Wisconsin, where he played as a defensive end.
Jeff Hostetler
After starting two games for the Nittany Lions, Joe Paterno benched Jeff Hostetler in favor of Todd Blackledge. Hostetler transferred to West Virginia. After sitting out a year, he won the starting job during the 1982 season. Hosteler posted an 18-6 record and became the school’s career leaders in several offensive categories.
Randy Moss
Coming out of high school, Moss signed a letter of intent to play for the Irish in 1995. However, after Moss was involved in a racially charged fight that left a person hospitalized, Notre Dame decided to deny him enrollment. Moss eventually landed at Florida State. With the NCAA considering him a transfer student, Moss was ineligible to play his freshman season. He wasn’t able to keep himself out of trouble that year, and the Seminoles gave Moss the boot soon after he tested positive for marijuana while he was on probation. After serving some jail time for breaking his probation, Moss enrolled at Marshall. In 1996 Moss broke Jerry Rice’s NCAA record for touchdown receptions with 28, and set several other freshman records. In 1997, Moss had 96 receptions, 1,820 receiving yards and 26 touchdowns.
Mitch Mustain
Mustain signed with Arkansas. Mustain was a part-time starter as a freshman but lost the starting job to Casey Dick late in the season. Mustain elected to transfer. He wound up at USC, but was beaten out for the starting job by Mark Sanchez in 2008.
*Cam Newton
Cam Newton gets the asterisk because he did not go directly from Florida to Auburn. Newton found trouble in school with the Gators and the law. He wound up at Blinn College before turning up at Auburn, which he led to a national championship.
Jake Coker
Jake Coker appeared in six games as Jameis Winston’s back-up in 2013, earning a national championship ring with Florida State. Coker left as a graduate transfer after the season, enrolling at Alabama. Coker lost out to senior Blake Sims for the starting job in 2014, playing in five games as the back-up quarterback. Coker’s time arrived in 2015, when he passed for 3,110 yards and 21 touchdowns as the Crimson Tide went 14-1 and won the national championship.
Jeff George
Jeff George signed with Purdue but after a coaching change, decided to transfer following his freshman year. George then originally committed to Miami but changed his mind after then-coach Jimmy Johnson refused to guarantee him the starting job. Instead, George transferred to Illinois. In his first year with the Illini he led them to a 6-4-1 record. As a junior George passed for over 2,700 yards with 22 touchdowns and led the Illini to a 10-2-1 record and a victory over Virginia in the Citrus Bowl.
Justin Fields
Justin Fields ran into Jacob Fromm as quarterback at Georgia. He hit the portal and turned up at Ohio State, where he came in third in the 2019 Heisman voting and had 3,273 passing yards.
Ryan Mallett
Ryan Mallet switched from Michigan to Arkansas after 2007. He sat out the 2008 season and threw for nearly 7,500 yards in two seasons as a Razorback.
Gardner Minshew
Gardner Minshew became a hot commodity after transferring from East Carolina to Washington State. In two seasons with the Pirates he had nearly 3,500-plus yards passing and 24 TDs. In one season in Pullman, Minshew threw for 4.779 yards and 38 TDs.
Trace Armstrong
Trace Armstrong was headed to a great career at Arizona State. After his junior season in 1987, he was faced with a major decision: Transfer, or be done with his college career. After enrolling at ASU in 1984, it was determined that Armstrong’s high school GPA was miscalculated. Though it was not Armstrong’s fault the clerical error occurred, he was forced to sit out his freshman season. The NCAA eventually ruled that in order to regain his lost year of eligibility, he must play his senior season elsewhere. Armstrong switched to Florida , where he played in 1988 and was selected in the first round by the Chicago Bears in 1989.
Joe Flacco
Stuck behind Tyler Palko after one season at Pittsburgh, Flacco transferred to I-AA Delaware, where he became the starting quarterback in 2006 and set 20 school records.
Doc Blanchard
Doc Blanchard enrolled at North Carolina where his mother’s cousin was the head coach of the football team, but after one year there he decided to join the military. Blanchard was rejected by the Navy’s V-12 program, which would have allowed him to finish school at UNC in return for a service commitment, for being overweight and having a vision problem. Blanchard enlisted in the Army, but his father secured him a spot at West Point, where he would go on to be one of the greatest football players of all-time.
Jarrett Stidham
Jarrett Stidham started at Baylor. However, In the wake of a sexual abuse scandal at the school and the firing of much of the coaching staff, and dissatisfaction backing up quarterback Seth Russell, on July 7, 2016, Stidham announced he would be transferring. He wound up at Auburn and threw for 5,952 yards in two seasons.
Will Grier
Will Grier also had issues at Florida. Grier received a one-year suspension, effective October 12, 2015, after it was revealed that he had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. On April 6, 2016, Grier announced that he was transferring to West Virginia University. He sat out the 2016 season per NCAA transfer rules. In two seasons as a Mountaineer he threw for more than 7,300 yards and 71 TDs.
Scott Frost
Scott Frost started his college career at Stanford. After transferring to Nebraska, he rushed for 1,095 yards and 19 touchdowns in Tom Osborne’s option offense in 1997 and steered the Huskers to the national championship it split with Michigan.
Nick Foles
Nick Foles shared the quarterback room with eventual NFL starters Brian Hoyer and Kirk Cousins. He transferred to Arizona in 2009 and started three seasons. He wound up with 10,011 passing yards and 67 touchdowns at Arizona.
Jacoby Brissett
After he lost the quarterback battle to Jeff Driskel in 2011 and ’12 at Florida, Brissett headed to North Carolina State. He amassed 6,167 yards of total offense and 52 total touchdowns in 2014 and ’15.
Joe Burrow
This exercise brings us to LSU quarterback Joe Burrow, who started his college career at Ohio State and moved on to Baton Rouge and the Bayou Bengals. Burrow has had an incredible 2019 season, setting passing marks and touchdown records. He leads LSU into the College Football Playoff championship against Clemson on Jan. 13.
