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The Syracuse Orange will take the field on Saturday night led by starting quarterback Garrett Shrader they will be part of a growing number of FBS programs with a transfer starting at the position.
247Sports details the full picture in this recent article detailing the growth of transfers leading FBS offenses.
Nearly 50% of starting QBs in the FBS are transfers — and that's just the start of it. @bmarcello crunched the numbers on college football's dizzying era of the transfer takeover. https://t.co/jdpG5ml1ze pic.twitter.com/HbYFJcsT2W
— 247Sports (@247Sports) August 30, 2022
The ACC has four other transfers in the starting role as the season starts. Players who don’t win jobs aren’t waiting around for their opportunity and coaches who need a signal-caller are leaning towards someone who has experience in the college game.
When you dig deeper into the numbers you see that part of the Orange’s challenge in 2022 is that their FBS opponents quarterbacks are primarily experienced veterans. Right now only three of the 11 FBS teams that Syracuse will face are starting new quarterbacks and that includes Slovis who threw 30 touchdowns as a freshman at USC.
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Let’s look at the number of games each has played in their college careers.
Louisville: Malik Cunningham- 46 games
UConn: Zion Turner (the new starter for the Huskies)- 1 game
Purdue: Aidan O’Connell- 21 games
Virginia: Brennen Armstrong- 28 games
NC State: Devin Leary- 24 games
Clemson: D,J, Uiagalelei- 22 games
Notre Dame: Tyler Buchner- 10 games
Pittsburgh: Kedon Slovis- 27 games
Florida State: Jordan Travis- 26 games
Wake Forest: Sam Hartman (if he’s back)- 36 games
Boston College: Phil Jurkovec- 24 games
Shrader has 22 games at quarterback so he’s right in line with many of the players he’ll go up against this season. It’s just a sign of the current college football landscape that schools can’t expect to take advantage of inexperienced quarterbacks.
When coaches have to replace an incumbent starter they are often going to turn to the transfer portal to find someone looking for a new opportunity. Syracuse would rather see some new faces under center this fall but having an experienced transfer themselves could level the playing field each Saturday.
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