Washington's Michael Penix Jr. showed that a quarterback transfer can not only change a player's trajectory, but an entire program's.
The quarterback transfer market has become the most significant personnel component in college football, as the hits, misses and everything in between shapes so much in the sport. The 2023 season produced another Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback who transferred in LSU's Jayden Daniels (Arizona State), as well as exceptional runners-up in Penix (Indiana) and Oregon's Bo Nix (Auburn).
Although all three Heisman finalist quarterbacks were in their second seasons at their new destinations, several first-year transfers stood out. Colorado's Shedeur Sanders, who followed his father and Buffs coach Deion Sanders from Jackson State to Boulder, finished No. 10 nationally in passing average. Appalachian State's Joey Aguilar (Diablo Valley Community) and North Texas' Chandler Rogers (Louisiana-Monroe) both finished in the top 10 in passing touchdowns.
Transfers made contributions beyond glitzy numbers, facilitating clear improvement with their teams at Oklahoma State (Alan Bowman), Georgia Tech (Haynes King), Northwestern (Ben Bryant), Texas State (TJ Finley), Boston College (Thomas Castellanos) and elsewhere. There were other transfers who arrived with great fanfare, but ultimately didn't provide the spark their new teams hoped.
In mid-October, we gave midterm grades to first-year transfer quarterbacks. But those marks captured only a partial view of the performances. The final grades are in, and I've added a few key transfers who weren't part of the midseason rundown, while removing a few others, bringing the total number to 50. Not every QB transfer appears below, but we tried to cover the most prominent names.
Let's get started.
Jump to a grade tier:
A | A- | B+ | B | B-
C+ | C | C- | D+ | D | D-
Incomplete
