QB Injuries And Transfer Rules Effects

Teams have had trouble retaining depth at QB in a system where players can transfer every year. Oregon has been blessed by having Dillon Gabriel follow Bo Nix, and then having Dante Moore be willing to sit a year before taking over. While Dylan Riola's performance over three games has been uneven, without him we would have lost all three games he played in, rather than one.

Next weekend we play an Illinois team that will need to start a true freshman. The same seems likely for Ohio State.

You can only play one QB at a time, and alternating QBs in a game has rarely been productive, although substituting when a QB has not been productive can be, and has been for Oregon the past three weeks.

Other than freshmen, the trend has been for non-starter QBs to transfer. They want to be on the field, which is understandable. Until recent times, having to sit it out a year discouraged transferring until it became apparent that a QB would never start at his present school. Having to redshirt after transferring in most circumstances disincentivized transferring.

As I understand, the rules have been changed effective a date I am not aware of, where the first transfer a player makes does not require sitting a year, but a second transfer would impose that requirement. This might return some level of stability on the QB depth charts. It should also put some breaks on NIL bidding wars.