Opinion: Why quarterback competitions aren’t competitive in the transfer portal era

Wisconsin officially named veteran Tyler Van Dyke its starting quarterback on Wednesday. Ohio State then followed suit with Kansas State transfer Will Howard on Thursday.

Under similar circumstances, both players won their team’s respective ‘quarterback competitions,’ edging out others in the room who lacked college experience. Van Dyke was given the job over redshirt sophomore Braedyn Locke, while Howard won his over redshirt sophomore Devin Brown and others.

There is an overwhelming feeling that neither competition was really that competitive. That, given the context of experienced, accomplished veteran quarterbacks transferring to a program needing stability at the position, the jobs were theirs the moment they committed out of the portal last winter. In that case, the ‘competitions’ were more performative measures to keep the rest of the quarterback room engaged.

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Perhaps this opinion is due to getting caught in the moment of seeing headlines left and right saying that Van Dyke and Howard ‘won quarterback battles.’ Or the news cycle stopping for two whole days to evaluate the impact of the two officially being named each team’s starter.

I’m drawn to an overwhelming thought that can translate to nearly every instance of an accomplished veteran quarterback transferring to a program in need of a starter: Van Dyke and Howard became the starters the moment each committed. If there were others in the room who were starting caliber, the teams would not have prioritized a transfer at the position.

That is even leaving the NIL part out of the equation, because nobody other than those involved know the figures at play.

I’m looking at the situation from the head coach’s perspective. Luke Fickell went into the portal to find a starting quarterback. He found one in Van Dyke. The training camp ‘competition,’ as Fickell and OC Phil Longo called it, was really then never in question.

The same thought applies to Ohio State. Ryan Day viewed Howard highly enough to make him Ohio State’s one transfer addition at the position. That decision, while not officially binding, feels somewhat so.

Think of the alternative: Day, on the hot seat in the eyes of some, lands a veteran quarterback in the portal only to start redshirt sophomore Devin Brown Week 1. That means Day severely overestimated Howard’s ability and whiffed on a significant transfer addition, because if Brown was that good to begin with, the Buckeyes would not have needed to go into the portal to find a quarterback.

That applies to Wisconsin as well. If Locke was the Badgers’ Week 1 starter vs. Western Michigan, then a mistake was made in the evaluation of Van Dyke compared to the rest of the available quarterbacks.

This is a statement on the current age of college football more than anything. Quarterback ‘battles’ are decided the moment a veteran, big-name transfer arrives. The player has too much leverage in this scenario to pick a destination where he may or may not play.

That isn’t a good or bad thing, it just feels like the reality of the current age of the sport. It mostly eliminates the three-year and four-year starter, unless that quarterback arrives as a five-star recruit who is either too talented to leave on the bench, or too valuable to the future of the program to risk losing (see: Dylan Raiola, Nebraska).

Head coaches need to win games, but they also need to establish their futures. That creates a difficult balance between fostering growth in the quarterback room and finding proven options to start under center each season.

So when Van Dyke ‘winning the starting job’ and Howard ‘officially being named the starter’ dominates the news cycle, both happened back in December.