John Dewan's Stat of the Week

Posted by Logan King on Feb 18th 2020

The college football off-season is now in full swing, with coaches and recruiting staff working to add more talent to their rosters. Along with high school athletes and JUCO standouts, teams are also recruiting current NCAA student-athletes from the ever-growing transfer market.

In 2018, in an effort to streamline and standardize the student-athlete transfer process, the NCAA debuted the transfer portal, strengthening the importance of transfers in the player acquisition process.

The final 2019 standings for College Total Points (SIS's overall value metric that in college also adjusts for strength of schedule) show just how vital a transfer player can be to the success of their new team. The top 10 players in terms of Total Points were all quarterbacks. Of these 10, half were transfers. Furthermore, three of the four College Football Playoff quarterbacks were transfers (Joe Burrow, Justin Fields, and Jalen Hurts), along with each of the last three Heisman trophy winners (Burrow, Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield).

2019 SIS College Total Points Leaderboard (all are QBs)

Bold indicates transfer player

Rank	Name	School	Total Points	Per 60 Plays*
1	Joe Burrow	LSU	251	15.8
2	Anthony Gordon	Wash St	180	12.2
3	Justin Fields	Ohio State	170	11.5
4	Jalen Hurts	Oklahoma	162	11.3
5	Sam Howell	UNC	154	10.1
6	Trevor Lawrence	Clemson	151	11.2
7	Shane Buechele	SMU	148	9.0
8	Sam Ehlinger	Texas	145	9.6
9	Justin Herbert	Oregon	142	9.4
10	Bryce Perkins	Virginia	140	9.3

*60 is about the average number of offensive plays in a game

The above examples are the best-case scenario, as transfer quarterbacks do not always live up to the hype. That being said, teams will continue to look to transfers in order to find success on the field.

Of the transfers completed this off-season, here are six quarterbacks (along with career Total Points statistics) to keep an eye on (all have been granted immediate eligibility):

Name	Prev School	New School	Total Points	Per 60 Plays
D'Eriq King	Houston	Miami	163	9.6
K.J. Costello	Stanford	Miss St	141	7.8
Feleipe Franks	Florida	Arkansas	91	5.9
Jamie Newman	Wake Forest	Georgia	84	4.4
Collin Hill	Colorado St	South Car	47	5.3
Chase Brice	Clemson	Duke	35	5.6

Each of the above quarterbacks have seen the field and, with the exception of Duke's Chase Brice, have starting experience. All are entering their final season of eligibility, again with the exception of Brice, who has two seasons remaining (though Collin Hill is eligible to apply for a medical redshirt in order to gain an extra season of eligibility).

While some quarterbacks do see immediate success upon transferring (Fields, Hurts), others see greater returns following the initial year in their new program (Burrow, Bryce Perkins). It will be interesting to see which schools will be able to create an environment in which their transfer signal caller can thrive.

Interested in more college football analysis from SIS? Check out the 2020 SIS Football Rookie Handbook, available for preorder from Amazon or from ACTA Sports.