A Moderately In-Depth Look At Ole Miss’ Horde Of Transfer Quarterbacks

In case you missed it yesterday, and how could you, I mean, seriously, get on Twitter already and stop relying on Facebook to provide you with news four days after it happens, Chad Kelly, one of the nation’s top junior college quarterbacks announced via Twitter that he had committed to Ole Miss (and in the process misspelled “Rebel” TWICE; Chad is all about “REBAL”). While he still has to sign the paperwork and all that official business, more than likely he’ll become yet another transfer quarterback to enroll* at Ole Miss.

*Whether he plays or not will be determined this spring

Since 1996, and I didn’t go past that year because I am very busy and also not insane, Ole Miss has had eight transfer quarterbacks start a game, with seven of them starting an entire season. Compare that with just six “homegrown” quarterbacks in that time, and only four of those started for most of at least one season.

Here’s the list of transfer quarterbacks:

• Bo Wallace
• Barry Brunetti
• Randall Mackey
• Jeremiah Masoli
• Brent Schaeffer
• Seth Adams
• Jevan Snead
• Stewart Patridge

Only Brunetti was never a full-time starter. Now the list of homegrown quarterbacks:

• Nathan Stanley
• Robert Lane
• Ethan Flatt
• Micheal Spurlock
• Eli Manning
• Romaro Miller

Outside of Eli and Romaro, GOOD NIGHT NAVY THAT LIST IS A MILLION AND A HALF SADS. Anyway, Stanley and Lane never achieved full-time starter, though Lane saw extended playing time in David Cutcliffe’s final year in 2004.

So how did all of those transfers do as a starter? I’m so glad you brought yourself to that question.

BEHOLD, THE WORK OF QB TRANSFER U:

Bo Wallace
9,424 passing yards, 62 TDs, 38 INTs
737-1,163 (63.3%)
958 rushing yards, 17 TDs
44 receiving yards, 1 TD

Barry Brunetti (Houston Nutt version)
144 passing yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs
19-35 (54.3%)
110 rushing yards, 0 TDs, 3.3 yds/carry

Barry Brunetti (Hugh Freeze version)
490 passing yards, 7 TDs, 0 INTs
46-77 (59.7%)
587 rushing yards, 7 TDs, 4.9 yds/carry

Randall Mackey
1,112 passing yards, 7 TDs, 5 INTs
77-155 (49.7%)
180 rushing yards, 1 TD, 2.2 yds/carry

A brief pause to point out how Freeze managed to get something out of Brunetti and Mackey. When Freeze took over at Ole Miss, he moved Mackey into a hybrid running back/wide receiver position, in which Mackey had some success:

325 rushing yards, 4 TDs, 4.1 yds/carry
25 receptions, 346 yards, 1 TD

Jeremiah Masoli
2039 passing yards, 14 TDs, 13 INTs
167-296 (56.4%)
544 rushing yards, 6 TDs, 4.5 yds/carry

Jevan Snead
5,395 passing yards, 46 TDs, 33 INTs
375-687 (54.6%)
161 rushing yards, 6 TDs, 1.48 yds/carry

FUN FACT: If Snead had attempted as many passes as Dr. Bo, he would’ve thrown 55.9 interceptions in three years. Just shy of 19 a season!

Seth Adams
2,156 passing yards, 12 TDs, 16 INTs
180-328 (54.9%)
-46 rushing yards, 1 TD

Brent Schaeffer
2,020 passing yards, 14 TDs, 14 INTs
150-336 (44.6%)
255 rushing yards, 2 TDs, 2 yds/carry

GONNA RUN THE USC OFFENSE WITH A QUARTERBACK WHO IS 4,000% ILL-SUITED TO RUN THAT OFFENSE. I mean, one of the better athletes to every play quarterback at Ole Miss and he ends up with 94 more rushing yards than Jevan Snead.

Stewart Patridge
3,543 passing yards, 15 TDs, 11 INTs
307-506 (60.6%)
-296 rushing yards, 1 TD

While there is certainly some misery in there, most of which is related to Ed Orgeron and Houston Nutt, there was some capable quarterback play in that list. But how does it compare to the homegrown quarterback bunch? ANOTHER EXCELLENT QUESTION.

Before the 2012 season, I did a statistical comparison of the transfer quarterbacks and the homegrown quarterbacks, dating back to 1996. What I discovered was that Eli Manning prevented the homegrown quarterbacks’ stats from looking almost exactly like the transfer quarterbacks’ stats.

Ole Miss transfer QBs (pre-Dr. Bo)
16,408 yards, 108 TDs, 92 INTs, 54.1% (1,275-2,355)

Ole Miss QBs directly from high school (without Eli’s numbers)
18,406 yards, 118 TDs, 101 INTs, 54.7% (1,468-2,684)

Now that Dr. Bo’s career is nearly done, we can add his numbers, which are pretty close to Eli’s, to the transfer pile and compare them to the homegrown pile with Eli’s numbers.

Ole Miss transfer QBs (with Dr. Bo)
25,833 yards, 170 TDs, 130 INTs, 57.2% (2012-3518)

Ole Miss QBs directly from high school (with Eli Manning’s numbers)
21,796 yards, 151 TDs, 102 INTs, 57.1% (1,768-3094)

As I noted in the thing I wrote in 2012, Ole Miss’ quarterback problems haven’t been related to constantly relying on transfers. The problem has always been relying on a lack of talent.

Whether or not Chad “REBAL” Kelly wins the starting job remains to be seen, but the junior college and general transfers path has been kinder than the path of recruiting and watching talent turn out to be not very much talent.