Miami football: Transfers QB making early commitments

With the 2023-24 transfer portal officially three days old, several top quarterbacks have already made commitments. After Tyler Van Dyke announced last week he would be transferring, it was clear the Miami football team would be looking for a 2024 starting QB. Jacurri Brown is currently the only healthy Miami scholarship QB.

Several transfer quarterbacks have been listed as linked to the Miami football program. Chris Hummer of 247 Sports wrote “Transfer portal QB dominoes: College football’s new roster-building reality arrives with first wave of commits.” Hummer profiled three transfer QBs who have already committed to new programs.

Brock Vandagriff from Georgia to Kentucky, Tyler Slough from Texas Tech (nee Oregon) to Louisville and Brendan Sorsby from Indiana to Cincinnati have made their new destinations public. Riley Leonard of Duke entered the transfer portal with a do-not-contact tag. Speculation is that Leonard will transfer to Notre Dame.

Hummer highlighted the domino effect that one QB announcing his destination as a recruit or through the transfer portal will have on the remaining QBs. Per Hummer, transfer QBs (particularly the good ones) have a lot of leverage and are often recruited before they enter into the portal.

Mario Cristobal is known for being meticulous in recruiting. Miami has to be quick in their evaluations of transfer QBs and likely make a decision over the next few weeks. Miami has not added a transfer QB since D’Eriq King had a record-setting 2020 season for the Hurricanes.

There has been speculation if Miami will seek another dual-threat QB like King or another traditional pocket passer like Van Dyke. Cristobal and Dawson will find a QB they deem to be the best fit for the transfer signal caller and their system. There are several transfer QBs to monitor for the Miami football program.

Cam Ward of Washington State, Will Howard from Kansas State, Will Rogers from Mississippi State, Kyle McCord of Ohio State and Dante Moore of UCLA are the quarterbacks that have most often been mentioned as possibly transferring to Miami. All but Moore are veteran QBs. Miami could be seeking a short-term QB.

There have been some reports that Miami is leaning toward a more experienced QB. Moore was a five-star prospect in the 2023 class whom Miami pursued vigorously. Ward, Moore and Howard are the top three ranked transfer QBs. McCord is the eighth-ranked 2024 transfer QB and Rogers is 15th.

After Van Dyke tied for third in the ACC with 12 interceptions in 2023, expect Cristobal and Dawson to find a transfer QB who limits turnovers as their primary criteria. Howard and Moore have been turnover-prone at times. McCord, Rogers and Ward are more careful with the ball.

Over the next few weeks, the QB dominoes should continue to fall. Former Oregon State QB Aiden Chiles is following head coach Jonathan Smith to Oregon State. Many high-profile programs including the teams that lost the previously listed QBs are looking for new signal callers. Miami has a lot of competition for a new QB.