Week one of the college football season is in the book! Make sure you read all of our articles about week one and check out yesterday’s roundtable about the biggest surprises of week one. Today, we continue to look back at week one as TSS associate editors Bart Doan and Terry Johnson join staff writer Kevin Causey and special rotating guests in our weekly roundtable discussing all things college football.
Question: Which transfer QB looked the best this weekend?
Bart Doan:
On Twitter @TheCoachBart
For this one, we go to Mapquest and type in “Outside the Box — Get Directions.”
I’m not sure how many folks reading this have heard of Michael Birdsong, so here you go: he went to James Madison and transferred to Marshall and now is the team’s starting quarterback, making him eligible for this elite article. Birdsong had his struggles against Purdue, to be honest, but it was Marshall’s first win at home over a Power 5 conference team since 2005, and he is replacing some large shoes in Rakeem Cato.
He completed nearly 70 percent of his passes for 234 yards and 2 touchdowns. No, it’s not setting your backside on fire, but as opposed to most transfer quarterbacks, he was playing a game his team could reasonably lose and was making the step up from FCS territory.
An aside: it was Marshall’s first win over a Big Ten team. So basically, a lot of unique things happened and even though he wasn’t perfect, Birdsong was the quarterback for those things happening. I like it.
Kevin Causey:
On Twitter @CFBZ
He only played Southern, but how about an honorable mention for former Florida Gators whipping boy Jeff Driskel? He led Louisiana Tech to a 62-15 win. He also put up some pretty impressive statistics. He was 12 of 15 passing for 274 yards and added 4 TD with 0 interceptions. Driskel also added another touchdown on the ground.
Everett Golson is definitely in the conversation but I’ll go with Vernon Adams of Oregon. He’s been on campus for only a few weeks. He put in a great performance as the Ducks offense rolled up 61 points. Adams was 19 of 25 passing for 246 yards with 2 TD. He also ran for 94 yards. Adams and Oregon will be very exciting to watch this season. Now if someone can just tell me what happened to the Oregon defense….
Terry Johnson:
On Twitter @SectionTPJ
Bart and Kevin each made a great case for Michael Birdsong and Vernon Adams, respectively. Both turned in outstanding performances with their new teams.
However, after reviewing the numbers, I’ll go with Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Forced to sit out after transferring last season, Mayfield managed to beat out Trevor Knight for the starting job this fall. Despite missing a year’s worth of playing time (a topic for another time), he showed absolutely zero rust on Saturday, completing 23 of 33 passes for 388 yards and 3 TDS. This yardage total was the fourth best in FBS during the opening weekend of the season and tops among transfer quarterbacks.
That’s not a bad effort considering that he only played three quarters and had absolutely zero help from the Sooner running game, which ran for just 100 yards on 33 carries.
