The moving pieces of the quarterback recruiting puzzle continue to shift and there have been more big movements over the past few days. It’s time for another look at the quarterback dominos.
Quinten Dormady opted for Tennessee on Monday night after narrowing it down to the Vols and Alabama.
Notre Dame – The Irish lost their long time quarterback commit Blake Barnett who decommitted following a visit to Oregon and looks destined to become a Duck. The Irish promptly extended offers to Texas Tech commit Jarrett Stidham and Top100 passer Travis Waller. The most likely commitment of the two would seem to be Waller who has narrowed his choices to Notre Dame, Ohio State, Northwestern and Alabama.
Oregon – With Barnett’s decommitment from Notre Dame, the Ducks have focused their attention on him and have let the Waller ship sail. This likely means rising star Sam Darnold is also a pass for Oregon.
Alabama – Alabama extended an offer recently to Texas four-star Quinten Dormady but the Tide was a little late to the party and on Monday night Dormady committed to Tennessee where he had a stronger relationship in place. Now Alabama seems to be slowly creeping up the list for Waller and is becoming a viable threat to land him. The only other quarterback currently on the radar for the Tide looks to be Barnett. He’ll visit but remains an Oregon lean. The Tide remain among the favorites for the top quarterback in 2016, Jacob Eason, and with him keeping a close eye on depth chart, the Tide may not force the issue on a passer they don’t love.
Tennessee – Tennessee can breathe a big sigh of relief with the commitment of Dormady on Monday night. For a program in desperate need of depth at the quarterback position, Tennessee was running out of options for elite passers in the 2015 cycle. The only negative to that Dormady commitment is that it hurts the Vols in their Torrance Gibson hunt. Auburn could be slowly taking the edge for the athletic lefty.
Florida State – The Seminoles likely lead for four-star IMG Academy quarterback Deondre Francois. They also are trending for four-star Kai Locksley. With De’Andre Johnson already committed, Florida State is going to take one more quarterback and it will likely be whomever commits first between Locksley and Francois. At this point, that is looking like a coin flip.
Auburn – Auburn still is in good shape for Torrance Gibson, though he may doesn’t seem to be any closer to making a decision. But what happens if Locksley commits to Florida State? The Tigers would then be the probable leader for Francois. If Francois decides to pull the trigger for Auburn (or if Locksley does for that matter), where would that leave the Tigers for Gibson? Auburn would have two four-star quarterbacks with Tyler Queen already committed and suddenly Ohio State would be back in the Torrance Gibson game.
Ohio State – The Buckeyes recently landed a commitment from four-star Joe Burrow but continue to recruit Gibson as their second quarterback. Ohio State also remains within the final four for Travis Waller. If Gibson starts to trend towards Ohio State, expect Travis Waller to head elsewhere with Notre Dame, Northwestern and Alabama being his other finalists.
Northwestern – The Wildcats are much more of a player in the Waller sweepstakes than most realize. Pat Fitzgerald and his staff have the longest relationship with Waller among his finalists and they offer academic prestige that he seeks. But should Waller end up at Notre Dame or Alabama, Northwestern’s attention would turn directly towards Sam Darnold in San Clemente, Calif. Jason Pellerin out of Louisiana was the other favorite of the Northwestern staff but after his recent commitment to Ole Miss, Darnold and Waller remain.
Cincinnati – That recent commitment by Pellerin to Ole Miss meant that the Rebels were opting for Pellerin over four-star Ross Trail. Trail would have likely committed had he landed the offer that Pellerin got. Now Cincinnati looks like the benefactor and has positioned itself to nab a commitment out of Trail.
