Week 1 has already exposed a few transfer quarterbacks who arrived with plenty of buzz and left with more questions than answers.
The early slate of college football gave teams their first real look at new faces, new systems and new coaches, and some of those debuts came up short. For a handful of highly touted transfer QBs, the opener looked less like a fresh start and more like a hard reset.
Drew Mestemaker was the headliner of that group at Oklahoma State. Eric Morris brought much of his North Texas operation with him to Stillwater, and Mestemaker came in as the most talked-about piece after a strong season.
But Tulsa may have cooled that excitement fast. Mestemaker finished 29 for 49 for 241 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, and with Oregon next on the schedule, the degree of difficulty only goes up from here.
Byrum Brown’s first outing at Auburn came with a familiar feel for anyone who watched him at USF. The version Auburn got was the one that struggled against Power 4 competition.
Brown went 21-30 for 193 yards, threw three interceptions and absorbed five sacks. The raw passing total looks passable at first glance, but the bigger issue was how little he pushed the ball - just 92 air yards on 30 throws.
Auburn is going to need far more downfield punch once SEC play arrives.
DJ Lagway’s debut at Baylor also left plenty to sort through. Dave Aranda took the gamble in a year that matters for both sides, and the first results showed a quarterback still working through a long development curve.
Lagway completed only half of his 54 passes, threw two touchdowns and turned it over twice. Baylor’s defense appears to be in better shape, but if Lagway can’t lift his game, the pressure on Dave Aranda will keep rising.
Jaden Craig’s start at TCU was another reminder that replacing a proven quarterback is never simple. Sonny Dykes clearly valued Craig’s care with the football, but in Week 0 he looked like a clear drop-off from Josh Hoover.
Craig managed just 175 passing yards and was sacked three times. TCU will need him to take more chances, though the offense should get a boost once Jordan Dwyer returns from injury.
In Other News...
TCU Fans Should Watch These Big 12 Threats Very Closely
Utah, BYU and Kansas all opened the season looking the part, and for TCU fans, that is reason enough to keep an eye on the road ahead in the Big 12. Utah rolled past Idaho with a dominant offensive showing, BYU handled Utah Tech with a balanced attack, and Kansas took care of Long Island while flashing enough early rhythm to suggest its offense may not be waiting long to hit stride.
The next step is where the league starts to reveal itself, and each of those programs is headed toward a sharper test in Week 2. Those matchups should say a lot about how real the opener performances were, and for the Horned Frogs, they are the kind of early indicators worth tracking closely before conference play fully settles into view. [Read more 🡒]