Carter Smith backed off his Michigan pledge Wednesday night and it was the 50th Power Four decommitment in October.
It has been an incredible and wild month that has also seen four-star quarterback Deuce Knight flip from Notre Dame to Auburn and then Blake Hebert flip from Clemson to the Irish.
Here is a look at a handful of other quarterbacks that backed off their pledges in October and where they stand now:
MORE: October's winners and losers on the recruiting trail
CLASS OF 2025 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State
CLASS OF 2026 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Team | Position | State
CLASS OF 2027 RANKINGS: Top 100
TRANSFER PORTAL: Full coverage | Player ranking | Team ranking | Transfer search | Transfer Tracker
RELATED: Jared Curtis visiting Auburn this weekend
The highly-talented 2026 four-star quarterback had been pledged to Georgia since March but wanted to take more visits and wanted to do it as an uncommitted recruit.
The Nashville (Tenn.) Nashville Christian standout has an incredibly busy month ahead as Curtis will be at Auburn this weekend followed by Oregon, Georgia, Ohio State and Alabama. Curtis probably won’t make it back to South Carolina during the season but he talks regularly with the Gamecocks and they’re definitely a heavy contender as well.
USC is also in the mix with the Nashville Christian standout but one wonders if interest from the Trojans is coming in as they wait for five-star Ryder Lyons to make his decision.
The Downey, Calif., high three-star quarterback committed to Purdue over the summer but when offensive coordinator Graham Harrell was fired earlier this season, Rios backed off his pledge to the Boilermakers.
UCLA jumped in very quickly and Rios has already visited with the Bruins so they will definitely be a team to watch moving forward but many others are also heavily involved. Washington, Auburn, Kansas, Utah, San Diego State, Virginia Tech and Cal have all reached out as well.
Sidwar committed to Rutgers in July but the 2026 three-star quarterback from Wyndmoor (Pa.) La Salle College High wanted to take visits - and didn’t want to do it as a committed prospect. There were no complaints about the Scarlet Knights but Sidward backed off his pledge in recent days and already has some trips charted out as other programs reach out.
Sidwar is expected to visit Syracuse this weekend for its game against Virginia Tech. A lot of programs are already reaching out and more are coming in all the time with LSU, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Syracuse, Pitt, Virginia and South Florida all reaching out.
RELATED: Loss of Smith adds urgency to Michigan's Bryce Underwood pursuit
Committed to Michigan since last November, it looked like Smith would be the Wolverines’ quarterback signee in this class. But in recent days, rumors have swirled that Michigan is making a serious run again at five-star LSU QB commit Bryce Underwood from Belleville, Mich.
Whether that was the lone reason why the Fort Myers (Fla.) Bishop Verot four-star QB backed off his pledge late Wednesday is unclear but it certainly couldn’t have helped.
Penn State will be a program to watch since the Nittany Lions have been reaching out to Duke commit Dan Mahan and possibly others as well and PSU was a serious contender the first time around for Smith. So was Florida and Florida State. Clemson has been in touch (unclear on the timeline) and then Wisconsin has been another program mentioned.
The four-star has thrown and run for 22 combined touchdowns so far this season as Smith would bring significant dual-threat abilities to his next home.
