QB Dominoes: It's getting interesting as NSD nears
With the Early Signing Period only days away, there is a lot of quarterback jockeying with some significant moves already taking place and the potential for many others soon.
In the last few days, four-star quarterback Lincoln Kienholz from Pierre (S.D.) Riggs backed off his Washington pledge and flipped to Ohio State while three-star Sam Leavitt out of West Linn, Ore., basically flipped from Washington State to Michigan State.
The Huskies ended up offering Leavitt after Keinholz went to the Buckeyes, but after the three-star visited Michigan State on the previous weekend, it was going to be nearly impossible to beat the Spartans for his services.
Now, Washington is looking for a quarterback and that’s just one domino to consider.
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One interesting name to watch is Tacoma (Wash.) Lincoln’s Gabarri Johnson, who committed to Missouri over Utah, Washington and others in May. But the coach who recruited him to Columbia, Bush Hamdan, just left the Tigers for Boise State – and Washington needs a quarterback.
As for other quarterbacks to watch, five-star Dante Moore is at the top of the heap.
The Detroit (Mich.) Martin Luther King standout looked like a lock to Oregon but when former offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham left for Arizona State, things got a little murkier.
Coach Dan Lanning flew to Detroit to firm things up but then Moore took a visit to UCLA and according to a source, a flip to the Bruins is a “done deal” with the understanding that they won’t take a transfer quarterback. That’s one side of the story but there seems to be some pushback to that narrative as others believe Oregon could still keep him – especially if Moore decides to visit again this weekend.
There is a rumor that the Ducks have made some overtures to Baylor commit Austin Novosad, a four-star from Dripping Springs, Texas, who decided to stick with his Bears’ pledge rather than flip to Texas A&M. If Moore flips to UCLA, Novosad could be target No. 1 but getting him away from Waco might not be so easy.
UCLA made a serious run at Louisville quarterback commit Pierce Clarkson but the Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco standout has hit it off with new Cardinals coach Jeff Brohm and he will visit there again this weekend so it looks like the Bruins’ ship has sailed there.
But the rumor now is that Ole Miss has reached out to Clarkson and is very interested especially because current commit Marcel Reed could be on the way out with Texas A&M and Auburn possibly trying to flip him. We’ll see if there is any significant interest there.
One final one to watch: UCF continues to show interest in Arkansas quarterback commit Malachi Singleton, who visited numerous times during the season. Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman and OC Kendal Briles continue to make the Kennesaw (Ga.) North Cobb standout a priority but it’s something to watch.
Oh, and we haven’t even started with the transfer portal quarterbacks yet.