David Yost has been training quarterbacks in school soccer’s best possible stage since 1996.
His mode of comparing the game’s maximum impressive place has now not modified a lot over time.
The previous offensive coordinator at FIU, Texas Tech, Utah Condition and Missouri has a tick list he makes use of to spot avid gamers he wish to schoolteacher.
Does the peak and weight fit what’s indexed? Does his athleticism fit my group’s wishes? Can I are living with the way in which the ball will get excused from his hand? Does he entire deep passes?
What’s modified over occasion for Yost is the worth he’s placed on accuracy and the power to form anticipatory throws into tight home windows — one thing he discovered age operating for Mike Leach because the broad receivers schoolteacher at Washington Condition from 2013-15.
“Coach (Leach) wanted to know what the guy’s completion percentage was,” Yost stated. “So what I want to see is the last 100 plays of whatever season you just completed. Of that, I’m hoping to get 75 throws to try to get what I refer to as a true completion percentage. Not screens. What’s your completion percentage when you’re throwing the ball down the field? If you hit the guy in the hands, but he dropped it, I call it a completion. If you throw it badly and he makes an incredible catch, it’s an incompletion. If you find a QB above 50, 55 percent, that’s a pretty accurate thrower at the high school level to me.
“The guys who hit that number or above, they usually end up becoming guys who complete everything when they get to college. The guys I didn’t take who didn’t hit that number, most don’t ever end up becoming accurate throwers.”
The sickness for Yost and alternative longtime coaches is that top faculty recruiting and participant construction are not the main forms hired by means of school soccer groups to fill their quarterback wishes. That’s given technique to the switch portal.
Of the 141 FBS quarterbacks who began a minimum of 5 video games this season, greater than part (76) have been plucked out of the portal. And 30 of the lead 50 quarterbacks in passing potency have been on their moment (a minimum of) ban in school.
So, how do coaches determine the fitting guys, put them in the fitting device and keep away from a obese swing-and-miss that may sabotage a season and prepared a program again financially because of misappropriated NIL finances?
Yost usually prefers a quarterback who has performed a batch of snaps.
“The guys who have played, no matter what level they’ve played at, they may not be a great quarterback, but they’re probably a pretty good player,” he stated. “If you’re a pretty good player at D2, FCS or Group of 5, it’ll probably translate at the next stop up. It does translate. Like what Indiana did with (Kurtis) Rourke. He was a good player at Ohio. Guess what, he was a good player at Indiana. The risk is taking the guy who hasn’t played as much.”
There’s enough proof that helps Yost’s principle.
• Rourke began 34 video games at Ohio and was once named 2022 MAC Offensive Participant of the Generation earlier than incomes second-team All-Weighty Ten honors in his best season at Indiana.
• Cam Ward was once a second-team FCS All-American at Incarnate Pledge earlier than starring at Washington Condition and Miami.
• Dillon Gabriel threw for 7,223 yards in his two wholesome seasons at UCF earlier than transferring directly to Oklahoma and Oregon.
• Diego Pavia guided Unutilized Mexico Condition to ten wins earlier than chief Vanderbilt to a 6-6 report in 2024 — highlighted by means of a win over Alabama — and its first bowl recreation since 2018.
Diego Pavia was once a second-team All-SEC pick out by means of the AP in 2024. (Butch Dill / Imagn Pictures)
When coaches charter a quarterback who has now not performed a lot at his earlier ban, it’s impressive to speak to as many nation as conceivable to seek out solutions for please see questions:
Did he have a malicious perspective? Did he apply juiceless? Did he proceed to compete even later he didn’t earn the forming function?
“It doesn’t matter if it’s college or the NFL, it’s hard,” stated a Crew of five offensive coordinator who was once granted anonymity so he may just talk candidly. “It’s hard to know exactly what you’re getting from a talent standpoint, from a mental make and all those types of things. It’s hard. You just never know what habits they form from a year at a program. There are so many things you don’t know.”
The coordinator stated his program took two quarterbacks out of the portal latter cycle, however they have been avid gamers he was once ordinary with from camps and the highschool recruiting path.
He additionally made the purpose that the game’s newfound reliance on transfers has affected the way in which some techniques create an offense.
“One thing I think and it sucks because it hurts the long-term development of these quarterbacks — it forces you as coordinators and play callers, you’ve got to stay simple,” he stated. “Very rarely are you going to be able to build a system and have multiple players, quarterback included, in it for two or three years. So you’ve got to simplify things. … Some of these people who run pro-style stuff, they’ve got to rethink or retool some of the stuff they do and believe in because if they don’t, you’re putting a lot on these guys. It’s basically asking a rookie quarterback to go play in the NFL while learning a difficult system. That’s not going to go well.”
To mitigate additional possibility, every other ex-G5 coordinator stated he most often objectives extra athletic quarterbacks within the portal.
“You’re always a little bit safer to take an athletic kid,” he stated. “Even if he can’t throw it that great, he can do something for you at that position. You can have a package for him to run. That’s the safer thing. That’s why so many people are looking for dual-threats now, whereas the pure pocket passer that doesn’t work out is sort of stuck in the mud. There’s still a lot of kids that can throw the ball and work in your system, but you’re less likely to make a mistake in terms of value by taking the more athletic guy.”
Yost’s latter quarterback, FIU’s Keyone Jenkins, ranked twenty first nationally in passing potency in 2024. Jenkins entered the portal later schoolteacher Mike MacIntyre was once fired along side Yost however made up our minds this day to go back to university.
Yost didn’t have a batch of occasion to build Jenkins. He was once FIU’s forming quarterback by means of his moment recreation as a real freshman. Jenkins beat out veteran Grayson James, who transferred to Boston School and took over because the Eagles’ starter past due within the 2024 season. James pressured Thomas Castellanos out. Castellanos is now at Florida Condition, which is hoping to dance again later a dreadful season that went off the rails due in massive phase to a penniless analysis (DJ Uiagalelei) out of the portal.
Will Castellanos be the solution? Who is aware of.
However something is cloudless: The sport of quarterback musical chairs isn’t slowing i’m sick.
Coaches will proceed to seek for solutions. And plenty of will proceed to swing-and-miss.
“Fit and system matters,” a Weighty 12 offensive coordinator stated. “But to me, not everyone is going to bat 100 percent. Regardless of how you do it, at times you are going to (misevaluate) that position.”
(Govern photograph of Kurtis Rourke: Jason Mowry / Getty Pictures)
