Well sorry about the intro I couldn't really think of a better way to state the question. It just occurred to me that when 75% of the national championship playoff teams are doing it with transfer QBs that 1) It is an amazing coincidence 2) It could be a shift that coaches looking for talent that is older might be easier/ more effective than bringing in a freshman to develop from a yet unproven skillset in DIV1. and 3) I wonder if CJP and staff might have missed the mark.
Before I get roasted for 3, I know we tried the transfer QB route with Chryst that never saw the light of day and that it certainly would have been difficult to convince players the caliber of those three to come here for the obvious reasons. They left for exposure, starting, and championship quality teams but also left similar quality teams.
The elephant in the room for me is was the coaching staff so fixed on keeping JG in the starting role that they missed the boat of making the team better by finding a transfer QB that increased our QB skills. I DO NOT intend that to be JG bashing as the guy is VFL IMO for what he has endured and has given his all for Tennessee but to build a championship caliber team those 3 teams were willing to break a few eggs (existing QBs on their team).
@HuntlandVolinColo made an excellent point that may answer the question with regards having to sit if you transfer unless TRUE hardship or Grad Xfer and something I had not considered going forward. I guess as with so many NCAA rules it depends on how/if they actually do what they say.
I haven't looked in detail at the style of offense they left and what they had to learn but all three certainly seemed to have a fairly seamless transition.
@Pride85 not sure what you intended by your question. They clearly don't come from thin air but obviously three coaches saw something in a backup QB that could get their team to the top 4 in the country and made their teams better as a result. As I said before I am excited about Bailey coming but wonder if things would be different going forward based on what 3 teams did with transfers this year.
I guess my real intention after thinking about the 75% was to ask my VOLNATION friends if yall see this a trend going forward or a 1 off situation this year.