After months of vacillating back and forth between staying and going, Jacoby Brissett has decided the latter option is most optimal for his playing career.
According to Jason “Wandering Horse” Lieser of the Palm Beach Post, the quarterback has decided to leave Florida and will transfer to another school. As of yet, the school has yet to announce Brissett’s departure from the football program.
Lieser writes that, per a source, Brissett’s top choices for a transfer destination are West Virginia (one of Brissett’s finalists coming out of high school), Louisville (Cardinals head coach Charlie Strong is UF’s former defensive coordinator), Arkansas (Wisconsin recruited Brissett hard when current UA head coach Bret Bielema was at UW) and North Carolina State.
Whether the Razorbacks will be a realistic transfer possibility will be fascinating to watch unfold. As noted by Lieser, head coach Will Muschamp would need to sign off on any school that’s on Brissett’s transfer to-do list. Would Muschamp give the go ahead to a school on the list that’s in the SEC, even though it’s in a different division? There is some precedent on that front as running back Mike Blakely transferred from the Gators in May of 2011 and landed at Auburn two weeks later.
As far as a Plan B goes if none of those four schools are fits, Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Duke and Clemson are all listed as backup possibilities by Lieser.
The fact that any transfer destination is being discussed as it relates to Brissett is far from surprising. A battle for the starting quarterback job that began in the spring and continued into summer camp ended with Jeff Driskel being named the starter for the season opener. Brissett played sparingly this season, with 22 of his 35 pass attempts coming in a start in place of an injured Driskel.
Brissett was a four-star member of UF’s 2011 recruiting class, rated by Rivals.com as the No. 3 dual-threat quarterback in the country. Barring an unexpected development, he will have to sit out the 2013 season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules and will have two years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2014.