According to a couple of reports, the Jalen Hurts Transfer Protection Plan™ is set to be implemented.
By way of al.com, Gardner Minshew has committed to play for Alabama and will enroll at the university in May. The player subsequently confirmed to Bruce Feldman of SI.com that he will indeed transfer to Alabama.
ECU grad transfer QB Gardner Minshew tells me he has committed to #Alabama. He will arrive there at the end of May to join the Tide. He had a 16-7 TD-INT ratio last year. Here is our story on him from the other day: https://t.co/6mzVyQJKh6
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 28, 2018
The news comes a little over a week after Minshew visited the Tuscaloosa campus. Earlier this month, it was reported that Alabama had an interest in Minshew, the quarterback who announced late last month that he had withdrawn from East Carolina to tend to a personal matter in his home state of Mississippi.
As a graduate transfer, Minshew would be eligible to play immediately this season for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama’s interest in a grad transfer at the position will do nothing to quell the rumors that Hurts, the starter for each of the last 29 games over the past two seasons, is a potential candidate for a transfer. Hurts was benched in favor of Tua Tagovailoa in the national championship game, with the true freshman’s comeback heroics signaling a likely changing of the guard under center.
As for Minshew, he started five games for the Pirates last season, throwing for 2,140 yards, 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions in completing just over 57 percent of his 304 pass attempts. Prior to his departure from ECU, he was penciled in as the Pirates’ 2018 starting quarterback.