Another quarterback derby has reportedly been called, and this one went to the veteran.
According to Spectrum Sports and the Tampa Bay Times, graduate transfer Blake Barnett has been named South Florida’s starting quarterback. Barnett began his career at Alabama and opened the 2016 season as the Tide’s starting quarterback before quickly losing his job to Jalen Hurts (who himself appears on the cusp of losing his job in Tuscaloosa). Barnett quickly transferred to Arizona State, where the 5-star recruit from Corona, Calif., attempted five passes over the course of the 2017 season.
He left Tempe for Tampa in May, and now appears to be the Bulls’ starting quarterback as a redshirt junior, beating out redshirt junior Brett Kean and redshirt sophomore Chris Oladokun.
“They’ve done a really good job and they respect one another,” Strong told the Tampa Bay Times on Wednesday. “When you look at it, each day one of them is running (with the first team), like this guy gets to start off with the ones, then the next…so they’ve been given enough reps and it’s been evenly distributed. So now it’s about us. Now we’ve got to go make a decision on what guy it’s gonna be.”
Across his two previous stops, Barnett went 14-of-24 for 259 yards with two touchdowns against one interception.
Whoever takes the first snap in USF’s game against Elon next Saturday will be the Bulls’ first starting quarterback other than Quinton Flowers since Nov. 28, 2014.