How Do Notre Dame QB Transfers Fare Elsewhere?

Nothing on a college football roster is more inevitable than transfers, particularly at quarterback.

One can play multiple running backs, wide receivers, tight ends and offensive linemen … but most of the time there can be only one leader or voice at quarterback.

More than ever, signal-callers believe the grass can be greener elsewhere, including the last two Heisman Trophy winners who also were the NFL’s No. 1 overall picks: Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray (Texas A&M) and LSU’s Joe Burrow (Ohio State).

Just in case you haven't heard, Boston College’s Phil Jurkovec, via Notre Dame (2018‑19), is gunning for a similar path.

Through the decades, a popular notion has developed among Fighting Irish faithful that quarterbacks who transfer from Notre Dame “never really do much” elsewhere.

If they mean by going on to prominence in the NFL, that would be mostly correct. Since 1970, only two of the 26 quarterback transfers from Notre Dame, plus five graduate transfers, were drafted and were on an NFL roster for multiple years. Jurkovec, a former top-100 recruit, is vying to become the third.

Most of the transfers did end up starting elsewhere, and several had superb college careers. In chronological order, here were some of the more prominent ones, with the year they enrolled in parentheses:

Suspended prior to the season in which starter Tom Clements had just guided a national title and Joe Montana was enrolling as a freshman, Henry transferred to Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) and passed for 4,656 career yards.

He played one season (1978) in the Canadian Football League.

Wright transferred to Wisconsin after his freshman year and starred for the Badgers in 1982 and 1983.

He became the highest draft pick — sixth round — among Notre Dame quarterback transfers over the past 50 years. He played five seasons (1984-88) with the Green Bay Packers and started 32 times, notably all 16 contests in 1986.

The Pennsylvania native was trumpeted by recruiting maven Joe Terranova as potentially “the next Joe Willie [Namath].”

Late in his sophomore year, he started in place of an injured Blair Kiel versus Penn State and Air Force (both losses), and was replaced by walk-on Jim O’Hara.

Karcher then transferred to Tulane and later became an NFL backup for John Elway at Denver in 1987-88. He had three starts as a replacement player during the 1987 players’ strike.

Ranked as the No. 1 high school quarterback in many circles, Graham as a freshman rotated with Tony Rice after starter Terry Andrysiak was injured in the fourth game, and even started against Boston College. The Irish trailed 25-12 when Rice came in and rallied Notre Dame to a 32-25 victory.

Graham backed up Rice during the 1988 national title run, but he transferred to Ohio State in 1989, where he backed up Greg Frey in 1990 and started ahead of Kirk Herbstreit in 1991, passing for 1,018 yards.

Along with Wright, Graham was the only other Notre Dame transfer quarterback drafted by the NFL (eighth round in 1992) this past half-century.

In 10 seasons from 1992-2001, he suited up for seven different franchises, starting 38 times and passing for 7,801 career yards with 39 touchdowns and 33 interceptions.

He enrolled the same year as the nation’s No. 1 QB prospect, Rick Mirer. From the same high school as future 1994-97 Notre Dame starting quarterback Ron Powlus, Kelchner experienced academic problems and transferred to West Virginia.

In 1993, he led the nation in passing efficiency while guiding the Mountaineers to an 11-0 regular season. Like Notre Dame’s Kevin McDougal that same year, however, he wasn’t deemed an NFL prospect, but he did play in the Arena League.

Kustok entered his sophomore year in 1998 as the No. 3 QB behind Jarious Jackson and Eric Chappell — but left during training camp when freshman Arnaz Battle leapfrogged him and dropped him to No. 4.

Kustok enjoyed a sensational career at Northwestern, passing for nearly 6,000 yards and rushing for almost 1,300 while leading the Wildcats to a share of the Big Ten title in 2000.

In 2014, he earned his Master’s of Business Administration degree from Notre Dame.

He had the best freshman year ever by a Notre Dame quarterback, winning his first seven starts, completing 58.4 percent of his passes, throwing 11 touchdowns against just one interception, and rushing for 300 yards.

But when Carlyle Holiday moved ahead of him in 2001 and first-year head coach Tyrone Willingham left the job open after the 2002 spring, LoVecchio headed to Indiana, where as a two-year starter for a struggling program he threw for 3,729 yards.

The first signal-caller fully recruited and signed in the Charlie Weis era, Frazer transferred at the conclusion of the 2007 spring when Demetrius Jones, incoming No. 1 prospect Jimmy Clausen and junior Evan Sharpley all were listed ahead of him.

He had an on-again, off-again three-year career at Connecticut, where he totaled 3,422 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and 21 interceptions, and minus-16 rushing yards.

His top moment was starting in the Huskies’ 33-30 double overtime win at Notre Dame in Weis’ final home game with the Irish. He completed 12 of 25 passes for 141 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

After originally committing first to home-state Indiana and then LSU, the five-star prospect and nephew of 1980-83 Fighting Irish quarterback Blair Kiel out of the blue enrolled at Notre Dame mid-year in January 2012.

When sophomore Everett Golson and backup Tommy Rees led Notre Dame to a 12-0 regular season and the BCS National Championship Game versus Alabama (a 42-14 defeat), Kiel bolted for Cincinnati in the spring of 2013.

He thrived with the Bearcats his first two seasons in 2014 and 2015, completing nearly 63 percent of his passes for 6,031 yards with 50 touchdowns and 24 interceptions, but injuries and other setbacks had him demoted to reserve duty by his final season in 2016.

He went undrafted and did not play in the NFL.

Over the past 50 years from 1970-2020, at least 26 Notre Dame quarterback recruits we know of transferred to other schools, a little more than one every other year.

That does not include graduate transfers such as the five in the last decade — Dayne Crist to Kansas, Andrew Hendrix to Miami (Ohio), Everett Golson to Florida State, Malik Zaire to Florida and Brandon Wimbush to Central Florida — who completed their undergraduate degrees at Notre Dame and were immediately eligible elsewhere.

Here is the breakdown, with the parentheses indicating the year he enrolled as a freshman:

Dan Payne (1970) — Utah

Roy Henry (1973) — Louisiana (later Southwest Louisiana and now Louisiana-Lafayette)

Jay Palazola (1975) — Boston College

Kevin Muno (1976) — Houston (for baseball), and his father would negotiate Joe Montana’s first contract for the San Francisco 49ers.

Rick Buehner (1977) — Kentucky

Randy Wright (1979) — Wisconsin

Eddie Hornback (1978) — Mississippi State

Scott Grooms (1980) — Miami (Ohio), but re-enrolled at Notre Dame later.

Ken Karcher (1981) — Tulane

Joe Felitsky (1983) — Pitt

Duke St. Pierre (1984) — Boston College

Kent Graham (1987) — Ohio State

Jake Kelchner (1989) — West Virginia

B.J. Hawkins (1990) — Virginia

Wade Smith (1992) — unknown

Gus Ornstein (1994) — Michigan State

Eric Chappell (1996) — Alabama A&M

Zak Kustok (1997) — Northwestern

Matt LoVecchio (2000) — Indiana

Chris Olsen (2002) — Virginia

David Wolke (2004) — Western Kentucky

Zach Frazer (2006) — Connecticut

Demetrius Jones (2006) — Cincinnati

Nate Montana (2008) — Montana and West Virginia Wesleyan

Gunner Kiel (2012) — Cincinnati

Phil Jurkovec (2018) — Boston College

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