"
What may be surprising, though, is just how rarely young quarterbacks who struggle to find their niche early ever do over time. Here are the other 21 players since 2008 who attempted at least 100 passes as true freshmen in a major conference:
< emphasis added, table omitted. >
For a lot of those guys, the jury is still out.
But to date, not one player in that group has been recognized on an all-conference team, played in a BCS bowl, heard his name called in the draft or caught on with an NFL team. In fact, many of the more touted players at the top of this list were never heard from again: Savage and Forcier lost their jobs as sophomores, transferred and turned into roaming vagabonds at multiple schools (Savage, now a fifth-year senior, has resurfaced as the
skip the prologue at Oklahoma State after falling behind in the spring. Bolden lost his job as a freshman, lost it again as a sophomore and transferred to LSU, where he remains planted firmly on the bench. Dodd is still at Rutgers, but lost his job to
Gary Nova as a sophomore and didn't take a meaningful snap in 2012, even as Nova tied for the FBS "lead" with 17 interceptions. Shinskie and Newton both ended their careers as bystanders on dreadful teams."