Texas football down QB depth after Ja’Quinden Jackson enters portal
A sizable loss of depth in the quarterback room emerged for Texas football this week, with the news that Ja’Quinden Jackson is entering the transfer portal.
One of the biggest overarching storylines for next offseason in the Texas football program will be figuring out the quarterback battle. With Texas and fourth-year head coach Tom Herman/first-year offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich set to lose senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger to the NFL Draft in all likelihood, this position battle is about to take center stage next offseason.
Ehlinger was the starting quarterback for Herman and the Longhorns, and the leader for this offense as a whole, for the better part of the last three or four years. He took over the role of the face of the program really since the start of the 2018 season.
The last time that Texas had a true quarterback battle waiting in the wings was prior to the start of the 2018 season. And Ehlinger won that battle really fast over former Texas quarterback (now with SMU) Shane Buechele.
Moreover, the quarterback battle could be losing one major contender heading into next offseason. On Dec. 15, the news dropped that Texas was set to (per 247Sports report) lose freshman quarterback Ja’Quinden Jackson to the NCAA Transfer Portal.
Jackson was one of the two major signees at the quarterback position in the Longhorns 2020 recruiting class. The other was the highly touted four-star Lake Travis dual-threat quarterback Hudson Card. This could give Card at least a leg up in the quarterback battle for next year.
Coming out of Duncanville High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Jackson ranked as the nation’s No. 73 2020 high school prospect, No. 3 dual-threat quarterback, and No. 10 prospect out of Texas (247Sports Composite). And the Top247 ranked him as the nation’s No. 46 high school prospect, No. 3 dual-threat quarterback, and No. 7 prospect out of Texas.
Jackson held offers from more than 25 schools coming out of high school. Some of the other highlighting schools on his offer sheet includes the Alabama Crimson Tide, Florida State Seminoles, LSU Tigers, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oklahoma Sooners, Texas A&M Aggies, and Tennessee Volunteers.
Texas didn’t really see Jackson get any meaningful game action this fall. Thus he wasn’t able to rack up in actual stats during his true freshman campaign.
A potential contender to nab Jackson out of the transfer portal has apparently already emerged within 24 hours after this news surfaced. The 247Sports Transfer Portal Crystal have him trending to land with head coach Sonny Dykes and SMU out of the portal.
Next. Must have 2021 Texas commits during Early Signing Period. dark
Texas is now likely to see the quarterback battle come down to the likes of redshirt sophomore dual-threat Casey Thompson and Card next offseason. Maybe they turn to the transfer portal, or even pull someone else in their 2021 class alongside the signed three-star Austin High pro-style quarterback Charles Wright.