Five Transfer Portal Quarterbacks Baylor Should Target
Baylor needs another quarterback.
With Kyron Drones transferring to Virginia Tech, the Bears are left with just one scholarship player at the position: Blake Shapen, whose 2022 campaign was a tale of two halves. His backup is Luke Anthony: a seventh-year, walk-on graduate transfer from Louisiana Tech and Abilene Christian.
Four-star Baylor signee Austin Novosad will add some depth once he enrolls early this spring, but the Bears are still light on experience and could use another signal-caller to compete for the starting job. Here are five transfer quarterbacks the Bears could reasonably recruit to fill that role.
Hudson Card, Texas
The former four-star recruit has performed well in inconsistent playing time behind Casey Thompson and Quinn Ewers. In parts of three seasons, Card completed 127 of his 194 pass attempts for 11 touchdowns and two interceptions.
Coming out of Austin Lake Travis, Card was the second-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the country, and is likely looking for a long-term landing spot. Baylor did offer him back in 2018 – before Texas did, by the way – but the potential issue here is the same as with Haynes King, a fellow top-five dual-threat quarterback in the 2020 class: they’re looking to start. And with Novosad in line for that role at some point, bringing in a replacement could cause unnecessary friction.
Brennan Armstrong, Virginia
If experience is what the Bears are after, Armstrong is their man.
The former three-star out of Shelby, Ohio is a three-year starter, and is Virginia’s all-time leader in passing yards, total offense and passing touchdowns. A grad transfer, Armstrong peaked in 2021, passing for 4,449 yards and racking up 40 total touchdowns in just 11 games. If Dave Aranda is looking for a one-year bridge quarterback to Novosad, there aren’t many better than Armstrong.
Chandler Rogers, Louisiana-Monroe
This one’s a bit of a deep cut, but if the Bears want to take a swing, Rogers has starting potential.
The sophomore from Mansfield Lake Ridge was unranked coming out of Blinn College, and took his only FBS offer. Rogers completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 2,403 yards and 15 touchdowns with seven interceptions, chipping in 353 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. As a freshman in 2021, he stepped in for the injured Rhett Rodriguez and ranked third in the Sun Belt in completion percentage (62.6).
Rogers was clearly overlooked by scouts, and has proven to be one of the more efficient quarterbacks at the Group of Five level.
Spencer Sanders, Oklahoma State
Why not?
Sanders won Mr. Texas Football while he was at Denton Ryan, and has played at Oklahoma State for what feels like forever. The four-year starter is ranks second all-time among Cowboy quarterbacks, behind only Mason Rudolph, but he’s spotted greener pastures elsewhere after Oklahoma State’s late-season collapse (the Cowboys lost four of their final five games after earlier wins against Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas). This is probably the biggest long-shot of this list, but Sanders has clear ties to Texas and the Big 12, and would add a new dimension to the Bears’ offense.
Malik Hornsby, Arkansas
Hornsby, a former four-star recruit out of Fort Bend Marshall, simply got squeezed out by the emergence of KJ Jefferson. But Baylor seemed to be the early leader in his recruitment before his eventual commitments to North Carolina and, later, Arkansas.
Hornsby rushed more than he passed at Arkansas, where he amassed just over 600 total yards, three touchdowns (including one receiving!), and two interceptions. Despite his sparse playing time, Hornsby has tantalizing athletic ability, and should have numerous suitors. Want to dream big? His 247 Sports player comparison is Robert Griffin III.
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