5 QBs Florida State should have added in the transfer portal over D.J. Uiagalelei (2024)

You could see this coming from a mile away... While I was hoping that D.J. Uiagalelei would be even better than he was last season with the Oregon State Beavers, he has devolved into being the pumpkin that everybody in ACC already knew about. There is a reason why he did not make it at his first school of Clemson. He is a physical freak, but has driven Florida State into the ground already.

Look. I don't think losing to either Georgia Tech or Boston College is the worst thing in the world. Many college football pundits where high on these teams this offseason. I may have been more high on Boston College than Georgia Tech, but I could see them both playing well, even though the Yellow Jackets' schedule is brutal! However, Florida State should be the best team in the ACC every season.

What I watched last night in Tallahassee and two Saturdays ago in Dublin was simply unacceptable. Yes, offensive coordinator Alex Atkins may have been suspended for both games, and that is a massive problem in and of itself. However, this is Uiagalelei's fourth season as a Power Five starter. He has shown no improvement and is so incredibly unreliable behind the line of scrimmage as a passer.

Mike Norvell went shopping in the transfer portal and ended up wasting all of his money on a lemon.

Here are five quarterbacks who transferred this past offseason who would have been a better fit.

Admittedly, I am not as bullish on Grayson McCall as others were this offseason. He was great during his first few years playing quarterback in Jamey Chadwell's run-heavy Coastal Carolina attack. McCall briefly entered the transfer portal after the 2022 college football season, only to return. His game regressed playing for Tim Beck once Chadwell left Conway, South Carolina behind for some Liberty.

However, I sense that McCall could be the quarterback Dave Doeren has long needed to take his North Carolina State Wolfpack over the top. Devin Leary had a limited ceiling, and Brennan Armstrong was a shell of himself. Although NC State did not look like an ACC Championship Game contender in the Wolfpack's Week 1 win over Western Carolina, McCall would have kept Florida State on track.

Florida State may have lost a ton of talent to the NFL Draft, but McCall's in-game experience would have been a huge boost for this team, even though it was all at the Group of Five level. To me, the frustrating part here is McCall went to a former division rival of the Seminoles in North Carolina State. Entering the season, these were two of the most realistic ACC title contenders. Now one is cooked.

McCall is not as physically gifted as Uiagalelei, but he seems to have a way better feel for the game.

4. Baylor Bears QB Dequan Finn

I am going there. I think Dequan Finn is going to make the Baylor Bears a sneaky-good team in the revamped Big 12. While I cannot say that I have much faith in Dave Aranda beyond this season, I did tab Baylor as a bowl team this year going 6-6. This is because I have a feeling that the transfer quarterback from Toledo has an innate ability to make things happen within the context of a game.

Yes, I understand that he was the most talented player at one of the most storied programs in the MAC, a league that continues to come up short in the Group of Five of it all. However, Baylor is at its best as a program when underrecruited guys gel together to prove everyone wrong anyway. We may have known about Finn for a while from his dominating days at Toledo, but he was destined for this.

Admittedly, going from Toledo to Florida State would have been quite the jump up in competition for anyone. The reason why I am siding with Finn over North Carolina State transfer Grayson McCall for the No. 4 spot is his ability to make things happen more frequently with his legs. He too is not as physically gifted as Uiagalelei, but he does seem to have far better football instincts at this level.

For so many reasons, I would have had way more confidence with Finn leading this year's Seminoles.

I might have to eat my words for this, but that will surely taste better than what that one moronic Florida State said he would eat out of a red solo cup with a plastic spoon. Twitter will have more details for you on that than I will provide. However, I think there is a chance that Will Howard might be good at Ohio State this season, even though Chip Kelly is rarely going to let us sit him be just that.

My FanSided.com colleague and False Start co-host Cody Williams said it perfectly on Monday's episode of the show. He only sees three games on Ohio State's schedule this season that are losable. Those would be Michigan, Oregon and Penn State. In those games, we may see all that Howard was capable at times at Kansas State, and then some. Howard would have had Florida State sitting at 2-0.

His game is not as captivating as other transfer quarterbacks, but he has shown a innate ability to take to great coaching. He did this under Chris Klieman for years at Kansas State. I expect for him to get better as the year progresses under Kelly and Ryan Day's watch. To me, Howard plays with enough poise to not unravel a College Football Playoff contender's season just like Uiagalelei did.

Neither of these players were going to be first-round picks, but only one has any shot at New York.

2. Duke Blue Devils QB Maalik Murphy

Eventually, Florida State is going to come to regret not pursuing former Texas backup Maalik Murphy in the transfer portal. When Quinn Ewers got hurt last season, which he seems to do every year, Murphy came in and played quite well for a few games during conference play. Knowing that Arch Manning was inevitable, Murphy decided to transfer to Duke right before the playoff was underway.

Murphy is not only going to a program that has had relative success of late under Mike Elko's watch, but will now play for another head coach who has had success in the ACC before in Manny Diaz. After spending a few years as James Franklin's defense coordinator at Penn State, Diaz returns to the ACC with a vendetta against the team who fired him in Miami. Diaz is also a noted Florida State alum, too.

Like the other quarterbacks listed above, Murphy has the ability to make something happen once a play goes off-script. He may have the least amount of starting experience of any quarterback listed here, but nobody else played at Texas. I think with an upset victory here and there, Duke can win around eight games again and be a thorn in someone's side in deciding who could get to Charlotte.

As with Grayson McCall at North Carolina State, Murphy is playing in the same conference now.

To be totally honest, I cannot blame Florida State too much here. They really wanted former Washington State starter Cam Ward once he entered the transfer portal after very briefly declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft. Through one week, he is the front runner for the 2024 Heisman Trophy, as the Miami Hurricanes wiped the floor with the utterly toothless Florida Gators under Billy Napier's watch.

Even though I will take Miami every day and twice on Saturdays over Florida State this season, I will take Mike Norvell as a head coach every day and twice on Saturdays over Mario Cristobal. These bitter in-state rivals are going in completely different directions, all because of how they used the transfer portal this offseason. Florida State has won big with it before, but Miami is winning big now.

Ultimately, we would be having an entirely different conversation the Tuesday after Labor Day if Ward picked Florida State over Miami. The Seminoles would be seen as the projected No. 3 seed in the expanded College Football Playoff picture had Ward been their quarterback. While it still remains to be seen what he will do in conference, we have already been there, done that with D.J. Uiagalelei.

Only one team is going to make the playoff out of the ACC this season, and it will not be Florida State.