Bryce Underwood is just the latest blunder in a horrific sequence of quarterback recruiting under Brian Kelly
With only a couple of weeks until National Signing Day, the LSU Tigers were dealt a disastrous blow when elite 2025 quarterback Bryce Underwood flipped his commitment to the Michigan Wolverines. That gives Brian Kelly and his staff a very short window to try and find their signal caller in the 2025 recruiting class, and […]
With only a couple of weeks until National Signing Day, the LSU Tigers were dealt a disastrous blow when elite 2025 quarterback Bryce Underwood flipped his commitment to the Michigan Wolverines. That gives Brian Kelly and his staff a very short window to try and find their signal caller in the 2025 recruiting class, and odds are certainly stacked against them at the moment.
It’s an unfortunate circumstance, but also yet another blunder for Coach Kelly when it comes to quarterback recruiting over the years. When you take a look at his track record, it’s hard to be confident in the program’s ability to replenish the most important position in sports. He will obviously get credit for grabbing Jayden Daniels out of the portal from Arizona State, but that’s an extreme outlier of an example.
When you take a look at his high school recruiting over the years, it has been nothing short of a disaster. Back in the 2016 recruiting class with Notre Dame, the program flipped a little-known quarterback who was committed to Washington State named Ian Book. Obviously Book went on to have a very good college career for the Irish, but since then, Kelly has helped his respective programs to sign nine quarterbacks.
That list isn’t pretty.
From the 2017 to 2022 recruiting classes with Notre Dame, Kelly helped the team to sign Avery Davis, Phil Jurkovec, Brendon Clark, Drew Pyne, Tyler Buchner, and Steve Angeli. And so far his teams at LSU have signed Walker Howard, Rickie Collins, and Colin Hurley. That list… Well, isn’t ideal.
Between those nine quarterbacks, they have thrown for 11,009 yards and 89 touchdowns on the college level. They have also completed just 59.6 percent of their passes, 7.6 yards per attempt, and thrown 42 interceptions. On the ground, those nine have also averaged 2.9 yards per attempt and added 20 more scores.
The even crazier part is that the two most productive quarterbacks on that list are Jurkovec and Pyne. In Jurkovec’s case, he ended up transferring to Boston College after two years in South Bend. After some solid moments early with the Eagles, he ended up benched and switched to tight end by the end of his career.
In Pyne’s case, he is now on his third college program. After being passed up for a starting job multiple times with the Irish, he transferred to Arizona State. That chapter didn’t end well, and Pyne eventually transferred back to Notre Dame to get his degree before ending up with the Missouri Tigers. He is once again a reserve.
That list also includes Avery Davis, who became a good receiver for the Irish, but never threw a single pass on the college level. Clark ended up transferring to Old Dominion and never starting a game, while Buchner spent the 2023 season with Alabama before returning to the program as a walk-on wide receiver this past offseason. Buchner has thrown more interceptions (8) than touchdowns (6) in his career to date.
Howard has also transferred to Ole Miss already. It also wouldn’t be shocking for Collins to take a similar route as well.
Whether it is an evaluation or development issue, or a combination of both, Coach Kelly has struggled at an almost unbelievable level in regards to high school quarterback recruiting. This latest example of Underwood is just your newest data point, and certainly continues the skepticism about his ability to land top talent at the position.
Recruiting was once believed to be easier at LSU than Notre Dame, and while there may be some merit to that argument, Kelly is showing that it isn’t as easy as some portray. Perhaps the tenth time will be the charm, because the last nine certainly haven't been the most ideal.
