'It felt like a toxic environment': Stories from four QBs and their 15 schools

When you're a veteran college quarterback transferring to your fourth school in six years, you know what to expect if you check the internet comments.

He's still around? Geez.

Isn't he like 30 years old?

He needs to move on with his life. He isn't going to the league.

It's time to hit LinkedIn and get a job.

And yet, despite the haters, we've reached a peak moment for journeyman quarterbacks across college football. Freshmen who began college in 2020 during the COVID pandemic were granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA. Now they're still hanging around as sixth-year seniors. Nearly 40 quarterbacks from the 2020 class came back this year for one more season at the FBS level.

They're 23- and 24-year-old grizzled veterans who feel even older inside their locker rooms. They have college degrees. Their partying days are done. They're training and preparing like pros, trying to squeeze every last drop out of their college days.

College football today is in many ways unrecognizable compared to when they were high schoolers. The explosion of NIL and the transfer portal, big-name coach firings, conference realignment, the expanded College Football Playoff, the pandemic, collectives, agents, revenue sharing -- you name it, these quarterbacks went through it.

"Not a lot of people have experienced this type of roller-coaster ride in college football," SMU quarterback Tyler Van Dyke said.

The days of QBs bouncing from school to school for starting jobs aren't going away. In this new era of unlimited transfers, 85% of top-50 quarterback recruits from 2018 to 2021 have transferred and more than 40% have switched schools multiple times. But we are nearing the end of the road for a historic fraternity of super seniors granted additional eligibility because of the pandemic.

This is the story of four journeyman quarterbacks -- Chandler Morris, Robby Ashford, Drew Pyne and Van Dyke -- still chasing glory in Year 6.

Jump to: Chandler Morris | Robby Ashford Drew Pyne | Tyler Van Dyke

Chandler Morris was ready to retire from football. After four years of setbacks, he'd had enough.

"Football just wasn't loving me back," Morris said. "It's kind of hard to love something if it's not loving you back."

He started fighting those thoughts two years ago at TCU. Midway through his first full season as a starter, Morris hurt his left knee and was sidelined for four games. Young backup Josh Hoover stepped in to replace him. Morris got healthy but never got his starting job back, and he couldn't understand why.

By then, though, little had gone according to plan. Morris had initially committed to play for his father, Chad Morris, at Arkansas. Five months later, Arkansas fired his dad. The younger Morris responded to that gut punch by signing with Oklahoma. He arrived in Norman in the summer of 2020, amid the COVID outbreak, knowing nothing would seem normal.

There wasn't much bonding time with his freshman class. Gathering outside the football facility was discouraged. Players were taking online courses in their dorms, masking up, testing for COVID daily and trying to get through a college football season played in empty stadiums.

"I don't know if I was very happy there," Morris said. "But I don't know if there was a happy freshman anywhere in the country that year."

After a season behind Spencer Rattler and with Caleb Williams on the way, Morris had a sense Oklahoma wasn't the right fit. He transferred home to TCU to play for Gary Patterson. Eight games into the 2021 season, Patterson's successful 21-year tenure ended abruptly when he was fired on Halloween. The next day, Morris learned he'd make his first career start.

The Horned Frogs had nothing to lose against No. 12-ranked rival Baylor, and that's exactly how Morris played. He lit up one of the Big 12's best defenses with 461 passing yards, 70 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns in a shocking 30-28 upset.

"I was probably too young for that success," Morris said. "I probably thought I had arrived. I went out there and just dominated them. I was kind of like an overnight success."

Morris was no less dominant the following August in his preseason competition with senior Max Duggan. TCU coaches still swear to this day it wasn't a close call. Morris earned the right to be QB1 as the Frogs kicked off the Sonny Dykes era. But he didn't make it through the season opener, exiting with an MCL sprain in his left knee after a Colorado defender landed on his leg.

"Max took it over," Morris said, "and the rest was history."

A few weeks later, when Duggan led a 55-24 blowout win over Oklahoma, Morris went home and cried. He knew he'd missed his chance. TCU went on a surprising 13-1 run to the CFP national championship game, with Duggan finishing runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. Morris enjoyed going on that wild ride, but it wasn't easy to set personal feelings aside. He badly wanted to be out there playing.

Everything finally seemed aligned for Morris entering 2023. The Horned Frogs got off to a nightmare start with a home loss to Colorado they never saw coming, but Morris settled in from there and was playing well until another MCL sprain shut him down. Dykes and his coaches went with Hoover to finish a rough 5-7 season. Morris felt he was being pushed out the door.

Chad Morris knew how frustrated and hurt his son was -- and how seriously he was contemplating retirement -- but urged him to give it one more shot. North Texas offered a fresh start. Chandler finished his degree at TCU in the spring of 2024, taking four classes as a regular student and staying away from football. He needed the time off to reset.

"I learned not to put my identity into football," Morris said. "I think it's easier said than done when that's all you do. I had my identity wrapped up in that, and once it got stripped away from me, I was in a low place."

North Texas coach Eric Morris (no relation) watched his QB get his swagger back last season. Chandler credits his coaches for fully tailoring the Mean Green offense to his strengths and preferences. "They poured so much confidence into me," he said. Morris went in thinking 2024 would be his final college season. Then he put up 4,016 total yards, seventh most in FBS, and had $1 million offers coming in from Power 4 programs.

If Morris was going to move back up for his sixth year, he wanted to be around good people. He trusted Virginia coach Tony Elliott, who had worked with his dad at Clemson. He knew Virginia was loading up on transfers and going all-in for 2025. Once he got on campus and saw the personnel, he knew the team could compete.

"You can't ask for much more than an opportunity to come to a place like this and try to get 'em back on the map," he said.

Nothing about the Cavaliers' 8-1 start and rise to No. 12 in the AP poll, their highest ranking since 2004, has surprised their QB. Their double-overtime triumph over then-No. 8 Florida State got everyone's attention, and they've survived two more overtime thrillers since. When asked if this team is giving him 2022 TCU vibes, Morris didn't hesitate.

"I really do compare it to that year, just based off our locker room and how close and how hungry we are," Morris said. "They've lost quite a bit of games over the years. They're ready to be done with that."

Even on a seven-game win streak, nothing comes easy. Morris has battled a shoulder injury for most of the season. Elliott says he's been a "warrior" throughout. After everything Morris has gone through, good luck convincing him to miss a single snap of this ACC title chase.

"I wouldn't pick to be in college football for six years," Morris said, "but here I am."

For Wake Forest quarterback Robby Ashford, the trials of the past six years have felt beyond his control.

"I wouldn't necessarily say I'm trash, because I've been to four Power 4 schools," Ashford joked. "I can't be that bad. It's just been situations I couldn't handle. I went through a lot of things I couldn't really do anything about."

He was committed to Ole Miss back in 2019, the same year Elijah Moore pretended to urinate in the end zone during the Egg Bowl. Rebels coach Matt Luke was in Hoover, Alabama, visiting Ashford when he got the call and realized he was getting fired.

Ashford had little time to pick his next school and moved across the country to play both football and baseball at Oregon. If the 2020 MLB draft hadn't been cut from 40 rounds down to five due to COVID, the former top-200 draft prospect might have picked pro baseball out of high school.

After two seasons as a backup QB in Eugene, Ashford was eager to play. But then Mario Cristobal left for Miami, Dan Lanning took over and his new offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham brought in Bo Nix. Ashford hit the portal and went home to Auburn. He found a coach who believed in him in Bryan Harsin, and he became a starter three games into the 2022 season.

During his first start against Missouri, Ashford seriously injured his throwing shoulder: second-degree AC joint sprain, bruised rotator cuff, sprained trap muscle. He played hurt for nine games, not saying a word about it publicly until the season ended.

"I was getting four shots a game in my shoulder and neck to be able to play," he said. "I wasn't going to tell anybody so teams wouldn't hammer my shoulder. The only people who really know are with you every day. They can't go out there and tell everybody, 'Bro, y'all don't understand, Robby is hurt. He's playing with a messed-up shoulder.' But that gave everybody a perception about me."

After a four-game slide, Auburn fired Harsin. The backlash Ashford experienced during that 5-7 season was unlike anything he anticipated. He knew all about the passion in the SEC, but nothing prepares a 20-year-old for an inbox full of racial slurs and death threats after losses. Ashford said it wasn't just direct messages on social media; he'd get texts from unknown numbers too.

"You try not to look at it, but sometimes it pops up while you're scrolling," he said. "It's like you can't get away from it, even when you're not trying to search for it. That's part of it that comes with being a Black quarterback."

Ashford didn't want to show his face on campus. He knows he played too timid, too nervous about making matters worse.

"It gets to the point where you almost have to start worrying about your personal safety," he admitted. His father, Robert, encouraged him to keep his head up and keep trusting it would work out.

Ashford gave up baseball in the spring of 2023, a sacrifice he was willing to make to prove to new Auburn coach Hugh Freeze he was focused on leading the Tigers. He felt great about his performance in spring practice and was the spring game offensive MVP. Weeks later, Freeze landed transfer QB Payton Thorne from Michigan State.

"I got backdoored," Ashford said. "I got my job taken without losing it. If I would've known I was going to lose my job without playing bad, I would've played baseball. You live and learn."

Ashford hadn't graduated and couldn't leave. He backed up Thorne for a season before moving on and was glad to get out.

"It felt like a toxic environment," Ashford said.

He moved on to South Carolina, believing it was important to stay in the SEC, but lost an offseason competition to LaNorris Sellers. Ashford remembers his first time meeting the redshirt freshman who wore glasses even with his helmet on.

"I was like, 'You're the kid that's, like, really good?'" Ashford recalls with a laugh. "It just don't seem like it when you meet him. Then he gets on that field and, yeah, you're the kid that's really good."

Ashford mentored and pushed Sellers as he became a breakout star for the Gamecocks. He wasn't thrilled about his backup role but had nothing but love for Sellers, whom he considers a little brother. With one season left, Ashford reentered the portal seeking an opportunity.

Wake Forest had a new coaching staff and needed a veteran starter. Ashford suspects he might be the lowest-paid QB1 in the Power 4, but he doesn't care. He just wanted to play.

Ashford is right where he wanted to be, but it's been a tough year. His father passed away suddenly at the age of 53 in April. He's still working through the grief, and it hit him hard 15 minutes before his first Wake Forest start.

"He'd been there for me through the ups and downs," Robby said. "I was hoping he got to see this year."

Robby continues to tough it out without him. He's trying to lead this 5-3 team despite an injured thumb on his throwing hand. Ashford and backup Deshawn Purdie pulled off a 13-12 upset of SMU in Week 9, but they had few answers for Florida State's defense in a 42-7 loss Saturday.

Ashford hasn't stopped believing, even in Year 6, that his best football is still ahead of him.

"There's been a lot of days where it's like, man, why is this going on?" he said. "But it's kind of brought me a great sense of hope, just to know I can keep going. I've gotta keep going."

Drew Pyne's legendary Connecticut high school football coach, Lou Marinelli, had a saying that stuck with the quarterback: Football is just like life, but sped up.

For Pyne, the college football journey began incredibly early. He received scholarship offers as an eighth grader back in 2016, thanks to a highlight tape of his mom's Pop Warner footage cut together on iMovie. Pyne threw at an Alabama camp and suddenly had an offer from Nick Saban.

"I kinda stopped being a kid in eighth grade after that," Pyne said.

The kid who grew up quickly in a Catholic family committed to his dream school, Notre Dame, as a high school sophomore. Ian Book took Pyne under his wing during Pyne's freshman year in 2020 as the Fighting Irish rolled through a bizarre season in the ACC to the College Football Playoff and a Rose Bowl semifinal played in Texas.

Pyne went in for two snaps against No. 1 Alabama and saw eight future NFL draft picks on the other side of the ball. He couldn't wait to lead the Irish back to that big stage.

After another year of waiting behind Jack Coan, Pyne felt ready. Tyler Buchner won the starting job entering 2022 but suffered a shoulder injury. In the first quarter of his first start in South Bend, Pyne accidentally went viral. The NBC broadcast captured offensive coordinator Tommy Rees cursing out his QB from the coaches' box after three poor drives. Welcome to the big leagues.

Pyne's run as the starting quarterback of the Fighting Irish, the goal he'd chased his whole life, lasted just 10 games. A four-loss season in Year 1 under Marcus Freeman wasn't the goal for a team with preseason top-five expectations. But Pyne did go 8-2 as a starter with victories over Clemson, North Carolina, Syracuse and BYU.

"I'm real proud of my time there," Pyne said. "I still root for Notre Dame and Coach Freeman, who was great to me. I'm still best friends with a lot of those guys. It's a great place. I loved it there."

So why leave? By the end of the season, it was clear Freeman and Rees wanted a transfer QB to push or replace Pyne and Buchner. Pyne was one semester away from graduating and hoped to become a captain in 2023, but he was informed there'd be a competition. He sensed the odds were stacked against him and exited before the bowl game to hunt for his next home.

Pyne transferred to Arizona State. And then Missouri. And now Bowling Green. He didn't expect this many twists and turns.

"Going in, I never wanted to transfer or do any of that," Pyne said. "But that's just the way the tide flows in today's game. I love football and I want to play football. That's why I've done what I've done."

At Arizona State, he teamed up with Dillingham to try to lead a revival. A pulled hamstring during a preseason scrimmage was the first setback. Pyne came back several weeks early -- refusing to miss a rematch with Caleb Williams after losing to USC in his Notre Dame finale -- with the help of daily sessions in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

"All I wanted to do was to play Caleb again and try to beat him," Pyne said. "So I said screw it, I don't care if my leg falls off, I'm going to play in that USC game."

And how'd that go?

"I popped my left groin, separated my AC joint, got a pinched nerve in my neck and got sacked eight times -- but we took 'em to the fourth quarter," he said. "Let me tell you, the next morning was pretty tough."

Pyne's season was over. He'd wake up at 4:30 a.m. each day to go in for physical therapy. He'd get down on himself as doubt crept in. And he didn't know what to do next.

He returned to Notre Dame, reenrolling for the spring to take the final classes needed for his degree. Pyne worked out with a local trainer and hoped someone would take a chance on him.

Missouri brought in Pyne to back up senior Brady Cook. He had to relieve an injured Cook against Alabama and threw three interceptions in a 34-0 loss. What stuck with him, though, was the way Luther Burden III and fellow teammates kept encouraging him. "They know I try as hard as I can," Pyne said. "Those guys had my back."

He rewarded their faith the following week against Oklahoma, guiding a 75-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter to tie it up. Less than a minute later, Missouri defensive end Zion Young scooped up a fumble and scored to stun the Sooners.

"I was on the bench saying a prayer," Pyne said. "I go, 'God, I feel like things don't go my way all the time. Can you please let something go my way?' And then, boom, I look up and Zion's running in for the touchdown."

After one of the proudest nights of his life, Pyne wanted to chase that feeling in 2025. He joined Bowling Green because he was sold on new coach Eddie George and the culture he's building. Pyne knows a thing or two about winning over a new team by now, but this group embraced its 24-year-old captain.

When Pyne made his fifth trip to the Manning Passing Academy this summer, Archie Manning named him captain of the college QBs. After all, he'd roomed with Brock Purdy in his first year.

"Now I'm the old head," he said.

Pyne is going through more trying times this season. He just returned to action Saturday in a loss to Buffalo after missing three games with a leg injury. The Falcons are 3-6 and trying to get back on track to chasing bowl eligibility in November.

Believe it or not, thanks to the Arizona State injury, Pyne has one more season of eligibility in 2026 if he wants it. He hasn't decided, saying his life could go in a million directions after this year. At the moment, he's just grateful for what he found at Bowling Green.

"It's really all you could ask for, especially for a guy like me at the tail end of my career, being a starter, a leader and a captain," Pyne said. "It's like playing Road to Glory, but in real life."

Entering the 2022 season, some were calling Tyler Van Dyke, the reigning ACC Rookie of the Year, a first-round NFL draft talent alongside Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud.

"It was a lot of praise, but I believed it," Van Dyke said, "I thought I was that good. And I know I'm that good when I'm healthy and playing my best."

Young and Stroud are now third-year NFL starters. Van Dyke is still fighting to get back on their level. He's off the national radar for now, a backup at SMU recovering from a significant leg injury and preparing for one more chance.

Van Dyke reunited with Rhett Lashlee, the coach who gave him so much confidence as a redshirt freshman subbing for injured starter D'Eriq King at Miami. Now King is his position coach. They went on a good run together in 2021, but it wasn't enough to save Manny Diaz's job. New coach Mario Cristobal offered effusive praise for the quarterback he inherited, comparing Van Dyke to Justin Herbert and declaring there wasn't a better QB in the country.

But at the end of 2022, Van Dyke wasn't ready for the NFL. He got a wake-up call four games in when Cristobal benched him during an ugly loss to Middle Tennessee. "Everything's not rainbows and butterflies like 2021," Van Dyke said. In the moment, he felt like the fan base was flipping on him from love to hate.

Van Dyke started meeting with a sports psychologist to talk it out and clear his head. He threw for 496 yards in his next start, a close loss to Drake Maye and North Carolina, and felt back on track after a road win at Virginia Tech. Then he suffered a third-degree AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder, forcing him to sit out most of the final five games. After a disappointing 5-7 season, Van Dyke considered leaving Miami.

In the spring of 2023, Alabama tried to persuade Van Dyke to transfer. And he was listening.

"To be honest, I was pretty much all-in on going there," Van Dyke said.

The Crimson Tide had lost Young to the NFL and were unsure of what they had in Jalen Milroe. Van Dyke said Rees, then the OC at Alabama, tried to recruit him to Notre Dame to replace Pyne. Now he was circling back. For Van Dyke, it wasn't a financial decision. The NIL money back then was nothing like it is today. This was about his future. A great year at Alabama could get him back to first-round status.

But he didn't transfer. Cristobal found out about the Alabama talks and convinced him to stay. Van Dyke doesn't know how that leaked out, but he was in a tough spot and ultimately preferred to stick with his team.

"I felt good about it at the end of the day," Van Dyke said. "I didn't want to move. I had a lot of friends on that team. I was the leader of the team. Everybody loved me and I loved the team. I wanted to stay at Miami."

The Hurricanes started 4-0 in 2023 before a baffling loss to Georgia Tech, eschewing victory formation to close out a win and fumbling away the game. Van Dyke got hurt the following week against North Carolina, a bruise on his knee that spread to his quad. He tried to play through the rare leg ailment, called a Morel-Lavallée lesion, but wasn't close to his best and finished with 14 turnovers. It was clearly time to move on.

The weekly unpredictability of those last two Miami seasons wore him out. The Canes would win and feel like contenders. They'd lose and, to Van Dyke, it felt like the end of the world. He says he has a lot of respect for Cristobal, but the situation deteriorated over time.

"It ended up not working out for both of us," Van Dyke said.