BYU Football: Trent Hosick Is A Cougar! And A Norseman?

Photo Credit: bleacherreport.com

Max Hall, Riley Nelson, Taysom Hill and Trent Hosick? All of these Quarterbacks have at least two things in common.

1) They signed National Letters of Intent to schools that weren’t BYU.
2) They later went on to be quarterbacks at BYU.

Hosick made it official Monday night when he tweeted the two following tweets:

There are a couple things that are confusing with those tweets. #Norsemen? Committed to NEO in the fall? Excited for the Rascal Flatts CD? What is going on here?

The former Mizzou quarterback is looking to take advantage of a loophole in the NCAA’s transfer policy. Because he is not an graduate transfer like Jordan Leslie or Harvey Jackson, Hosick would have to sit out and lose a full year of eligibility in order to transfer from D-1 Mizzou to D-1 BYU. Rather than playing on the BYU scout team this fall, Hosick will transfer to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (no, that’s not a made up name) and play for the might Norsemen this fall before enrolling at BYU this Spring.

photo credit: www.trcdisastersolutions.com

I like the idea of getting in-game reps and not wasting a year on the scout team. Even if they are just JC reps, in-game reps are always better than practice reps. I completely understand Hosick’s thought process in wanting to play this year.

But, there are definitely some concerns with this move:

1) Hosick learned a new offense at Mizzou, now has to learn a new offense at NEO and then will turn around this spring and learn another new offense at BYU

I’m not going to claim that I’m a big fan of the Norsemen from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, but I was able to find a couple of brief highlight videos of their offense from last year. While they don’t run the exact same offense as BYU, it’s very similar. Obviously when Hosick does get to Provo he will have to learn new terminology and that is a taxing process in and of itself, but it does look like the skills that he fine tunes at NEO will translate to BYU’s offense.

2) Injuries

This probably more of a concern for Hosick than it is for BYU. Given the physical style of quarterback that Hosick plays, there is a lot of potential for injury. If he suffers a career threatening or any other type of serious injury, BYU could pull the scholarship offer because he has not officially signed. That’s not typically BYU’s style, but it is a possibility.

3) He’s committed, but not signed

Let me preface this section by saying that everything we have seen from Hosick indicates that he is a loyal guy with a high amount of integrity. I have not seen any reason to believe that he won’t stay true to his BYU commitment. He’s leaving the SEC to come to BYU, so I don’t think that he will be swayed by bigger schools offering him scholarships, but that doesn’t make it impossible. If Hosick puts up great numbers at NEO, he could have a number of suitors calling his name. Teams like Auburn, Oregon, Florida State or anyone else that runs offenses that Hosick would excel in could potentially offer him a scholarship and, because he’s not signed at BYU, he could take those offers. Again, I don’t think that this is going to happen. But, the fact that it could happen has to be a huge concern for the BYU coaching staff. Hosick’s recruitment isn’t over.

Despite all the concerns and things that could potentially happen, this is great news for BYU. If everything plays out like I think it will, BYU will be bringing in another high-profile quarterback to compete with Tanner Mangum. This is great news for the Cougars.

Welcome to the team, Trent. We’re glad you’re here.