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The name of former Memphis high school star Barry Brunetti has been tossed about this week as a possible transfer to Ole Miss.
We'll see what becomes of that, but in the meantime below is some background on Brunetti from a Q&A on the blog of Colin Dunlap, the West Virginia beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You can read more of Dunlap here.
If Brunetti is looking at the roster and guaging his chances to compete/start - a la Jevan Snead - Ole Miss would be a good fit. He provides the mobility that is very important to Houston Nutt, and presently Randall Mackey is the only scholarship QB who can say the same thing. Mackey clearly has speed and mobility. He was pretty accurate in fall camp as well, but he didn't throw the ball with the zip that Jeremiah Masoli did.
Walk-ons Witt Haggard and Evan Ingram got a lot more attention during the summer after Raymond Cotton left and before it was clear that Masoli would transfer to Ole Miss. Unprompted, Nutt mentioned Ingram at his season-ending presser as a guy who has made good strides and shown improvement.
Ingram was the better of the two walk-ons in the scrimmages we saw in August. Ole Miss currently has a verbal commitment from Itawamba AHS QB Maikhail Miller, another dual threat QB, and Nutt said he will look for a junior college quarterback for the upcoming recruiting class as well.
From the Dunlap blog:
QUESTION: Do you think Barry Brunetti will be around next season?
COLIN DUNLAP: I don't know if he will be. I've heard rumblings -- all from outside the program -- that he is seriously pondering a move out of the program after this season. Honestly, if you are him, why stay? Makes not a whole lot of sense. He cannot qualify for a redshirt from this season, and thus will be one year behind Geno Smith for his time in Morgantown until Brunetti were to become a senior and Smith is gone (that is unless Smith were to get hurt and get a redshirt somewhere down the road). Now, you could look at it another way, like this: Brunetti would be one snap away from playing as he stands on the sideline with Smith leading this offense and that temptation could keep him around. To that, I say "not a chance." In 1967, maybe. But in modern college football, kids want to play, there is, without a doubt, an 'I' somwhere in 'team' and getting on the field sooner rather than later is very, very important. So, if you are asking me to set odds on if Barry Brunetti is a Mountaineer next season, I'll do it in percentage form:
58 percent says he's gone
42 percent says he's still here
Don't you think they both now regret their decisions. Snead could NOT have hurt his draft stock, and Cotton only got to play in 3 games (only throwing 1 pass all year). I hope the WV QB comes to Ole Miss if he transfers. What we need most is a defense, and now a Powe replacement.
Regarding Stanley, I don't know what he's thinking, but I wouldn't think a transfer is automatic.
He's already used his redshirt year, so to transfer to another D1 school would mean losing a year of eligibility. Some guys already at a BCS-level school just prefer to stay, make the most of it and get their education.
I don't know where Stanley fits into that thought process. I know he looked very good against Jax State and I've seen him throw a nice deep ball in practice. In his other opportunities - Tulane, Lafayette, Tennessee - he looked pretty average.
Given the issues along the OL this year, I don't think Stanley was the best fit for major playing time.