Is he transferring?
Nothing against Barnes or the way he played. Just wondering what happened.
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Yeah, I still haven’t found an answer to that one. Very odd indeed. Wouldn’t surprise me to see him transfer though after the season Rising put together. Not that I want to see that, as Jackson seems to be a good fit for Utah, but he’s got to do what’s best for himself too.
Jackson has never been the backup this year. He has run the scout team. Barnes got the no 2 snaps after brewer left
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He seems kind of Taysom Hillish to me. Outstanding athlete but doesn’t appear to be a great passer. I hated the play calling with the first series with Barnes. We pretty much just gave it away.
I have zero insights here. Which means I’m eminently qualified to comment. 
Someone correct me if I’m off base. But QJ played in only four games.
About a month ago he sent out an ambiguous text, about his future.
The coaching staff is brilliant at matching a guy’s talent and skill set to a position. I believe, as Texas did, they offered that option. QJ wants to play QB.
If that is not at Utah - and I doubt it is - he may move on.
Besides not taking the no. 2 snaps, the coaches may have let him stay with the team but not play him beyond four games. Then he can transfer and preserve a year of eligibility.
This scenario was articulated to me by Ute_in_Texas. It makes perfect sense.
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Don’t take this as a knock on Barnes, but shouldn’t your 2nd string QB be good enough to be on scholarship? If I heard correctly he’s a walk-on?
RS issues. That’s my opinion.
This is where Costelli should’ve stuck around. Pulled the transfer trigger way too early.
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When I saw Rising go out I told my wife, game-set-match, the backup is an agile athlete pretending to be a QB, tOSU is going to seriously stack the box like you can’t believe. Fortunately a QB (Barnes) entered the game instead.
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When we started the year, we had Brewer, Rising, Costelli, and Jackson. All were 4-star recruits or had a ton of experience. It appeared to be a pretty stacked QB room.
Rising rose to the top as the starter, Brewer and Costelli bailed because of that, Jackson is on the fence and/or didn’t have the needed skill set, which left Barnes.
Hard to knock the coaches for us ending up in that situation. I doubt any of them could have possibly foreseen things playing out the way they did.
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Jackson could be the next great linebacker/safety. He has the physical tools to be a bigger, faster Chase Hansen.
In transferring he may get to play QB at a G5, but he will never see the field at a P5. It will take too much work to train him up to be successful at the position.
Jackson is going to do what he’s going to do; but if he wants to eventually play on Sunday, he will pick up the black shirt and become the “QB of the defense.”
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Coming from a 1A program (with 1A coaching) and already having a couple other QB’s on scholarship ahead of you (at the time) makes it a problem. Preferred walk on is a pretty big deal at a place like the U. Walk on gives him some time to come up to speed and get real coaching (he had huge HS numbers but barely 50% completion rate). If he sticks and continues to make progress, I suspect that scholarship comes.
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Guess I need to take a better look at Jackson after these responses. I just assumed a 4-star Texas transfer was legit enough to beat a walk on from Southern Utah, and I heard Jackson’s name constantly throughout the year while never hearing anything about Barnes. I watched the games this season, but admittedly didn’t pay much attention outside of that.
Thanks all for the info. I don’t know how good of a college qb Barnes will end up being, but he’s obviously a hell of an athlete, and was undaunted by the gravity of the moment. I imagine he made every Utah fan proud.
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We were talking about this in the car on the way home. I would bet that he stays maybe moving to a different position. He was very close friends with Aaron Lowe and spoke at his funeral. I can’t see him leaving. But what do I know?
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I think Jackson is an undeniable athlete. I think in general, the best athletes are QBs in HS. Some realize that they have to switch for college (e.g. Covey - 5’8" just isn’t going to cut it). Some HS talent translates to college, but often, even a highly rated dual threat qb is more valuable through their legs than through their arms. Hopefully in practice, when compared to better throwers, they see that maybe their accuracy isn’t as good. Some make it in college and it doesn’t translate to pros either (e.g. Tebow - likely could have switched to TE immediately and been a good to great player).
But many dream of QB1 nonetheless. QB1 or bust. Might accept QB2 for a little bit. I hope JQJ follows his dreams and if that’s QB, find a place where he can play. But if he can’t win the job in college, he’s not going to in the NFL. He has the potential to play in the league if he decides to switch positions, and Utah is a really, really good place to be developed into that, whichever position that is (LB? DE? Safety? RB?)
And kudos to Barnes. If he was essentially QB2 (perhaps even just to match the scheme Ludwig was using for Rising), he must be humble, a hard worker, and a great teammate. Hopefully we see a schollie video for him at some point. Probably will have Rising, then one of the FR (RS the other), then Barnes next year in the QB room.
This isn’t a response on the Jackson question, but an indication of where things are going:
Ute LB Jeremy Mercier in the portal. JUCO kid out of Arizona who didn’t see the field much in his 2 years here. Best of luck to him.
I have honestly never even heard that name before.
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There will certainly be more, and a couple of them will be kids you never heard of who got buried on the depth chart (like Mercier), and have decided to move on.
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Scalley put out a nice tweet thanking him for all his efforts while at Utah. I like seeing that sort of class displayed.
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Xavier Carlton to Cal.