Brett Nottingham: Stanford QB Will Reportedly Transfer

Stanford sophomore QB Brett Nottingham will transfer, according to a Stanford official (via Cardinal Sports Report):

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Brett Nottingham will transfer, according to a Stanford spokesman.

— CardinalSportsReport (@StanfordRivals) December 15, 2012"

Nottingham was widely believed to be the heir-apparent to the departing Andrew Luck following serving as the Heisman runner-up’s backup during the 2011-12 season. The 6’4” QB has all of the physical tools to succeed and a year of understudy duty working in his favor.

But, in fall camp, head coach David Shaw had different plans. He chose Josh Nunes over Nottingham to lead the Cardinal into the 2012 season. Shaw was blunt in his endorsement of Nunes as the more “consistent” of the bunch of QB’s competing for the job, according to an AP report (via Sporting News):

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Over time, Josh has been the most consistent. Make no mistake. This is not about wild plays, it's not about doing something outside the framework of the offense. This is about consistency. This is about executing the plays that were called. It's not about who hasn't played well. All of our quarterbacks have competed. All of our quarterbacks have approached this with a workmanlike attitude. But Josh has been the most consistent over this time.

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Nunes failed to impress, though, completing just 52.8 percent of his passes for 1,643 yards in nine games. The team dropped two disappointing losses to Washington and Notre Dame over that span, too.

Nottingham was skipped over when Shaw elected to ease sophomore Kevin Hogan into the offense against Colorado on Nov. 3. Hogan didn’t disappoint either. He finished the game with a 78.3 percent completion rate and two touchdowns, giving him a 174.2 QB rating in his first significant action of his career.

Nottingham suddenly became an afterthought.

He went from offseason favorite to being skipped over twice by Shaw and the coaching staff. Hogan looks solid, too, and will likely hold on to the job until he graduates.

No one came blame him for his decision to transfer after the way everything went down. Hopefully he can catch on somewhere and get his chance to contribute to a football team.