Michigan Football: Should Wolverines Look to Add Transfer QB?

Shane Morris, Wilton Speight and Alex Malzone all possess the necessary traits to be successful college quarterbacks—Michigan wouldn't have recruited them otherwise.

Morris, who's started twice, hasn't had many chances to strut his stuff, but he's due. The 6'3", 204-pound lefty should be a better-equipped junior in 2015, and he should challenge for the No. 1 role.

Speight redshirted as a freshman in 2014, but the 6'6" 234-pounder has the skill and build to achieve in Ann Arbor. Look for him to make the race interesting.

Malzone, a former Birmingham Brother Rice star, is committed to the 2015 class. The 6'1.5" 200-pounder brings a powerful arm and great field vision to the mix. That’s probably why he’s the No. 13-ranked pro-styler of his class, per 247Sports, and he could jump into a battle with the upperclassmen.

Michigan has options.

However, the search for "the one" never ends, as demonstrated by coach Jim Harbaugh. The former Wolverines star signal-caller and 1986 Heisman finalist is on the hunt for a quarterback to round out the 2015 class.

At one point, he was looking to grab Kevin Hogan, who would have been a one-year, graduate loaner. Hogan reportedly entertained the idea of scooting to Michigan or Maryland, but he decided to stay put at Stanford.

There are pros and cons to seeking help from a transfer, so it makes sense to assess the risk-to-reward aspect of each end.

On one hand, a transfer could be the ideal remedy for a team in the midst of transition. Michigan qualifies as such. Already having experience, an addition could immediately deliver results and better prepare the team for 2016.

That'd be the best-case scenario.

But the potential of an adverse reaction shouldn't be ignored. The Wolverines could reject an outsider, or, worse yet, the transfer could fail miserably and set the position back in the long run.

Fans wouldn't be happy about seeing recruited talent warm the bench if the replacement floundered. Nor would they be thrilled to see one get away and catapult another team to the next level. 

There are two sides, of course. For a positive result, look no further than Wisconsin, which recently enjoyed abundant, albeit short-term, success with a transfer.

After leaving North Carolina State, Russell Wilson helped lead the Badgers to a 2011 Big Ten title. The MVP-worthy quarterback is now on the brink of becoming a back-to-back Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks.

In hindsight, snagging Wilson from the Wolfpack was the perfect move for the Badgers, perhaps one of best in recent memory. Not only did he set the bar for the position at Wisconsin, but he also elevated the program's status and left an incredible one-year legacy.

But stories such as his are rare exceptions. Not every transfer will lead his new team to a conference title, and it's even less likely that a new team will pick up the next Wilson.

There's no sense rattling the cage at this point. Harbaugh has an NFL-caliber staff lined up to revamp the program, so allowing the coaches to do their jobs instead of searching for a quick fix makes more sense. 

Michigan would be doing itself a favor by not importing help this year. Hogan, a proven pro-styler, fit the bill—the 6'4" 220-pounder was recruited by Harbaugh’s Cardinal staff in 2010, making him a more attractive prospect—but is no longer available.

And other than Everett Golson and Braxton Miller, there aren’t many high-quality options in the graduate-transfer pool, per The Big Lead.

The Notre Dame in Golson probably wouldn’t allow him to enroll at Michigan, and it’s safe to say Miller, a dual-threat QB at Ohio State, would rather jump from a bridge into a canyon of pins and needles than wear a winged helmet.

For better or for worse, Harbaugh’s best options appear to be in-house, leaving no reason to shop around.

Follow Bleacher Report’s Michigan Wolverines football writer Adam Biggers on Twitter @AdamBiggers81