New Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh landed a top-50 recruiting class in the country, but scored Thursday with former Houston quarterback John O’Korn.
John O’Korn started his career with the Houston Cougars with a splash, throwing 28 touchdown passes as a freshman and earning American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year honors.
But he landed on the Cougars’ bench midway through last season in favor of fellow sophomore Greg Ward and was granted permission last month to seek a transfer opportunity.
O’Korn found one, announcing on social media that he is transferring to play for new coach Jim Harbaugh at Michigan.
Harbaugh signed two quarterbacks in his first recruiting class, including Alex Malzone of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who has already enrolled in school. He also got 6-foot-7 Zach Gentry from Albuquerque, N.M.
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Per NCAA transfer rules, O’Korn will have to sit out next season and will have two years of eligibility remaining beginning in 2016.
Michigan goes into the spring with six quarterbacks already on the roster. Shane Morris, who will be a junior, has the most experience, playing in eight games and starting one in his first two seasons. But he’s been erratic, completing 49.4 percent of his throws for 389 yards and five interceptions with no touchdown passes.
Russell Bellomy, who will be a fifth-year senior, is just 4-for-23 for 46 yards in his three years and attempted only two throws last season.
Alex Swieca will be a fifth-year senior who has never appeared in a game for the Wolverines. Redshirt sophomore Brian Cleary is also on that list, as is redshirt freshman Garrett Moores and true freshman Wilton Speight.
Throw Malzone and Gentry into the mix and you have eight quarterbacks on the roster—six of whom have never thrown a pass in a collegiate game.
In his two seasons at Houston, O’Korn completed 56.4 percent of his passes for 4,068 yards and 34 touchdowns with 18 interceptions.
But after a dynamic 3,117 yards and 28 touchdowns with just 10 picks as a freshman, O’Korn’s play regressed in 2014, as his completion rate fell to 52 percent and he had eight interceptions against just six touchdown tosses in seven games before he was pulled as the starter by former coach Tony Levine.
Ward, meanwhile, came in and completed 67.3 percent of his throws for 2,010 yards and 12 touchdowns with seven picks and also rushed for 573 yards and six scores.
That is an element of the game O’Korn couldn’t compete with. In 32 attempts last season, O’Korn gained 18 yards and scored one touchdown. As a freshman, he had 104 yards and a score in 77 carries—bearing in mind that in college football, sacks count as rushing attempts.
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