Former LSU QB Brandon Harris transferring to North Carolina Tar Heels
By John Buhler
Rising senior quarterback Brandon Harris has announced via Facebook that he will be transferring from LSU to North Carolina after he graduates this spring.
It’s been known for a while that LSU Tigers quarterback Brandon Harris was going to transfer from the program before the start of the 2017 NCAA season. Since he graduates from Louisiana State University this spring, Harris will be eligible to play immediately this fall at his new school.
While he had been linked to the Texas Longhorns, Harris took to Facebook to announce that he will be playing his final year of college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Harris says that his visit to Chapel Hill this past weekend sealed the deal to his wanting to transfer to North Carolina.
He had been the starter for LSU heading into the 2016. Harris was a former four-star recruit and the presumed heir apparent under center in Baton Rouge after Zach Mettenberger entered the NFL. However, Harris’ inconsistency as a passer last fall led him to get benched in favor of former Purdue Boilermakers transfer Danny Etling. It seems that LSU head coach Ed Orgeron will go with Etling under center in 2017.
The other school that Harris had considered was an opportunity to compete for the starting job with Tom Herman’s Longhorns. However, it would be awfully hard for Herman to not stick with sophomore quarterback Shane Buechele in 2017.
What made North Carolina such an appealing landing spot for Harris was that former Tar Heels starting quarterback Mitchell Trubisky declared for the NFL Draft a year early. Trubisky had one more year of eligibility remaining, but will likely end up being a top-10 pick in this spring’s draft.
Next: Best college quarterback born in every state
Harris will inherit a solid head coach in Larry Fedora and presumably one of the better teams in the ACC Coastal backing him up. North Carolina has been a viable threat in the ACC the last few years regardless of who is quarterbacking the Tar Heels. Could Harris lead North Carolina to a division crown and maybe even an ACC Championship?