USC losing five-star freshman quarterback to transfer portal

The news of Nelson’s reported plans to transfer should not come as a surprise.

The transfer portal has effectively created a free-agency situation in college football. In the past, programs that recruited top quarterback prospects would spend a few years developing those players before giving them a chance to play. Or if the prospects played early, those QBs would likely struggle to begin their careers before improving.

In this era of college football, though, there is not much patience for developing those quarterbacks for a few reasons. Programs have realized they can skip the development phase by grabbing older QBs from the transfer portal while younger players who were once top recruits often would prefer to transfer rather than sit on the bench and wait for their chance.

Even though Nelson showed loyalty to Lincoln Riley when the coach left Oklahoma for USC, he apparently no longer is willing to wait.

The news about Nelson comes amid reports that USC had former Kansas State quarterback Will Howard in for a visit.

Nelson, who is from Los Alamitos in Southern California, enrolled at USC in June. He will have full eligibility left wherever he transfers.