The long and winding career for former five-star quarterback Blake Barnett is headed to the sunshine state. A source told CBS Sports that Barnett, a redshirt junior graduate transfer, will join South Florida and contend for the starting quarterback job this fall. The move was first reported by 620 WDAE in Tampa.
Barnett started the season opener for Alabama in 2016 against USC. In three games as a redshirt freshman for the Crimson Tide, he completed 11 of his 19 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns. But in that season opener, then-true freshman Jalen Hurts took control of the starting quarterback job and relegated Barnett to a backup role.
He left Alabama in late September 2016 and immediately enrolled at Palomar College in California in an attempt to make him eligible at his new institution a calendar year after enrollment, as long as he satisfied certain academic requirements at the junior college. He committed to Arizona State that December, and won an appeal in January 2017 to become immediately eligible in 2017 rather than having to sit the first four games to complete the full calendar year of his withdrawal from Alabama.
Barnett lost the Sun Devils quarterback competition last fall to Manny Wilkins, and then announced his intent to transfer in late April.
With Quentin Flowers gone, Barnett will have to contend with redshirt junior Brett Kean and redshirt sophomore Chris Oladokun for the starting quarterback job with the Bulls.
