Jason Shelley enters the transfer portal

In disappointing, and a little bit surprising news, former Utah QB Jason Shelley has enter the transfer portal. The Utes had transitioned Shelley from QB to safety before the bowl game, and he was going to be in the running for a starting role for the Utes in the defensive backfield.

Shelley burst onto the scene a season ago when Tyler Huntley went down with his broken collar bone. Shelley beat Oregon and Colorado to clinch Utah’s first outright Pac-12 South championship in program history. He also led Utah back from a 20-0 deficit to beat BYU in a legendary rivalry game comeback.

Shelley was battling for the No. 2 QB spot all season long with Drew Lisk, and fell to No. 3 for a good chunk of the season. When Shelley committed to the Utes, the idea was that he’d get a chance to play QB, but there was a prevailing thought he may end up on defense at some point, and that was coming to fruition. Morgan Scalley said in an interview on Friday that Shelley wanted to remain a quarterback, thus prompting the desire to enter the portal.

The thought right now is that Jake Bentley and Cam Rising will be the two jockeying for the starting quarterback spot in 2020, with the edge likely to the senior-to-be Bentley.

As for Shelley, I have little doubt that he can be a good starting QB somewhere. I’m curious what the reason was why he fell behind Lisk this past season. I think he could absolutely light it up in a G5 school, like in the Mountain West.

Regardless, we wish Shelley the best of luck wherever he lands up, and he’ll forever be a member of Utah history for leading the Utes to that division title.