QBs That Don't Come to State and Their Careers Vanish
Every young football player has the right to make their college choice for any reason they choose. Bo Wallace and Jeremy Liggins have made their choice, and just because they didn’t choose MSU doesn’t mean they made the wrong one. And for the record, I am very happy with Nick Schuessler in a Bulldog uniform. But Liggins and Wallace were the higher-rated QBs, so for the purpose of this, that is what I referring to.
Plenty of quarterbacks have been recruited by MSU and they’ve gone on to great careers at other places…case in point the guy who went to Auburn and won a national title but I won’t say his name because it stings really bad. But these are QBs who shunned MSU for a “bigger” program, but their career was, or has, been a flop.
Hutson Mason – 6′-3″ 200 3-star from Marietta, GA in the 2010 class. MSU was the only SEC team recruiting him and he looked like he was excited about State. Then UGA came in and he immediately jumped on the offer. Being the primary back-up to Aaron Murray he was unable to red-shirt in ’10 but he’s never been able to start in his two years at Georgia. Earlier this month, he asked Mark Richt if he could red-shirt the 2012 season because he does not think he will ever get to play behind Murray.
Chris Garrett – 6′-4″ 220 3-star from Tupelo, MS in the 2009 class. His parents went to Mississippi State and he looked like a shoe-in. After committing to MSU, LSU came calling and that was it – he was gone to Baton Rouge. He red-shirted his true freshman season, then Les Miles told him there would be no scholarship for his second year. He then went to Northwestern State for one year (a FCS school in LA) where he was 6 of 13 for 24 yards with 3 INTs. For the 2011 season he walked on at Ole Miss, which he had to sit out because of transfer rules. I couldn’t find where he’s still listed on their roster, but if he is still at it he’s got a long way to go behind their 14,000 QBs.
Ryan Perrilloux – 6′-2″ 210 5-star from Reserve, LA in the 2005 class. He was listed as the #1 or #2 QB in the nation depending on who you ask. He considered Texas, Mississippi State and LSU. He chose the Tigers on signing day. He red-shirted in ’05 and then got some playing time behind Matt Flynn in LSU’s 2007 national championship run. His biggest moment came in the ’07 SEC Championship Game when he started for an injured Flynn and led them to a win over Tennessee. But after a number of off-the-field problems he was dismissed from the team in March of 2008. He transferred to FCS Jacksonville State for the ’08 season and had two moderately successful years there. He was not drafted by an NFL team in 2010, and played in the United Football League. In 2011, he was an on and off again practice squad player for the New York Giants.
None of this is to suggest Jeremy Liggins and Bo Wallace won’t have fine careers in college. The point is, going with the “bigger” or “more established” program isn’t always the right move. All these players want to play, and sometimes they can’t do that when there are future NFL starters ahead of them on the depth chart. MSU has always been a place where players were not cast aside for the next big recruit, and with a coach like Dan Mullen you have to wonder what he could have done with Mason or Garrett.