Class of 2023 QB Austin Novosad (TX) Portal from Oregon to Bowling Green

[JarHeadJim]

Every kid on our team beaten out by a walkon was apparently given the talk or wasn't that good so now we're interested in a kid beaten out by a walkon?

I'm sure the Walk-ons at Oregon are far superior to ours.

 

[RF2044]

I am not thrilled... unless we are getting info from Ross Douglas and/or that his former OC at Kentucky is trying to get him too. If Oregon and Kentucky are "meh," there is no reason for us to think we have a diamond in the rough here.

Don't know about "thrilled" -- but we're talking about someone who might be a 3rd string QB. Might be a good gamble on that regard.

 

[Archbold44]

Don't know about "thrilled" -- but we're talking about someone who might be a 3rd string QB. Might be a good gamble on that regard.

If we are bringing him in to battle with Filardi and Lott for QB#3, then I guess that is an idea. But I thought the goal was to bring in a QB#3 that would be pushing QB#2, not trying to beat out the guys that should not get PT unless the season is toast or we are up by 50. At this point, we are just trading one disappointing 4-star that probably knew the offense for a disappointing 4-star that does not even know our offense.

 

[RF2044]

If we are bringing him in to battle with Filardi and Lott for QB#3, then I guess that is an idea. But I thought the goal was to bring in a QB#3 that would be pushing QB#2, not trying to beat out the guys that should not get PT unless the season is toast or we are up by 50. At this point, we are just trading one disappointing 4-star that probably knew the offense for a disappointing 4-star that does not even know our offense.

On paper. But in actuality, we don't know anything about this kid or his capabilities.

On paper, McCord was a "game manager" when we landed him from Ohio State.

On paper, Angeli had never started a game.

The goal is to improve the talent behind our starter, so that if injuries again occur we have better, more capable backups in place who can produce if they see the field.

I am not suggesting that this kid is any good. Who knows. Maybe he'll be subpar despite playing at Oregon, like Collins was despite hailing from LSU. Or maybe he's got the right skill set to play in our system. But as of now, the portal QBs are thinning out, and it makes sense to gamble on a four-star. Especially one who ostensibly can sling it.

 

[orangepassion]

I'm good with bringing him in if we can't get Dickens or someone with similar success at the college level

 

[Ttk.gman2]

I don’t understand the logic in this article. Kid doesn’t see a path to playing time at Oregon, but sees one at Syracuse despite Angeli and Odom being here?

This seems like a kid who should go down a level if he actually wants to play.

He’s not worried about Odom imo

 

[rrlbees]

I'm good with bringing him in if we can't get Dickens or someone with similar success at the college level

i like dickens much better too. im sure fran knows where we stand with both. neither has committed and fran seems to not be putting all his eggs in one basket for that last qb.

 

[Ozone!]

None of us has the collective experience of our coaching staff; since they are our coaches and if they believe he’s a good fit, bring him on. They could be wrong and only time and trial by fire will demonstrate that.

 

[orangepassion]

None of us has the collective experience of our coaching staff; since they are our coaches and if they believe he’s a good fit, bring him on. They could be wrong and only time and trial by fire will demonstrate that.

Speak for yourself. I coached my son's Flag Football team and we went to the Championship game.

 

[Archbold44]

None of us has the collective experience of our coaching staff; since they are our coaches and if they believe he’s a good fit, bring him on. They could be wrong and only time and trial by fire will demonstrate that.

And yet, any random 3 people of this board, could have managed the QB situation better in 2025. The only solid was landing Angeli. Everything else from January to December was abysmal.

 

[Cuseloyal]

And yet, any random 3 people of this board, could have managed the QB situation better in 2025. The only solid was landing Angeli. Everything else from January to December was abysmal.

That’s just the nature of the transfer portal era unfortunately. Most of the time you are going to be getting unproven talent. I also think there is a big learning curve for everyone in college sports about best practices for the portal, especially those teams that are drowning in cash

 

[CbusCuse]

We have Angeli and Odom aboard already with Lott likely reshirting. I really like Dickson as well obviously but I'd be fine with taking a player like Novosad at this point. He was planned to be QB2 at a school like Oregon which obviously has top tier QB's. The 3rd year walk on os Brock Thomas who had some scholarship offers from Army, Airforce, Northern Arizona and Eastern Washington is who they went with instead as he must have just excelled. That kid is only 5'11" and was listed at just 165 lbs in his HS recruiting profile. He is now listed at 191 lbs on 2025 roster but could be heavier at this point. Oregon obviously had some great success with another 5'-11" guy in Dillon Gabriel so they aren't afraid to go short. For reference, in 2025 he was 12 of 16 75% for 130 yds, 1TD and 0 INT's all against BIG opponents.

Novosad is 6'-3" and 200 lbs so he has solid size. I like his HS highlights. Looks very accurate, sees the field pretty well and I like his timing. He doesn't hold it forever, he makes a decision and goes with it. No sure he has a cannon though as it didn't look like they threw it deep often. He had one where it was 47 yds in the air but he didn't give it everything he had and really step into it. But he seems to have good pace on his other throws and can thread the needle a bit when he needed to. He has had 3 years in the system at Oregon and has 2 more years. I think he looks like a solid addition. At this point we aren't automatically going to bring aboard a guy who looks like a can't miss QB for this season.

I'd say at this point, between Dickinson or Novosad, whoever wants to commit first, i'd probably take them.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

I think with the way the QB dominoes have fallen out of the portal we might not be able to much better for a QB3. And honestly Lott might be QB3 anyways.

 

[CbusCuse]

Not that it means much at this point, but Novosad was also an Elite 11 finalist. For whatever that is worth.

Baylor QB Commit Austin Novosad Shines at Elite 11 Finals

Looks like John Garcia had him ranked 10th of the 20 QB's.

 

[anglerman]

When you get a chance to get a 4-star QB, you take it.

Plus, we have an opening now that our 4-star QB (Williams) has left the team.

Seems to me we are playing with fire again.

That’s absolutely false. What a kid is rated in HS can be very inaccurate. Collins was 4 stars in HS and we have had 2 other recent 4 stars that were not good

 

[tep624]

We have Angeli and Odom aboard already with Lott likely reshirting. I really like Dickson as well obviously but I'd be fine with taking a player like Novosad at this point. He was planned to be QB2 at a school like Oregon which obviously has top tier QB's. The 3rd year walk on os Brock Thomas who had some scholarship offers from Army, Airforce, Northern Arizona and Eastern Washington is who they went with instead as he must have just excelled. That kid is only 5'11" and was listed at just 165 lbs in his HS recruiting profile. He is now listed at 191 lbs on 2025 roster but could be heavier at this point. Oregon obviously had some great success with another 5'-11" guy in Dillon Gabriel so they aren't afraid to go short. For reference, in 2025 he was 12 of 16 75% for 130 yds, 1TD and 0 INT's all against BIG opponents.

Novosad is 6'-3" and 200 lbs so he has solid size. I like his HS highlights. Looks very accurate, sees the field pretty well and I like his timing. He doesn't hold it forever, he makes a decision and goes with it. No sure he has a cannon though as it didn't look like they threw it deep often. He had one where it was 47 yds in the air but he didn't give it everything he had and really step into it. But he seems to have good pace on his other throws and can thread the needle a bit when he needed to. He has had 3 years in the system at Oregon and has 2 more years. I think he looks like a solid addition. At this point we aren't automatically going to bring aboard a guy who looks like a can't miss QB for this season.

I'd say at this point, between Dickinson or Novosad, whoever wants to commit first, i'd probably take them.

We do have Angeli and Odom, which I’m very happy about, but here we go again talking ourselves into a QB that hasn’t sniffed the field for 3 years because he was a 4 star 5 years ago

 

[Archbold44]

That’s absolutely false. What a kid is rated in HS can be very inaccurate. Collins was 4 stars in HS and we have had 2 other recent 4 stars that were not good

I thought the third sentence clarified that I was being sarcastic.

 

[BKCuse]

I’m surprised at the negativity around Novosad here.

No one is being offered to be QB3 that’s not how it works. Our QBs will come and compete. Angeli is the presumed starter but beyond that nothing is promised.

After last year’s debacle I’ve lost confidence in Nixon’s ability to pick untested portal QB’s but hoping he refined his evaluation to screen out players who can’t efficiently run his O.

I would love to bring Novosad in and will feel lucky to get him.

 

[tep624]

I’m surprised at the negativity around Novosad here.

No one is being offered to be QB3 that’s not how it works. Our QBs will come and compete. Angeli is the presumed starter but beyond that nothing is promised.

After last year’s debacle I’ve lost confidence in Nixon’s ability to pick untested portal QB’s but hoping he refined his evaluation to screen out players who can’t efficiently run his O.

I would love to bring Novosad in and will feel lucky to get him.

Well I mean if you’ve lost confidence in Nixon’s ability with unproven portal QB’s ( your words) - why would you be surprised with skepticism around an unproven portal QB?

 

[BKCuse]

Well I mean if you’ve lost confidence in Nixon’s ability with unproven portal QB’s ( your words) - why would you be surprised with skepticism around an unproven portal QB?

Valid point. I don’t blame anyone for skepticism but we have a proven QB in Odom so we’re in a much better position than last year. Why not add a P4 kid you feel good about?

 

[CbusCuse]

We do have Angeli and Odom, which I’m very happy about, but here we go again talking ourselves into a QB that hasn’t sniffed the field for 3 years because he was a 4 star 5 years ago

Ha. Well it was 3 years ago and not 5. But similar to Rickie, Novosad slipped to 3rd on their depth chart. But I'd probably put the Oregon QB's as a group a small step above LSU's QB's at least generally. I will say that I like Novosad's highlights better than Rickies. Rickie's HS highlights never looked great to me and I was unsure his skills would translate well to what we knew Nixon's offense to be.

 

[Archbold44]

Ha. Well it was 3 years ago and not 5. But similar to Rickie, Novosad slipped to 3rd on their depth chart. But I'd probably put the Oregon QB's as a group a small step above LSU's QB's at least generally. I will say that I like Novosad's highlights better than Rickies. Rickie's HS highlights never looked great to me and I was unsure his skills would translate well to what we knew Nixon's offense to be.

This is the whole point. We just saw a debacle last year. Not just some bad games/bad results. A debacle. A "no longer" can trust you to evaluate QBs, develop QBs, use QBs, or even communicate with your QBs type of debacle. Anyone can decide to sign McCord and Angeli. What about every other QB the past 2 years?

So doing a "rinse repeat" on an Elite 11 with no game experience is not exactly what I wanted to see. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me...

Odom has not faced 11 P4 defenses in a season. I get taking a risk on him as QB#2... should be better than Collins. But in a world where Angeli could have a setback and be medically advised to sit out 2026 (or suffer a new injury)... we could be looking at being one injury of Odom away from a repeat of 2025. And that would not be a good career development for Fran.

 

[javadoc]

This is the whole point. We just saw a debacle last year. Not just some bad games/bad results. A debacle. A "no longer" can trust you to evaluate QBs, develop QBs, use QBs, or even communicate with your QBs type of debacle. Anyone can decide to sign McCord and Angeli. What about every other QB the past 2 years?

So doing a "rinse repeat" on an Elite 11 with no game experience is not exactly what I wanted to see. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me...

Odom has not faced 11 P4 defenses in a season. I get taking a risk on him as QB#2... should be better than Collins. But in a world where Angeli could have a setback and be medically advised to sit out 2026 (or suffer a new injury)... we could be looking at being one injury of Odom away from a repeat of 2025. And that would not be a good career development for Fran.

They've been trying, and Fran said he was going to take 2 portal QB's. Assuming that it's not working out with Dickens, who else do you propose we get as that second portal QB?

 

[CbusCuse]

This is the whole point. We just saw a debacle last year. Not just some bad games/bad results. A debacle. A "no longer" can trust you to evaluate QBs, develop QBs, use QBs, or even communicate with your QBs type of debacle. Anyone can decide to sign McCord and Angeli. What about every other QB the past 2 years?

So doing a "rinse repeat" on an Elite 11 with no game experience is not exactly what I wanted to see. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me...

Odom has not faced 11 P4 defenses in a season. I get taking a risk on him as QB#2... should be better than Collins. But in a world where Angeli could have a setback and be medically advised to sit out 2026 (or suffer a new injury)... we could be looking at being one injury of Odom away from a repeat of 2025. And that would not be a good career development for Fran.

I hear you. But that still requires Angeli having a setback and not being ready at all for 2025 and an injury to Odom or him being much worse than expected. After all of that happening, I'm pretty confident Novosad would be much less risky than going with Filardi as a walk on true freshman and quite a bit more successful.

 

[Archbold44]

They've been trying, and Fran said he was going to take 2 portal QB's. Assuming that it's not working out with Dickens, who else do you propose we get as that second portal QB?

If you or they want to put me on the payroll, I will see what I can do. I don't have the time/resources to review everyone. I mean, 99.7% of this board could not do better than Filardi... not much of a defense to say "Well, let's see you throw complete passes against UNC..."

Nebraska's QB signed with Oregon to be a backup.