The College Football Playoff National Championship is less than a week away. While the college football world awaits for that momentous matchup featuring two future Big Ten conference opponents in the Michigan Wolverines and the Washington Huskies, the transfer portal continues to pop and make headlines.
Over 3,000 players have entered the transfer portal and more continue to submit their names in the portal in search of greener pastures. Another notable name just entered the portal recently: Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter.
Salter's path in college football has been an adventurous one. He began his collegiate career at the University of Tennessee, but was dismissed from the program. He eventually wound up at Liberty, where he had to wait for his turn behind Malik Willis.
After Willis left for the NFL, Liberty rotated quarterbacks in 2022, meaning 2023 was the first season Salter had the starting job to himself. He excelled in that situation, as he threw for 2,876 yards and 32 touchdowns to just six interceptions while running for 1,089 yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground.
The quarterback is a very dynamic player who could help out a number of programs. Two teams in particular stand out as great landing spots for Kaidon Salter.
Auburn Tigers
Auburn could have the inside track to landing Salter. How? Through their head coach. Before Hugh Freeze took the Auburm job, he spent four seasons as the head coach at Liberty. Two of those seasons coincided with Salter's arrival on campus as well. So there isn't a Power Five coach with more familiarity with Salter's game than Freeze.
But outside of that, the Tigers really could simply use an upgrade at quarterback. Their quarterback play this season simply was not up to par with their competition in the SEC. Four Auburn quarterbacks combined to complete 59.4% of their passes in 2023 while averaging 6.67 yards per attempt.
For comparison's sake, Salter averaged 9.9 yards per attempt in 2023 and completed 61% of his passes. Yes, the competition in the C-USA is not SEC caliber, but that's still a huge upgrade in efficiency compared to what Auburn quarterbacks did this past season.
It's hard for Auburn to compete in the loaded SEC with yearly rivalry games against both the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs. But the best way to get started in competing with those teams is to find a dynamic quarterback. Salter fits that bill. If Freeze can leverage his Liberty ties to land Salter, that would be a tremendous get for the Auburn program.
Miami Hurricanes
Outside of Auburn, the power five program that might need a quarterback the most is the Miami Hurricanes. Their starter, Tyler Van Dyke, already announced his intention to transfer to the University of Wisconsin. Behind him are Emory Williams and Jacurri Brown, who combined to average 6.38 yards per attempt in 2023. Those two also have only 147 career pass attempts between them. They just don't have a ton of experience, let alone success, to rely upon.
That doesn't mean that neither Williams nor Brown will end up being great players at Miami or elsewhere, but if the Hurricanes want to win as many games as soon as possible, it isn't difficult to come to the conclusion that Kaidon Salter would give them their best chance to do so.
Miami has been in the running for other transfer portal quarterbacks like Cameron Ward and KJ Jefferson, but were unable to land either of them. They now have another chance to bring in another dynamic quarterback. They should do everything they can to bring Salter in.
Follow Us
Subscribe