Peter Costelli in the transfer portal

[UteFanatic]

It’s a given these transfers are going to happen, but it’s still a gut punch.

[BD]

Best of luck to him. He’s a seriously talented QB, and should do well, wherever he goes. Utah has an embarrassment of riches at QB, so it’s not too surprising that one would transfer.

[Larry B]

I’m not sure I’d say we have an embarrassment of riches. Cam is very good and will start the next two years. Who do we have behind him? Jackson is our #2 and while he’s extremely athletic, we have yet to see him throw a pass. There’s some promising talent coming in but who knows how they’ll do as a college QB.

[2008 National Champ]

It’s hard to keep a kid, especially a QB, when you bring in two more in the next class. 4 kids as Freshman/RS Freshman in 2022 behind an established starter is poor roster management. Someone was always either going to leave or change positions.

Gotta think that this is more of an indication of Rising being back next season than anything else. He’s solidified his hold on the position. Costelli may have stayed if it was between him and Jackson for QB1 next year.

[UTEopia]

I think Cam is back next year, but if he continues then what he has done this year, I doubt he uses his final year of eligibility.

[2008 National Champ]

I agree that Rising will probably be back, but it would behoove him to get graded before deciding. This is not a good year for QB’s in the draft so he may slot higher based on availability than he would by coming back for another season.

Rattler, Corral, Malik (can’t remember his last name) at Liberty were all the big names at the start of the season and none has really stood out this year. Daniels (ASU) and Daniels (Georgia) have also underperformed or were injured. Ridder at Cincinatti probably doesn’t grade that high.

I’m not a draftnik by any means but if Rising gets a 3rd round grade, he should go. With his measurables, I don’t think another year would help. The biggest thing for him was to show he was healthy and still had the arm strength.

[younglurch]

Dang, seemed like a good guy who had plenty of potential. Best of luck to him wherever he ends up. Makes sense he is choosing to explore his options now that Rising is entrenched for the time being as the starter, and we’ll have a packed QB room next year with Rising, Jackson, Johnson, and Rose.

I almost never enjoy seeing a player transer, but this is a good problem to have. Too much talent. 

Good luck Pete! 

[UteFanatic]

This is a new era of college football. If a player can’t find playing time immediately, they are gone. Sucks, but I get it.

Costelli was a stud but Rising is our QB1 and Costelli doesn’t want to wait.

[MDUte]

Agreed, always sucks to see talent leave. But if I had to choose between losing Costelli or Nate Johnson I’d rather lose Costelli. It sounds like Johnson has a much higher ceiling.

What an amazing day it is to be a Ute!! Talent all over the place, great momentum, and the future just gets brighter and brighter. Go Utes!

[Trailgoat]

Good problem to have. Jackson, Johnson and the Rose kid fit the mold of Utah’s offense as well. Best of luck to Costelli.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

I’d easily choose Costelli over Johnson.  I’d even pick him over JQJ.  I think that the only QB on our rosters since joining the Pac-12 that has a higher ceiling than Peter Costelli, would be Cameron Rising himself.  And if Rising were just one year older, Costelli would have likely stayed.  But as Rising is Sophomore, and Costelli a R/S Freshman, I get why he’s looking elsewhere.

[#3bballer]

Just wondering what you saw in Costeli that makes you say this. During the spring game I remember he didn’t show anything spectacular, neither Jackson did Jackson for that matter as well. I’m disappointed he left, I feel like a curmudgeon for saying so, but it seems the days of putting in the work and earning your spot have left us.

[2008 National Champ]

All we have to go off of is the tapes and measurables. Costelli looks like he can make every throw and runs a 4.4 which would make him an ideal fit for Ludwig’s offense. The negative is that he didn’t get to play his senior season.

Johnson is also an unfinished product at this point. Without watching them every day in practice, I don’t know how anyone can say that the kid who is not committed signed yet would be better than the kid who has spent a year in the program but it’s moot at this point.

[ProudUte]

Something had to give.  You can’t have five 4-star QBs in the QB room next year.  He has great speed, so I wish they could have gotten him to change positions.

I guess what frustrates me most is that for the second time in recent history we backed off a top local QB because of a recruit that left before his first season was complete.  

I know I might get a thumbs-down for this, but Jaxon Dart was a big loss IMO.  He was the national Gatorade player of the year last season and a legacy kid.  We backed off because of Costelli.  I find this bothersome.  Dart was ours for the taking …

Oh well – life goes on and he wasn’t going to start next season in any event.

[Utesbyfive]

Broken record… Jaxon Dart was NEVER coming here.

[Central Coast Ute]

That’s not neccesarily true. Ron McBride said he spoke with Jaxson’s father and the Utes told him that they made a commitment to Costelli and they intend to honor. They would offer Dart, but they wouldn’t feature him in the class. His dad said well we’ll go somewhere else then and the rest is history.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Central Coast Ute:  If there was the reason why we didn’t offer Dart, why did we bring in JQJ?

[Central Coast Ute]

I didn’t say we didn’t offer Dart. I simply repeated what Ron McBride said.

[ProudUte]

Dart would have come.  

[Crazyforu]

You think Dart would have happily waiting in the wings for 2-3 years? This is actually a good thing, in terms of Utah has a REALLY good starter for at least another year. If I am sitting behind in, my clock is ticking, in terms of seeing the field, I am going to look at other spots.

[Ute2]

I’ve heard very knowledgeable people say that if Darr would’ve come, we’d have offered and taken him. But the writing was on the wall. Props to him for being upfront instead of stringing us along though and thereby jeopardizing our recruiting of costelli. Sad to hear bout him. I was excited. I guess that longhorn pipeline is a thing though! Of and Nate Johnson Brandon rose.

[Ute Dub]

This is mostly a bull s**t comment, no oh-fence, because Dart could be leaving had he come here too!

[Crazyforu]

Exactly!

[Ute Dub]

I’m sure Jackson with his tiger eye black loves playing for 4-6 USC. Seriously, though, can you imagine being at USC and losing 4 of 6 home games? Sounds unheard of.

[SkinyUte]

This isn’t intended to disparage the kid, but it seems telling that we hadn’t heard his name at all this year. Not even in a “Costelli did a great job as the practice squad QB” context. That seemed kinda odd for a such a highly rated QB, especially when the coaches are pretty good about calling it out when player’s efforts go above and beyond.

I wish him the best wherever he ends up, but between what we have now and what’s coming in I think we’ll be OK.

[Ghost of the HEB]

Costelli got beat out by walk-on Bryson Barnes for the third string QB spot. That should tell you something.

[Rick]

Ghost,

That isn’t true. Costelli was basically 2b to Jackson’s 2a on the team but redshirting. If Rising had gone down the first half of the season we’d have seen a few weeks competition beetween Jackson aand Costelli for the job.

Costelli is leaving because Rising is entrenched – and rightfully so. He sees at least one year, and perhaps two, where he’ll most likely be on the bench with no guarantees given who’s coming in. I can’t blame him but it’s still a loss.

Perhaps the board is forgetting that he’s a four star pro style quarterback whose 40 time is terrific. He’s a carbon copy of Rising with a little more size and perhaps a stronger arm. I think he’d have earned the backup position this off season.

On a related note, I hope Jackson or Johnson will be ready to go in 2023. I don’t believe Rising stays beyond next season. Some say he isn’t NFL material. I think he is and will be ready to take that step following the 2022 season.

[Central Coast Ute]

Where did you get that Costelli is 2b? The depth chart has Jackson at 2 and Barnes at 3.

[SteelUte]

I just hate the timing of these. I don’t get it. Your team is possibly going to the rose bowl and your gonna bounce right now? Stick it out for a month and then get out there. I just don’t think jumping into the portal today is gonna help him any more than in January.

[rbmw263]

it is possible doing it sooner than later opens up more options which in turn is better for him.

in turn, costelli going to the portal at this point doesnt affect the team whatsoever. Hes not a contributor at this point in his early career, so the timing is a non factor.

[Tednab]

Cream always Rises to the top ; no pun intended. I see this as a good thing ; it’s good to have this type of competition.

[2008 National Champ]

Early signing day matters. He obviously wants his name out there so that he can be in contact with other schools who may not have been able to get their top choices committed yet.

[Charlie]

I do think the December signing day is an issue, I wish it was latter in the month. It was needed to allow recruits to start school in January but I wish it was some time period after the regular season ends. The small advantage for us is if he is going it is useful to know as the recruiting gets very serious. There may be more.

I expect that many QBs wonder if it is better to be part of a great room with competition that makes you wait to start, or is it better to dominate a much weaker room with less wait time. I would think Rising is a good example of rewards for waiting.

Other factors also come into play. This holiday we can be very thankful that some set of circumstances pushed Rising to Utah so as unsettling as it may be we have benefited greatly.