Sept. 8, 2012; Tucson, AZ, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys quarterback Wes Lunt (11) looks on during the first half against the Arizona Wildcats at Arizona Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Last week quarterback Wes Lunt, a rising sophomore, announced his intentions to transfer from Oklahoma State.
Lunt began the 2012 season starting for the Cowboys as a true freshmen. Lunt started the season well, but ended up battling through some injuries and started only five games. He ended up throwing for 1,108 yards, six touchdowns and seven interceptions during his freshmen season, including a 436 yard performance in the second game of his career.
The Rochester, IL native was rated as a four-star recruit (247Sports) coming out of high school. He was recruited by Cincinnati, Louisville, Michigan State and Wisconsin among other schools.
Lunt, who stands 6’4″ (or 6’5″, depending on your site of choice) and weighs 215 lbs, is apparently transferring because of his displeasure with the quarterback position at Oklahoma State. At the conclusion of spring practice there was no definitive answer as to who the starting quarterback would be in 2013.
It also doesn’t help that Todd Monken, the offensive coordinator that recruited Lunt at Oklahoma State, left this off-season to accept the head coaching position at Southern Miss. (Side note: Larry Fedora, the current head coach at North Carolina, was also an OC at Oklahoma State and then left to take the head coaching position at Southern Miss. That’s your ironic factoid for the day, but I digress.)
According to ESPN’s Joe Schad the young quarterback is considering five schools: Illinois, Louisville, Southern Miss, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.
Lunt’s connection to Southern Miss is obviously because of Monken. Illinois, Louisville and Vanderbilt all offered originally. Lunt’s connection to Tennessee lies in the fact that Butch Jones recruited him while Jones was the coach at Cincinnati, which brings us to the big question — Should the Vols go after Wes Lunt?
At first glance Lunt appears to be a walking contradiction of what fans expect from Butch Jones. Lunt is a pure pro-style, dropback quarterback, that runs a 4.90 in the 40. He’s not what fans are probably thinking of when they think “Butch Jones quarterback”, which is one of the many misconceptions about Jones’ offense, but that’s another story for another day.
The fact remains that Jones did once go after Lunt.
Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that Jones and the Vols will go after Lunt now, we have no idea if they’ve extended any sort of offer to him at all.
Anytime you’ve got a shot at a player with Lunt’s talent though, you have to be ready to at least discuss your options. If Lunt were to give the Vols the best chance to win in the future, then you’d have to make a move to get him.
As it is right now the Vol’s quarterback situation is not any better then it is at Oklahoma State. It’ll probably be August before we know who’s starting for the Vols against Austin Peay, let alone who will be starting in 2014 (when Lunt will be eligible to play).
Chances are Lunt is going to look at Tennessee’s quarterback situation and realize he wouldn’t be any better off then he was before.
If Lunt chooses to go elsewhere, or if the Vols don’t pursue him, then I wouldn’t be too concerned if I’m a Tennessee supporter. The Vols have plenty of good options at quarterback in 2013. Barring a transfer they’ll have all those options back in 2014 as well, with an added year of experience. That’s not to mention there’s some quality quarterbacks in the 2014 class that are considering the Vols (David Cornwell anyone).
If I’m the Vols I say thanks, but no thanks, and stick with what you have. Butch Jones has enough decisions to make as it is, without throwing additional wrinkles into the fold.
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