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Former Alabama QB Blake Barnett Taking Oregon Official Visit
Former Alabama quarterback Blake Barnett will take an official visit to Oregon for the Ducks' home game against Stanford. Barnett is a former 5-star prospect who left the Crimson Tide at the end of September.
November 1, 2016
Former Alabama quarterback Blake Barnett will take an official visit to Oregon for the Ducks’ home game against Stanford.
Blake Barnett is set to take a closer look at the Pacific Northwest.
The former Alabama quarterback will take an official visit to Oregon next weekend for the Ducks’ home game versus Stanford on Nov. 12, according to 247Sports.
Nick Saban confirmed Barnett had left the Crimson Tide on Sept 29, and the Corona, California native has since transferred to Palomar Junior College in San Marcos, California.
Other programs outside of Oregon have also reached out to Barnett. That list includes Arizona State, Cal, Michigan State and Washington State. Barnett took an unofficial visit to see the Sun Devils two weekends ago for their 37-32 loss to Mike Leach’s Cougars.
Barnett will likely take the rest of his four remaining official visits, though we do not currently know which other programs he’ll visit.
A former 5-star prospect, Barnett was ranked as the No. 2 quarterback and No. 30 overall player in the 2015 recruiting class. He had been committed to Notre Dame before flipping to Alabama in the summer of 2014, and had taken an unofficial visit to Eugene two days before he backed off that pledge to the Fighting Irish.
If Barnett winds up transferring to Oregon, it would be a move in line with the program’s recent history. Oregon accepted transfer requests from Vernon Adams and Dakota Prukop when they left Eastern Washington and Montana State, respectively, over the past two years.
The biggest hurdle in Eugene is that there may not be a clear-cut opportunity for Barnett to start for the Ducks. True freshman quarterback Justin Herbert has really come on strong since he took over the starting last month. In his first three starts, Herbert has completed 64 percent of his passes for 926 yards and 12 touchdowns (and only two interceptions).
It can be argued that Barnett would be walking into a situation similar to the one he fled in Tuscaloosa. If he does end up in Eugene, he’ll have some steep competition for the starting job.
Note: Scout rankings and ratings used in this article.
