Bo Nix, Michael Penix and Jayden Daniels’s paths to the pros are emblematic of the modern college signal-caller.
produced by a company called Zebra. About the size of a nickel, the chip is gunmetal in color and has an etched likeness of the firm’s namesake animal on the front, along with a tag number.
Austin Reed is a draft hopeful quarterback from Western Kentucky whose status could be positively impacted by such technology. Reed is 24, having originally committed to Southern Illinois in 2018, then transferring to Division II West Florida one year later before joining the Hilltoppers in 2022. Like many collegiate quarterbacks, he has shuttled through the NCAA system with a handful of well-meaning coaches but was left to develop some of his technical quarterbacking skills privately.
Watching Reed and Williams throw one day on a field in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., the figurative distance between the two could not be greater. Williams stands to make more than $40 million. Reed—who’s no financial slouch, having struck an NIL deal at West Florida with a local fitness store called Running Wild—will likely have to compete for a roster spot in training camp.
Now ask yourself: If you’ve missed out on the supposed generational quarterback at the top of the draft, how much are you really missing out? Sure, Patrick Mahomes was the No. 10 pick in 2017, but his counterpart in Super Bowl LVIII was Purdy, the last pick in ’22.
This moment is a great example of how Penix’s six-year college career with multiple stops—at Indiana before Washington—led to a point where he could read defenses naturally, despite having little background in football schematics coming out of high school. In the past, a quarterback with Penix’s athleticism and arm talent may have been able to simply crowd surf his way to the NFL without learning the subtleties of the game, and then suffer for it.
That experience was a valuable precursor to his time at Washington, where he learned how to watch film and begin diagnosing plays like the one against Oregon. “I learned that the film just shows you the tendencies,” he says. “Things that defenses do to give you a better chance. It’s a head start, really.”
Nix turned 24 following the completion of his final year at Oregon, bookending a career that began at Auburn with a start against the Ducks’ Justin Herbert, who has four seasons of NFL experience. He talks about his quarterbacking path with perspective. But it’s hearing about Nix’s personal revelations that make his journey seem so valuable. Keep in mind that, during Nix’s final season at Oregon, he was almost six years older than the school’s incoming freshman class. Such age disparity produces plenty of, as Morris said, “come-to-Jesus moments where you question things.”
This process of connection would manifest itself in different ways. Nix, for example, almost exclusively listens to Christian worship music. He embraced the Ducks’ changing soundtrack because it produced a comfort in others. He learned the interpersonal skills it took to relate to a group of players at LSU who, he felt, were completely different from those at Arizona State—while also negotiating other drastic changes, like the weather and the intense fans and the inability to hop in a car and drive home to San Bernardino, Calif., when he needed comfort. “I was getting used to different people,” Daniels says. “The guys at LSU were intense. They had a lot of energy. They were raised differently.
Daniels was quick to recall the moment it all came together for him. The moment he knew the value of the path, of the tech, of the loneliness, of the studying, of the endless slog of Saturdays. Mississippi State. Second quarter. LSU is leading 10–0, and going for it on fourth-and-7.
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