Indiana in the Hunt for a 4-Star Quarterback Transfer

Bruce Feldman, CBS's senior college football analyst, has reported on Twitter that 4-star Washington State transfer Tyler Bruggman has been sniffing around a very strange group of colleges. Indiana, Arkansas, Duke and Louisville are reported to be the top of the list of school courting Bruggman so far.

Indiana offered the pro-style quarterback out of Phoenix, AZ when he was a high schooler with the 2013 class. The 18th ranked pro-style quarterback instead opted to stay out west and signed with Washington State. Even that was a bit of an event for the Wazzu faithful. Bruggman was a part of a high profile last minute "tampering" attempt by Arizona State to flip him on National Signing Day. The Sun Devils lost their high profile QB recruit to a last minute flipped and turned to their own back yard to get Bruggman.

Bruggman, who was scheduled to sign his letter of intent first thing that morning, delayed his signing ceremony. For several hours of tense silence, Bruggman delayed until ultimately signing with Wazzu stating, "ultimately I'm a man of my word and that commitment meant something to me." However, after a year and a half of being on Washington State's campus, it appears that Bruggman is still on the outside looking in at the Washington State depth chart. So he's opted to test the waters elsewhere.

Several in the Washington State community get the feeling that Indiana is one of the more viable options for his landing spot, but I'm hesitant to agree. Bruggman obviously wants to be a starter and with Nate Sudfeld having 2 remaining years of eligibility, it would be likely that after Bruggman sits a year in 2014, he'd still be second fiddle in 2015. Which is the exact reason that he's opted to leave Washington State.

Still, he would be a huge boost to the depth chart for Indiana. Right now we have Sudfeld and then true freshman Zander Diamont as the second stringer. That's a recipe for a very upsetting season if something were to happen to Sudfeld. Not necessarily because Diamont doesn't have the talent, but he's going to need a year or two of seasoning in college before he's ready for conference play. Adding Bruggman with Tommy Stevens in 2015 would be great for Indiana. Of the 4 guys they can run out there, at least two will be physically capable of carrying a Big Ten workload.

Whatever ends up happening with Bruggman, it is encouraging to know that Indiana is a viable option in some high profile transfer markets. This is just another example of how far Kevin Wilson has brought this Indiana program. If this were 3 years ago and talent like Bruggman wouldn't even sniff Bloomington. Of course you'd like to land the guy to bolster a thin roster depth chart, but competing with other respected high major schools is still a big step from where we once came.