Louisville football: QB of the future elects to transfer

Former three star recruit, Jordan Travis, announced his intent to transfer from the Louisville football program.

It’s not been a good day for the Louisville football program. This morning three star offensive lineman and one of the highest ranked players in the class of 2019, Jamari Williams, announced his decision to decommit from the program.

Now this afternoon, backup QB and the player many thought of as the future of Louisville, announced he would be transferring from the program, according to the Courier Journal’s Jake Lourim.

Jordan Travis committed to the Louisville Cardinals back in June of 2017, picking the program over the likes of Central Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina. After a huge senior season, in which he won the Lou Groza Player of the Year award, given to the best player in Palm Beach County, Florida each year (the same award Lamar Jackson received his senior season of high school), more schools came calling and the hype began to build.

After a great performance through camp, even being called the QB with the “strongest arm” by Bobby Petrino, many expected Travis to see playing time this season. However, no one thought he’d be an option to start games or play meaningful snaps as the program had a strong starter in Puma Pass and a capable backup in Malik Cunningham.

Jordan Travis hit the field for the first time late in the fourth quarter against Indiana State, with Louisville already up 38-7, going 0-1. His next game appearance came in the late fourth quarter against Georgia Tech, in what was already a blowout for the Yellow Jackets. This is when we first got to see the talent that we all heard about in Travis.

Though the game was clearly out of hand, Travis showed the ability to make big throws as well as make plays with his legs as needed. He finished that game 4/9 for 71 yards a touchdown and an interception that was returned for a pick six, but also rushed five times for 48 yards, finishing the game as the team’s leading rusher.

Travis saw the field for the third and final time against Boston College, once again late in the fourth quarter. This time being called upon to relieve Puma Pass in a game that was still winnable. I wrote about the decision in the Boston College post-game recap:

"Late in the fourth quarter being down 31-20 with just six minutes to go and the game by no means out of reach, Bobby Petrino made one of his most controversial calls of the season (a head scratching one at that) pulling Puma Pass for the third time this season, this time in favor of freshman Jordan Travis.On his first drive Travis threw the ball three straight times all for incompletions which led to a Louisville punt and gave BC the chance to run the ball and put the game away for good. That’s exactly what they did, scoring another rushing touchdown – this time it was Jeff Smith – and the Golden Eagles extended the score to 38-20."

Much like with the decommitment of Jamari Williams in the class of 2019, a player like Travis transferring should come as no surprise. The freshman QB had a bright future at QB, but with Puma Pass and Malik Cunningham both returning next season (as of now) along with four star QB, Jaden Johnson, coming into the program with as much hype as guys like Teddy Bridgewater and Lamar Jackson, there would have been a lot of competition for Travis.

Travis finished his career with a total of 71 passing yards 1 touchdown and 1 interception, and 40 yards rushing. Look for schools like Florida, Miami, Central Florida and South Florida to heavily pursue the former Benjamin School (Palm Gardens, FL) product.

Best of luck Jordan.