JUCO QB Nick Marshall commits to Auburn

It appears that the decision by the Texas Longhorns to offer Garden City CC quarterback Nick Marshall was in large part fueled by Case McCoy's uncertain future following his suspension and the investigation into allegations of sexual assault.

McCoy was reinstated to the team on Sunday evening, nearly simultaneous to Hookem.com reporting that Texas had backed away from Marshall ($), who committed to Auburn in a relatively surprising move on Monday morning, as Indiana had been considered the most significant challenger to Texas. Marshall, of course, started his college football career in the SEC at Georgia and played his high school football in Georgia as well.

An official visit from Marshall had been scheduled for January 18th.

The Longhorns enter the spring with five scholarship quarterbacks on the roster for the first time since 2002, so it never made much sense to take Marshall if there wasn't going to be any other attrition. With McCoy and all the other quarterbacks coming back, it seems that the Texas coaches ended up agreeing on that point.

JUCO QB Nick Marshall offered by Texas

In the midst of preparations for the Alamo Bowl, some interesting news broke on the JUCO front.

Jake Waters ready to commit, won't visit Texas

If the Texas Longhorns end up taking a junior college quarterback in the 2013 class, it won't be Iowa Western CC's Jake Waters, who is set to make a decision on Thursday after hosting the head coaches from his two finalists, Penn State and Kansas State.

Waters told ESPN that the situations in Manhattan and Happy Valley "are probably the best for me ($)." And that isn't necessarily a knock on the state of the Texas program either, more a recognition that the two other schools both have senior quarterbacks who will be moving on after this season, while Texas is crowded at the position and has a sort-of incumbent in David Ash.

The two other quarterbacks left on the radar are Arizona Western's Tanner McEvoy and Garden City CC's Nick Marshall. There has been little buzz about either receiving an offer in the last several days, so the talk in general about taking a JUCO quarterback seems to be dying down at this time.

Iowa Western CC QB Jake Waters onto the radar

As the Texas Longhorns scour the junior college ranks while determining whether or not to take another quarterback, the search has led to Iowa Western CC and Jake Waters, according to multiple reports. Waters is a 6-2, 215-pounder who has the best numbers of the group.

Considered the top pro-style passer in the country from a junior college this season, Waters threw for more than 3,500 yards by completing a ridiculous 73% of his passes, resulting in 39 touchdowns and only three interceptions, a .9% interception rate. that would rank among the elite of the elite in the FBS.

Waters is a unique story in that he's not a transfer from a bigger program or a guy who was unable to qualify out of high school. In fact, not a single FBS or FCS school offered him a scholarship ($) out of high school, only Iowa Western. Playing in the smallest classification of Iowa high school football probably didn't help.

Now, he's got options. He's interested in Texas and is considering taking a visit some time after his scheduled trip to Kansas State this weekend. Visits to North Carolina State and Penn State have already gone down.

It will all need to happen fast for Texas, though, as Waters plans on signing on December 19th, which is signing day for junior college players.

Nick Marshall another JUCO QB under consideration by Texas

The search for a junior college quarterback took a member of the Texas staff to Mississippi last weekend.

Tanner McEvoy talks visit from Bryan Harsin

Texas Longhorns co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin made his way out to Arizona on Monday to visit with Arizona Western CC quarterback Tanner McEvoy, the former South Carolina quarterback whose stock is rising after winning conference player of the year honors.

McEvoy shared his thoughts on the visit ($) with Orangebloods:

It was good. We were basically just getting to know each other. He didn't officially say I have a scholarship offer but he kind of talked like I did. We talked about things like trying to see if I can get there, graduate by December and enroll, get there in January, things like that.

So no scholarship offer for Texas, as the staff will apparently do a little bit more due diligence on McEvoy and perhaps even a little more assessing of the quarterback situation before deciding whether to go ahead with it.

Even after an offer, there are some things the 'Horns want McEvoy to do before making a decision:

He said I need to go visit before I decide, he wants to meet my parents and things like that. They want to go over some things like the academic side of things.

Since McEvoy went the JUCO route as a result of a college transfer, there should be fewer concerns about his grades than a high school non-qualifier.

So the 6-5, 215-pounder spoke about how the visit went, but what did he think about Harsin?

I was impressed. He's a great coach. When he was at Boise, he was really successful. He's still a young guy, very energetic, which is the kind of guy I'd like to play for. He was very truthful about their quarterback position and the competition. I'm all for that.

There was some speculation from Hookem.com that McEvoy would commit on the spot if offered. The New Jersey product denied that would be the case.

McEvoy may not be the only JUCO quarterback Texas is evaluating, either:

McEvoy not the only Juco QB looking at... more on Hookem.com #hookem #longhorns

— Bobby Burton (@BobbyBurton247) December 4, 2012

The only other two four-star quarterback prospects in the junior college ranks are Iowa Western CC's Jake Waters, who is set to visit Kansas State next weekend, and Tyler Ferguson, who plays for College of the Sequoias. Both are considered pro-style prospects.

Another name out there is former Sulphur Springs star Tyrik Rollison, who has taken a winding journey from Auburn to Sam Houston State to Tyler Junior College, where he has had a monster sophomore season. However, it's hard to see Texas taking a risk on a player who has made so many moves since graduating in the 2009 class.

In any case, stay tuned.

Texas evaluating JUCO QB Tanner McEvoy

News broke Monday morning that the Longhorns may be moving quickly on a junior college quarterback.