To Boise State’s chagrin, their starting QB, Hank Bachmeier, did not dress for last Saturday’s game at Air Force. Bachmeier was coming off a solid 20 for 28 performance in their opener against Utah State. His stand-in: graduate transfer Jack Sears.
Sears proved nothing short of fantastic. His line was 17/20/280 with a rushing TD, to boot. Given his prep bonafides as a 4-star recruit, his excellence was not surprising. However, the uniform Sears was wearing provides quite a story.
Yet another San Clemente prep phenom (this charming Southern California beach town was also the stomping grounds for Sam Darnold) was highly recruited. Sears initially committed to Duke before flipping to USC. When uber-recruit JT Daniels was injured in 2018, Sears’ one start as a Trojan was quite promising as he completed 20 of 28 passes in a 38-35 loss to Arizona State.
Much intrigue in USC’s 2019 opener. Daniels gets injured in the first half of the Fresno State game. Being in attendance, we expected to see Sears. Instead, many were quite surprised when an unheralded 3-star recruit, Freshman Kedon Slovis, took the field in place of Daniels. Where was Sears? Was he also hurt? In the game’s aftermath, Clay Helton’s comments indicated not. Days later, Sears entered the transfer portal.
What to think? The Odyssey started to hear that Sears had been relegated to 4th string in pre-season practices. If so, why? How could this be after his ASU performance?? In the wake of Sears entering the transfer portal, Helton indicated that Sears was welcome to remain a Trojan. When Slovis later got hurt in 2019’s 4th game (thankfully, not anywhere as seriously as the season-ending Daniels injury), 3rd-string QB, Matt Fink, got the start.
Any thoughts that Sears might reconsider and stick it out with USC in 2020 were further doused as Slovis turned in one of the best Freshman years for a QB — ever. In mid-December, Sears committed to San Diego State for the 2020 season by signing a grant-in-aid. However, that commitment never reached fruition as the alleged reason for Sears’ reconsideration was a coaching change on Montezuma Mesa. Such reconsideration would be more understandable if the departing coach, Rocky Long, ran a different offense than his successor, Brady Hoke. Plus, whatever you think of Hoke as head coach, he is one of college football’s genuine nice guys. The Aztecs’ 2019 starting QB had graduated, which seemingly left the door wide open for Sears to start at a quality program that was projected to have a dominant defense in 2020. In late January, Sears decommitted from SDSU as the Odyssey deeply furrowed its brow in surprise.
Sears’ next move was complicated by the pandemic as his travels to other possible destinations became curtailed. Undoubtedly, Sears was influenced by the presence of two of his high school teammates on the Boise roster. After all of Sears’ high-profile drama, his ending looked to be a low-key dud: A back up QB at Boise State as a grad transfer. Unlike the Aztecs, Boise had a firmly entrenched starter in Hank Bachmeier. Bachmeier’s late scratch against Air Force was likely Covid-related, not 100% clear since the school’s policy is not to comment on the reason for not dressing.
Given Sears’ excellent track record when given a shot, the Broncos will have a very interesting decision as to their QB for this Friday’s season-defining showdown with a powerful BYU team. Ironically, one of this weekend’s other showdowns is the Florida-Georgia game. Who has been languishing on the Bulldog bench despite many cries for his appearance?: None other than JT Daniels.
Given the Hollywood-like saga of Sears’ career, wouldn’t it be fitting if San Clemente’s rolling stone played in the Mountain West title game against one of the schools he has spurned in San Diego State! The Aztecs have rushed to a terrific start that reminds one of a famous Hemingway novel, “For Whom The Bell Tolls.” The Aztecs’ powerful rushing game is due in no small part to running backs Chance Bell and Greg Bell.
Since we are talking Hollywood, what if Sears plays well enough for Boise State to secure the Group of 5, New Year’s Six berth? While we are fantasizing, let’s go all the way and hope that their opponent will be Georgia with JT Daniels at the helm!