This narrative might pop up again in the future so putting it out there in one post from how i recall. The search function is really Heaven Sent. The one thing i do find kinda odd is it don’t remember this many cis posters hating on Beck, but the evidence is the evidence. Would be funny to bump but nah lol.
Before reading below,
the key thing is to remember that baby Mendoza didn’t get a lot of college offers despite being better than his older brother at Columbus. He committed to JMU, and flipped to IU when Cig & crew got the job. The family obviously had a ton of trust in that staff and if you’re not going to get to compete for a starting spot, better to have your brother do it than anybody else.
We were probably the one school who could’ve made a run at it if we tried, but we didn’t try lol. We went all-in on Mateer, Milroe, Ewers, and Beck. Other than that, i fully expect by the time he sat out the SMU game, he knew he was going to transfer, and IU was his top choice. No way tampering and other discussions weren’t going on beforehand. UGA would’ve been super risky.
He said he almost committed to UGA but not sure how much Smart prioritized him either. Beck hadn’t even declared at that point.
….Oregon rose rapidly in his recruitment following a visit to the Ducks in October as Sagapolutele came away impressed with his time spent with the program's coaching staff and quarterback
Dillon Gabriel, a fellow Hawaiian who Sagapolutele worked with at the Elite 11 camp in June.
It wasn’t guaranteed that Mendoza was going to transfer. . . Although there were rumors and speculation given the ties as soon as we played them.
An important aspect of the saga is the blue-chip qb JWS; who flipped from Cal to Oregon a week before Mendoza entered the portal. Lot of rumors speculating around but the gist of it is that Mendoza communicated with JKS right before he flipped; differences in the rumor mill on how explicit or discouraging the communication was from Mendoza’s side. JWS enrolled at Cal after a month at Oregon and after Mendoza was already at IU. The end of the Wilcox era was dysfunctional to say the least.
Apparently Mendoza was still upset that Wilcox brought in a transfer qb after Mendoza had been the starter for eight games in ‘23 and whatever promises or pitches were given to the transfer QB who Mendoza beat out. Important to note that he didn’t play in the final game for Cal against SMU yet many people felt he wasn’t actually sick. Also some talk that Mendoza gave his input on the hiring of the new OC then still dipped to the portal two days after the OC was hired. Committed to IU on December 23rd.
The reason he didn’t come to Miami had very little to do with the previous staff or holding any grudges from what i can remember. Mendoza talked about never throwing the upside down U etc right before the Cal game and how much respect he had for Miami still and so forth. Mario and Mirabal obviously have a longstanding relationship with the family but i don’t think we ever in the potential plans come December. We offered but didn’t pursue him that hard because we were waiting on Beck, who was injured December 7th, prior to Mendoza even announcing he was transferring,
Beck declared for the NFL draft on December 28th, five days after his surgery and five days before UGA played ND in the playoffs. Entered the portal January 9th.
Here is D$ talking about Beck on December 20th before Mendoza committed to IU. He obviously had a personal tie to the school already, and Dawson mentioned he talked to Monken a lot prior to Beck transferring.
Beck is being graded on a harsh curve based on his preseason projection (#1 overall) and our QB this year (the best in America).
The guy would be a very good and experienced ACC quarterback, assuming his elbow bounces back like Brock Purdy.
Two posts in a row mentioning Beck from D$
We were also briefly linked to Quinn Ewers however he kept his name in the draft. Look at the names D$ mentioned, we were clearly thinking above and beyond & passed on him as the option for our QB. We were looking for a one and done to the NFL guy; which Mendoza was not projected to be at this point. Mateer was another option we were heavily invested in. Don’t think it had anything to do with Miami being distracted by bowl prep; we just had many other priorities for a signal caller.
Is there a good QB in the country?
In the past week, I’ve heard Beck sucks, Ewers sucks, Milroe sucks, Nuss sucks. These are draft prospects and household names. They have faults but they are way better than what the average P4 team is throwing out there.
Well, Coach Smart is clueless or has minimal relationship with Beck and family. Kirby was asked about Beck at his press conference today and said he remained with his family in Jacksonville deliberating on the next step. Meanwhile, Beck was in LA having surgery on his elbow performed by one of the leading sports surgeons.
