You remember how Justin Fuente decided to go with Braxton Burmeister over Hendon Hooker as his QB at Virginia Tech late in the 2020 season.
This, of course, is why Fuente is the former football coach at Virginia Tech.
Anyway, Burmeister ended up transferring out, landing at San Diego State, where folks were excited, because he’d been a record-setting high school QB out that way.
The honeymoon is over. It was announced this week that Burmeister was being moved from QB to wideout after head coach Brady Hoke, yep, the guy who flailed at Michigan, decided to go with Jalen Mayden, who passed for 322 yards in a 16-14 Aztecs’ win last week.
Mayden had started the season at safety, if that tells you anything about how bad things had been going on offense for Hoke and SDSU this season.
Burmeister had completed just 50 percent of his pass attempts and had a 81.5 pass-efficiency rating this season.
In parts of two seasons as the starter at Tech, Burmeister completed 55.9 percent of his pass attempts, had 16 TDs, five INTs and a respectable 133.9 passer rating.
Hooker transferred out of Blacksburg after the 2020 season, and ended up, famously, at Tennessee, where under coach Josh Heupel he put up video-game numbers in 2021, passing for 31 TDs, three INTs, 2,945 yards, a 68.0 percent completion rate and a 181.4 rating, and has improved upon that in 2022, completing 70.0 percent of his passes, throwing for 1,817 yards, 15 TDs and one INT, and a 187.7 rating.
Hooker is a top candidate for the Heisman Trophy. Burmeister is hoping to salvage what’s left of his time in college football playing in the slot.
Fuente shouldn’t be expecting any phone calls about open jobs anytime soon.
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Chris Graham
