The sixth of ten questions we're asking that will determine Northwestern's season.
In all likelihood, Northwestern will start a transfer at quarterback in the season opener for the sixth straight year.
Head coach David Braun declined to name a starter at Big Ten Media Days, but the smart money — really, just about all the money — says that grad transfer Mike Wright will take the field with the first team on Aug. 31 against Miami (Ohio).
The question, though, is whether Wright, who spent three years at Vanderbilt and one at Mississippi State, can be “the man” for the Wildcats. Can he operate new offensive coordinator Zach Lujan’s offense efficiently and effectively? Can he get the ball into the hands of some of the Wildcats’ potent offensive weapons?
If he can, Northwestern could have its best offense in years. AJ Henning and Bryce Kirtz give the Wildcats more speed and playmaking ability than they’ve had in the wide receiver room in quite some time. Cam Porter and Joseph Himon also give them some thunder-and-lighting in the backfield.
But it all hinges on Wright, the 6-foot-4 signal caller with 38 career SEC games under his belt. (Whether Northwestern's retooled offensive line can protect him is another valid question, but that’s ground we’ve already covered.)
Skill-wise, Wright appears to be an excellent fit. Lujan likes dual-threat quarterbacks who present a running threat, and that’s Wright’s strongest suit.
In his career, the long, smooth strider has run for 1,248 yards and 10 touchdowns. In 2022, he was Vanderbilt’s second-leading rusher, accumulating 517 yards and five touchdowns on an impressive average of 7.3 yards per carry.
And the guy is flat-out fast: check out his 87-yard TD run for Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii in 2022. He makes a move to the sideline and then just sprints past the entire secondary to the end zone. Wright showed off his fleet feet last spring, when he ran the 200 meters for Mississippi State’s track team and recorded a personal best of 22.36 seconds, the seventh-best time on the team.
Wright has a lot of experience as a QB and, after four years of SEC football, he should be able to get the Wildcats in the right play and know where the ball is supposed to go. In his career, he has thrown for 2,520 yards, with 24 touchdowns against 14 interceptions.
He had his best season as a passer in 2022, when he collected 974 yards through the air, with 12 touchdowns and four interceptions, over 10 games, six of them starts. That season, he became the first Vandy starting quarterback in 40 years to beat Kentucky and Florida in the same season, and his win in Lexington snapped the Commodores’ 26-game SEC losing streak that went back more than three years.
*****
TEN QUESTIONS SERIES: 1. Can the defense be elite? | 2. What will Zach Lujan's offense look like? | 3. Who starts on the offensive line? | 4. Will Northwestern have a home field advantage? l 5. Will Northwestern be able to run the ball in 2024?
*****
At the same time, Wright’s resume doesn’t make him a slam dunk. He’s made just 14 starts in his career – 11 in Nashville and three more last season in Starkville – so he wasn’t able to nail down a starting job at either school. His career completion percentage is a rather pedestrian 55.6%. Last year, he had more rushes (71) than pass attempts (48), and threw as many touchdowns as interceptions (three).
Wright’s teams haven’t had a lot of success, either, going a combined 15-42 in his four years. He was there when Vanderbilt fired Derek Mason in 2021, and last year’s disappointing 5-7 record cost first-year head coach Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett his job before the end of the season.
The other variable in play: how the southern QB will react once temperatures drop and the wind starts whipping off Lake Michigan in October and November. Wright played his high school ball in Georgia, and his college ball in the SEC. The farthest north he’s played in college is Columbia, Mo. This won’t be a decisive factor in his performance this season, but it’s another adjustment he will have to make.
Northwestern fans know the Wildcats’ track record with transfer quarterbacks has been mixed, trending towards troublesome. The program’s two seasons of hits (Peyton Ramsey in 2020 and Ben Bryant last season) have been outnumbered by three seasons of misses (Hunter Johnson in 2019 and 2021, and Ryan Hilinski in 2022).
The good news is that Wright doesn’t have to put up Jayden Daniels-type numbers to be successful this season. When NU’s quarterbacks have been merely solid, the Wildcats have won games.
Ramsey and Bryant didn’t always light the stat sheet on fire, but Northwestern went 14-7 in two seasons with them at the helm and won two bowl games. When Johnson and Hilinski struggled, however, the Wildcats were abjectly awful, going 7-29 over those three seasons, as they were unable to shore up their quarterback room with recruited players on roster like Aidan Smith or Andrew Marty.
We know that Wright has the right attitude about playing quarterback at Northwestern. He knows that Henning and Kirtz combined for 94 catches, 1,119 yards and nine touchdowns last season. He knows that Porter has run for 1,237 and 11 touchdowns in his career. He knows that Lujan will tailor his offense to his strengths.
“I say this all the time: people overcomplicate the quarterback’s job,” he told WildcatReport back in May. “It’s about doing the right things and letting the talent do their jobs. My job is to get playmakers the ball where they need it – whether that’s with a handoff or a pass – and let them be special.”
If that happens on a consistent basis by Wright's hand, Northwestern’s season could be special, too.
