Head coach Pat Fitzgerald has said several times that his program was looking at all potential sources to find players, including the transfer portal.

So it should come as no surprise that the Wildcats are involved with two targets at quarterback, the most unstable position on the roster.

Northwestern is a "major player" for graduate transfer quarterbacks Peyton Ramsey of Indiana and Jack Sears of USC, according to @RivalsTransferPortal. Sears reportedly visited Northwestern on Monday and Tuesday.

Both players would be eligible to play next fall for the Wildcats as graduate transfers.

Sears was a four-star quarterback prospect in the Class of 2017 who earned an offer from Northwestern out of San Clemente (Calif.) and visited Evanston once before, in the spring of 2016. Sears wound up committing to Duke before flipping to USC in November.

His Trojan career didn't go as expected, however. After redshirting his freshman year, he played in just one game in his career. With USC's top two quarterbacks injured, Sears started against Arizona State as a redshirt freshman in October of 2018. He completed 20 of 28 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns as the Trojans dropped a 38-35 decision.

Sears would have two years of eligibility remaining.

Northwestern fans are already very familiar with Ramsey. He completed 7 of 10 passes for 108 yards and a touchdown and ran for another score in Indiana's 34-3 rout of the Wildcats last Nov. 2. He came on in relief of starter Michael Penix Jr., who was injured in the game.

Ramsey completed 68% of his passes for 2,454 yards, with 13 touchdowns and five interceptions last season for the Hoosiers. He started every game as a redshirt sophomore in 2018 but lost the starting job to Penix, a redshirt freshman, last season. For his career, Ramsey threw for 6,581 yards in Bloomington, with 42 TDs and 23 interceptions.

Northwestern recruited Ramsey out of Cincinnati (Ohio) Elder in 2016 but never offered him. He has one year of eligibility remaining.

The Wildcats are scouring the transfer portal for quarterback help after a disastrous performance at the position in 2019. NU finished 127th in the nation in passing as the five QBs who took snaps during the season combined to complete just 50% of their passes for 1,404 yards, with six touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

With the passing game producing just 117.0 yards per game, the Wildcats stumbled to a 3-9 (1-8 Big Ten) season, the worst in Fitzgerald's 14 years in Evanston.

Those same five QBs -- in alphabetical order, TJ Green, Hunter Johnson, Andrew Marty, Aidan Smith and Jason Whittaker -- are all still on the roster. They were joined in January by Class of 2020 early enrollee Carl Richardson.

All are spitting reps this spring except for Green, who is still recovering from surgery on the foot he broke in the opener against Stanford last August. Green hopes to be back to 100% by next fall.