The Utah Utes football team is reportedly adding a quarterback from the transfer portal who was in the SEC this season.
On Friday evening, Steve Doerschuk of the Canton Repository in Ohio reported that former Oklahoma Sooners signal caller Brendan Zurbrugg has committed to join the Utes .
Listed by Oklahoma at 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds, Zurbrugg was a freshman for the Sooners in 2024 but did not appear in any games.
A native of Alliance, Ohio, Zurbrugg had an interesting recruiting process in high school, and one that involves former interim Utah offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian and new offensive coordinator Jason Beck.
According to 247 Sports , Zurbrugg committed to Syracuse in June of 2023 when Beck was the OC there, but he flipped that commitment to Northwestern — where Bajakian was serving as OC — just about a week later.
About a month after that, Zurbrugg committed to Oklahoma.
Zurbrugg will be joining a Utes quarterback room that is being revamped this offseason. Most notably, former New Mexico signal caller Devon Dampier has transferred in, and the wide expectation is that he'll be the starter next fall.
Isaac Wilson , who started the majority of the 2024 season for Utah as a freshman after Cam Rising got hurt, entered the transfer portal but wound up removing his name from it and will return to the Utes.
In addition, Utah signed two signal callers from the high school ranks earlier this month — Jamarian "Byrd" Ficklin out of Texas and Wyatt Becker out of California .
"Basically, he wants to play," Doerschuk quoted Zurbrugg's father Chris, who played collegiately at Michigan , as saying. "It came down to acting instead of waiting around and maybe being in a position where he wasn't getting an opportunity."
Added Brendan Zurbrugg: "The biggest thing was getting an opportunity to play, and play soon."
