Alabama, Clemson, Iowa, Kansas State, Miami (Ohio) and Nebraska are just six of the 30 programs that tried to recruit Blaine Gabbert at the quarterback position.
As a tall and sturdy, 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound freshman, Gabbert and his high school performance are nothing less than extraordinary.
His All-American status and five-star recruit ranking earned him a spot on the MU roster, but playing time is hard to come by on this team.
"He's the most physically gifted quarterback to come out of high school that I've seen in six years, as far as size, speed, arm strength and release,"
said David Yost, MU's quarterback coach and recruitment coordinator. "If you were to build a quarterback, you would build a guy like Blaine Gabbert."
This season, with the publicity of his high school football days gone, Gabbert must wait his turn behind senior quarterbacks Chase Daniel and Chase Patton. But the freshman standout said his transition to the world of Big 12 football has been far from shocking.
"You're never just going to walk in and be the main quarterback,"
Gabbert said. "I just have to learn as much as I can in the position from the two guys ahead of me. They're unbelievable quarterbacks, and I just learn from them every day."
He said his passage from high school to college, both on and off the field, has been smooth.
As a business major, Gabbert is taking general education courses. He's pleased with his roommate in the residence halls and had no problem finding his books. One thing he misses is his own bedroom at home.
"The hardest thing has been time management,"
he said. "You have long days, you need time to get your rest in."
Gabbert continues to learn and cope with the differences between the college and high school playing fields.
"It's different adjusting to the speed of the games,"
he said. "The defense disguises stuff a lot more. In general, there's a kind of adjustment period that you have to go through."
Yost said he sees the skill of adjusting speed as one of Gabbert's weaknesses.
"Because he's so big and strong and fast, he could get himself out of trouble,"
Yost said. "The difference now is that he's playing against Big 12 defenses. He can't make every play. He needs to understand that you can't make every play every time."
Gabbert's high school coach, Mike Roth, said the quarterback's struggles shouldn't take long to fade.
"Blaine is not scared to work,"
Roth said. "He'll put in the hours. He's been working all of his life to be a college quarterback. He worked extremely hard, not only during the season, but his work efforts during the offseason were tremendous as well."
His offseason work has begun to pay dividends.
"I think he can be a great player for us,"
Yost said. "We have high expectations for him, and I think he has high expectations for himself, as well."
