Meet "Zurb," a relentlessly driven Ohio kid who’s content to bide his time

When the Sooners take the field this August for their 2024 season opener, there’ll be a new superlative of sorts in the vast encyclopedia of Sooner football — if such a thing exists.

Steve Zabel, Dane Zaslaw and Allen Zeno have brand-new company in the last alphabetical chapter of said encyclopedia. The final entry will belong to a soft-spoken, perpetually smiling young signal-caller from Alliance, Ohio.

At Oklahoma, Brendan Zurbrugg is over a thousand miles from his quaint hometown, a community of 20,000 people that’s best known for being the mecca of Division III college football. Alliance is home to the University of Mount Union, a dynastic powerhouse in the DIII ranks. Football is canon in that corner of the country, and as you’ll soon see, the Zurbrugg name is part and parcel of Alliance football lore. Over the last several years, Brendan arguably ranks as the town’s most recognizable athletic figure.

But now, in effect, he’s starting over — and he’s doing it in relative anonymity. Jackson Arnold is Oklahoma’s presumed starter heading into the 2024 campaign. For the moment, the only real point of controversy in the Oklahoma quarterback room is whether it’ll be accomplished super-senior transfer Casey Thompson or freshman wunderkind Michael Hawkins that serves as Arnold’s primary backup.

Zurbrugg’s presence has yet to truly register in the eyes of many fans, who generally have little regard for a humble three-star signee from the outskirts of the Midwest. On paper, the typical fan — perhaps somewhat jaded by cynicism — would see little reason to bother paying Zurbrugg much attention. Especially in the current era of college football, conventional rhetoric would suggest that a regional outsider who enters the program no higher than fourth on the depth chart at quarterback will quite naturally wind up in the transfer portal before long.

But get to know Zurbrugg and you’ll quickly come to realize that he has no such designs for his future. He is where his feet are, and the competitive circumstances in the Sooners’ quarterback room serve as no particular deterrent to him.

He’s not rushing anything at Oklahoma; it’s not in his nature to do so. And the spirit of selfless competition is quite literally woven into his DNA.

Some forty years ago, Chris Zurbrugg found himself thrust into the fire at the University of Michigan. The Wolverines’ starting quarterback — a future NFL’er by the name of Jim Harbaugh — had suffered a midseason broken arm that would keep him on the shelf for the remainder of the campaign.

A former football luminary in his own right at Alliance High, Chris took the reins and led Michigan to the 1984 Holiday Bowl. Along the way, he tied a school record with four touchdown passes in a single game, and established a new school record with 259 passing yards in a single game.

It’s hard not to take note of some parallels between Chris’ situation at Michigan and his son’s situation at Oklahoma. When Chris signed, the Wolverines already had two established quarterbacks in Steve Smith and Dave Hall, plus a budding young star in Harbaugh. Moreover, Chris was one of two quarterbacks Michigan inked in the 1983 recruiting class (Russ Rein was the other).

Today, at Oklahoma, Arnold is QB1, and there’s little to no debate about that. Thompson and General Booty are the veterans of the room, and the Sooners also signed Hawkins out of the same recruiting cycle as Brendan.

Will the younger Zurbrugg find his way onto the field as quickly as the elder Zurbrugg did? Only time will reveal the answer, but the point remains: Brendan isn’t facing a path any less arduous than the one his father walked as a Wolverine. And the kid that his coaches and peers know as “Zurb” is well accustomed to blazing his own trail. In a sense, it’s all he’s ever known. Brendan is the youngest of five children, and the only boy in the group.

“Fortunately, we’ve got a family where all these kids get along really well,” Chris laughed. “He’s made the comment before — it was like having five moms. But they’ve all been real good with him, always treated him well. And it was really different, because I was his friend. It wasn’t like he had a brother to play with. Anything he wanted to do, it seemed like I was always the guy that was doing it, and I was happy to. And it was good for me, because I finally had somebody to connect with from a guy’s perspective. It was a lot of fun.”

These days, Chris coaches track at Alliance High, although he had a brief stint in the early 2000’s as the Aviators’ head football coach. He maintains that he never pushed his son to follow in his footsteps as a quarterback. But as Brendan grew up steeped in the rich football tradition of Ohio’s Stark County, he became organically acquainted with his father’s legacy — and the legacies of the area’s other gridiron legends. From a young age, he aspired to write his own chapter in Alliance football lore as a signal-caller.

“The kid grew up with a football in his hand,” Chris remarked. “He always wanted to play [quarterback]. I mean, he did a lot of other things, kicking and stuff, but it seemed like playing quarterback was the thing he always wanted to do. And even when he started playing in third grade, he always played a year up. And he played quarterback from day one. His freshman year of high school, he started at safety. He played the whole year at safety, and he did pretty well there. But quarterback was always the thing he wanted to do.

“Len Dawson came through here a long time ago; he played at Alliance. Football’s a tradition here. This whole county, with Canton and Massillon — we have real good football in this county, and it’s real competitive. People take it real serious. They’ve had some good football players come through here, and Brendan wanted to be one of those guys. It was important to him. This is the kind of thing he’s wanted his whole life.”

Tim Goodman took over as Alliance’s new head football coach prior to the 2021 season. At the time, Brendan was balancing football, basketball, baseball and track. He had as much on his plate as any athlete in the school. But Brendan didn’t just participate in all of those sports; he excelled in all of those sports. And as Goodman got to know his young quarterback prodigy, he quickly learned the reason why. Brendan owns a truly uncommon work ethic, and has never been opposed to putting in extra reps — whether physical or mental — in order to stay a cut above his peers.

“I was always impressed with how fast he picked things up,” Goodman noted. “I came in as the new coach of the program his sophomore year, and I remember it clear as day — I brought the RPO, which they hadn’t really done a whole lot of. And he studied the tape; I showed him clips of former quarterbacks that I’d had doing it. He went home with his dad and they practiced in the backyard; the next day, he looked like he’d been running it for years.”

And over the next three seasons, Brendan would go on to shatter many of the Alliance passing records established by such icons as his father and Dawson. He wrapped up his career as an Aviator with a senior season that featured over 2,000 passing yards, over 1,000 rushing yards and 39 total touchdowns. Amidst it all, his businesslike manner on the gridiron commanded the respect of his teammates and the admiration of the Alliance community.

“Brendan, from a leadership standpoint, is someone you can always rely on,” Goodman declared. “He’s been a guy that’s really set an example for the kids of Alliance, Ohio. We’re not the biggest school in Ohio; we’re not the smallest school in Ohio. We’re kind of right in between. So in a world where a lot of kids are chasing bigger and better opportunities, Brendan Zurbrugg just worried about being the best version [of himself] that he could for Alliance. And then everything kind of took care of itself.

“Being that best version, that meant getting extra workouts in, attention to detail, always working on his craft. Just those little things that really separate you that you’ve gotta do if you want to go a place like Oklahoma. And so it was great to have him in the program to use him as a reference point, and it’s great that he hasn’t been gone that long that we can still use him as a reference point. Because a lot of kids in Alliance look up to him.”

And Brendan’s accomplishments didn’t start and stop on the gridiron. He morphed into a two-time all-state hurdler under his father’s tutelage, emerged as a lethal outside shooter for Alliance’s varsity basketball team, and carried a GPA north of 4.0 in the classroom. No matter what he did, he did it with excellence.

Even within the confines of the sport of football, Brendan did it all for the Aviators. Though his impact was most conspicuous under center, he also played a key role on special teams throughout his high school career. Right-handed but left-footed, he poured plenty of effort over the years into becoming a reliable placekicker — in fact, the Zurbrugg family had a scaled-down goalpost in their yard, and Brendan consistently used it to refine his technique and accuracy. He also stayed late after practices to get extra kicks in.

“I think it’s just that ownership piece,” Goodman opined. “It’s like, ‘If the game comes down to winning and losing, I’m going to have my fingerprints on as many facets of the game as I can.’ He was a pretty dang good kicker. And usually, you just put an athlete back there and he kicks the ball, and if it goes in, great. But he actually put a lot of time into it.

“And he was actually a better punter than a kicker. He averaged 40 yards a punt almost every year, and I was actually teasing him. I said, ‘You know, if quarterback doesn’t work out, punting’s not a bad gig.’ But he can do it all. He was a four-sport athlete up here, and he wanted to be the best in everything he did.”

But nothing drove Brendan quite like his desire to play quarterback at the collegiate level, and during his junior season, it became apparent that he’d have plenty of opportunities to do so. He began to collect offers from the local MAC schools — Akron, Bowling Green, Toledo and the like — but couldn’t seem to attract the attention of Power 5 suitors. And though he found the low-end FBS offers meaningful, he maintained the belief that he was capable of playing at a higher level.

Even so, in keeping with his levelheaded nature, he never sweated the eventual outcome.

“Playing big-time Division I football was always a dream of his,” said Goodman. “And the whole time, he said, ‘It’s gonna work out. Wherever I end up going, they’re going to get the best version of me.’ And usually, as a coach, you have to try and convince a 17 or 18-year-old kid of that. But it was nice to have those conversations with Brendan; he just trusted the process.”

Things changed in June of 2023, as Syracuse became the first Power 5 school to offer Brendan a scholarship. Mindful of the reality that the Orange were pursuing other quarterbacks (including future Oklahoma signee Andy Bass), he figured he might as well jump on the opportunity.

“I first took my official visit to Syracuse at the beginning of June and planned on committing, and I did,” Brendan explained. “Because as a quarterback, most teams only sign one. So if you don’t commit before the other guys, then you can lose that opportunity. So at that time, I went up there and I committed.”

While still on campus at Syracuse, Brendan got a call from the staff at Northwestern, and suddenly he had a predicament on his hands. He’d just verbally pledged to the Orange, but now the Wildcats had entered the picture. Pat Fitzgerald’s staff offered Brendan a scholarship and asked him to take an official visit the following weekend.

According to Chris, his son never really intended to make more than one commitment. But there was one key fly in the ointment at Syracuse: Dino Babers’ less-than-stellar job security. The concern was valid; Babers would later be relieved of his duties at the conclusion of the 2023 season. So even though Brendan enjoyed everything that Syracuse could offer to him as a quarterback, he perceived that a changing of the guard could very well be in the works.

“It’s strange how things work out,” said Chris. “Commitment to him actually means something; it really does. He’d made a comment before — ‘I don’t want to be one of those guys that flips commitments.’ When we got into it and he was recruited by Syracuse, he was all-in for Syracuse. They really liked him and really wanted him, and he enjoyed the visits that he took up there. I think that he was really looking for stability; that was really important to him.. He wanted to be part of a program that had stability and tradition, and I’m not saying Syracuse doesn’t. But we didn’t know what the future had there for him.”

Even so, Brendan maintained that he had very little interest in an OV to Northwestern. Upon the advice of his inner circle, though, he agreed to make the trek to Evanston.

“I didn’t even want to go on the visit to Northwestern,” he stated matter-of-factly. “But I ended up going anyway, just by suggestion from coaches and family. So I went, and I absolutely loved it.”

The Wildcats could offer the stability that Brendan sought, the stability that Syracuse lacked. After all, Fitzgerald was entering his eighteenth season as Northwestern’s head coach. The former Wildcat linebacker had seen his alma mater through banner years (five bowl victories and three seasons of 10-plus wins) and lean years (six losing seasons, including three of fewer than four wins). Pat Fitzgerald was Northwestern football, and Northwestern football was Pat Fitzgerald.

Thus, eight days after his commitment to Syracuse, Brendan flipped his commitment. He was a Wildcat, and that marked the end of the recruiting process for him — or so he thought.

Less than two weeks later, in early July, Northwestern president Michael Schill suspended Fitzgerald after an independent investigation confirmed graphic accounts of hazing within the football program. Three days later, that suspension turned into an unceremonious dismissal.

With the program in sudden turmoil, Brendan didn’t know where to turn. He considered sticking with his commitment to the Wildcats, but how could a quarterback feel any reasonable level of confidence in his collegiate decision when he truly had no idea who’d be coaching him upon his enrollment?

Then, amidst the sea of precarious uncertainty, a lifeline appeared via an unexpected phone call.

“Obviously, right after I committed there, everything with Coach Fitzgerald happened — the hazing, all that stuff,” Brendan recalled. “And he got fired, and out of the blue, Oklahoma reached out.”

When the Sooners offered Brendan, they already had a quarterback commit, as Hawkins had been locked in with the program since April. But the bitter, embarrassing memory of the Sooners’ 49-0 defeat in the 2022 Red River Shootout lingered within the walls of the Switzer Center. Throughout the distinguished history of Oklahoma football, there are few offensive performances that hold a candle to the sheer ineptitude of October 8, 2022 — and the Sooners’ futility that day was largely due to lack of any modicum of quarterback depth behind the injured Dillon Gabriel.

Determined never to find themselves in such dire straits again, Brent Venables and his staff decided to do something that hadn’t been done at Oklahoma since 2006. They were going to take two scholarship quarterbacks in the same recruiting cycle.

The Sooners flirted with Samaj Jones. They engaged briefly with Trever Jackson. But when the staff came across Brendan’s tape and began to converse with him, they soon realized that he fit the mold in every imaginable way.

Sure, they needed a talented quarterback that was worth the scholarship. But they also needed a mature young man who wouldn’t shy away from stiff competition. And from the get-go, Brendan made it clear to the Oklahoma staff that he wouldn’t be deterred by the presence of other top-flight arms in the OU quarterback room.

“Wherever you sign, there’s quarterbacks of different ages,” he observed. “There’s quarterbacks that you’re gonna have to compete with regardless. They’re all great quarterbacks all playing at the Division I, Power 5 level. So no matter where I go, it’s gonna be a competition.”

And as Goodman watched his star signal-caller navigate the courtship with Oklahoma, he couldn’t help but to perceive that Chris’ paternal influence — albeit implicit — helped shape Brendan’s perception of the opportunity that Oklahoma afforded him.

“I think it’s in large part due to his dad, and his dad’s experience at the University of Michigan,” Goodman opined. “His dad went through it. He had to compete with Jim Harbaugh. And I think he’s passed that wisdom down to Brendan that just says, ‘Hey, go out there and be the best that you can be. Let the chips fall where they may.’ I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve seen with Brendan throughout the recruiting process, is that he knew he’d have to compete no matter where he went. And he’s not going to back down from that competition.”

Within days of receiving the offer, Brendan had scheduled a July 29 unofficial visit to Oklahoma, and made the trip with his parents in tow. Immediately, the history and aura of Oklahoma football drew Brendan in, and Chris saw many of the same qualities in Norman that he’d appreciated in Ann Arbor during his collegiate days.

“When I went up to Michigan, it was business,” explained Chris. “It was tradition. You walk in that facility and you’ve got championship trophies all over the place in there. And the feel that you get when you step into a place that’s got that kind of tradition and that kind of history is phenomenal. And obviously, [Oklahoma’s] campus is tremendous. The support programs that they have there are tremendous. And I know my wife and I both were really impressed with the other things that Coach Venables has involved with the program that can develop young men. When you throw that on top of being such a historic program with their tradition, you can see why. And I think those kinds of things all come together, and it makes a decision that much more of an exciting situation.”

Chris has spent the vast majority of his life in Alliance, and he admits that he never imagined his son might move halfway across the country to attend college. But he could see that Brendan was comfortable at Oklahoma, and he had enough perspective to understand that the dynamics of a powerhouse football program would be one and the same regardless of the geographical location.

“A thousand miles away or two hours down the road, once you’re in school and involved with the football and all the other things that go on — no matter where you’re at, you’re going to be spending the time,” Chris observed. “You’re not going to be home. That’s college life, and that’s building character and building a future. That wasn’t ever a factor with me, and he knew that. And for him, it wasn’t either. He wanted to be a part of a program like this, and he wanted to compete with guys at that level. And that’s exactly what he’s got going right now.

“Things worked out, and he was ecstatic about it. He felt like he had found a stable program with a great tradition, and he was really happy with that choice. So it happened in a strange way and it all happened kind of quick; it was fast. But I think there’s reasons that things happen, and he was glad it did.”

On June 18, Brendan was a Syracuse Orangeman. By June 26, he was a Northwestern Wildcat. But finally, on August 1, his frenetic recruitment met its end as he announced his commitment to the Oklahoma Sooners.

Four decades after his father signed with a blue-blood college football program, Brendan was going to play blue-blood ball as well — albeit for a school that’s in a different conference, a different time zone and a very different region of the country. In many ways, he was mirroring Chris’ journey, and in just as many ways, he was creating his own path.

“I think meeting Coach Venables really sealed it for him,” said Goodman. “Brendan was always looking for a man of character to play for. I think that’s something he respected about his dad’s relationship with Coach [Bo] Schembechler at Michigan. So I think Coach Venables — and everything he’s building down there and the kind of person he is — really stuck with him. And Oklahoma’s one of the blue bloods of college football. I think just being able to be a part of that program with the tradition that it has, it’s something very few people get to do. So to be able to do that and to live that dream, I think it really stuck with him… I think he ended up exactly where he was supposed to be all along.”

Very few prospects cycle through commitments to three schools, let alone three schools in the span of six weeks. Those that do are generally regarded as immature, as mercenary. But that’s not Brendan Zurbrugg.

The recruitment process certainly didn’t unfold in the exact manner that he would have preferred. Had he known that he’d get a call from Northwestern while on his Syracuse OV, things might have transpired differently. Had he known that an imminent scandal would lead to the ousting of Northwestern’s longtime head coach, things might have transpired differently.

But at the end of his serpentine journey as a football recruit, the conglomeration of circumstances that led him to Oklahoma only deepened his gratitude for the ultimate destination.

“I thought that was kind of my little blessing,” he said of the very first call from Oklahoma. “It was a hard road to get there, but it all happened for a reason.”

When asked for the seminal Brendan Zurbrugg moment that lives in his memory, Goodman says it’s a game from Brendan’s junior year that jumps immediately to mind.

“One thing Brendan and I had a lot of talks about was displaying a little bit of confidence — a little bit of swagger, if you will,” Goodman chuckled. “He’s so hard on himself that he would get down on himself more times than not. And I was an offensive lineman; I always loved when my quarterbacks exuded confidence. It made me play harder, you know?

“And we went and played Youngstown Chaney in his junior year in the playoffs. They had a really talented team; I think their defense gave up 11 points per game. And he came out and started the game like 12-for-12 in the first half for a hundred-something yards and a couple touchdowns. I mean, we were firing. And he made a play where he scrambled over towards our sideline — he’s getting hit out of bounds, and he throws for a touchdown. And he gets up and looks at an assistant coach, and he gave a little flex and a little shout. And I go, ‘Oh, there’s that confidence.’ And we ended up losing the game; they had a couple kids going to Michigan that kind of took over in the second half. But that was when it kind of clicked.”

Brendan’s confidence may be quiet and subdued, but it’s omnipresent. His style of leadership isn’t the in-your-face variety, but it’s steady and uplifting. He’ll talk the talk every now and then, as he did on the sideline that night against Chaney. But far more frequently, he’ll simply walk the walk — and just keep walking.

“I’ll tell you, he’s not the kind of guy that’s going to jump around and he’s not a real rah-rah type of guy,” Chris said of his son. “But when it’s time to compete, he goes. And I’ve always respected that from him. When you watch a young man grow up, it’s — how do they compete when the pressure is on? How do they rise to the occasion? And I’ve always felt like Brendan has been able to do that. When things got tough, there was no backing down. That’s something that I feel like he has instilled in himself.”

With regard to every facet of the game’s mental side, sure — Brendan’s always been a cut above the rest. In fact, Goodman says it’s the one characteristic that has helped elevate him to an SEC-caliber talent. But that’s not surprising; an ironclad psyche is virtually a prerequisite to play the quarterback position at a high level.

That said, Brendan isn’t just a smart kid, or a class act, or a natural-born leader, or any of the other buzz-phrases that might be used to prop up an average player with modest athletic traits. His athleticism is anything but modest, and he’s got arm talent to boot. It’s not hard to watch the film and conclude that he’s got Power 4 ability as a thrower. But in Goodman’s eyes, the dual-threat nature of Brendan’s play will give him the ability to hold his own in the SEC.

“I think the [other] thing that really made him an Oklahoma-level quarterback is his speed,” said Goodman. “At that level, everyone can throw the ball. Everyone can zip it. Everyone has that same kind of physical build. But he’s got all-world track speed. He was one of the fastest kids in the state of Ohio in the 300-meter hurdles. With that long stride and with that speed, I think that’s going to give him a chance to make an impact not only with his arm, but with his legs as well.

“I’ve always had a 1,000-yard back, and that’s something take pride in, especially because I coach the offensive line too. So we always try to have a 1,000-yard back. We didn’t really have an established running back this year going into the season, and by nature, our offense has kind of morphed more into an empty [backfield] offense. And Brendan told me, ‘Coach, I got you.’ And he ended up rushing for 1,000 yards this season.”

To this day, Oklahoma hasn’t had a scholarship quarterback start and finish their career in Norman since Blake Bell (2010-14). Granted, that drought is likely to come to an end with Arnold. But the point remains, and it’s one that’s illustrated vividly in that factoid: it’s not often that a quarterback — at Oklahoma or anywhere else — puts down roots at one institution. Heck, in the last five years, the Sooners have had three different quarterbacks sign with the program only to transfer immediately after their respective freshman seasons.

In many cases, nomadic portal-hopping behavior is spurred by a lack of early playing time. After all, nobody wants to spend their entire collegiate career as a backup, and that certainly isn’t Brendan’s plan. He aspires to start for the University of Oklahoma one day. He owns the physical gifts, the work ethic and the cognitive aptitude to do so.

But for so many young players who don’t see the field right off the bat, there comes a point of reckoning. Every single FBS football player was a star at the high school level, and every single one owns a decorated athletic resume. Thus, it’s all too easy for a player to ride pine for a couple of seasons, reflect on his stardom at the prep level, and conclude that he’s simply too talented not to play. What often follows is an entry into the portal — and a new horizon that may or may not offer a situational upgrade over the old status quo.

But Brendan sees both sides of the coin. He’s more than aware of his own athletic prowess. Yet he’s also quite aware that he’s no longer a big fish in a little pond. As he is wondrously gifted, so too is everyone else that’s battling for reps at quarterback. Brendan has no skewed perceptions of reality in that regard. And as he travels the first stretch of his journey at Oklahoma, he’s focused on little more than becoming a better football player, one day and one snap at a time.

Don’t go snitching to Jerry Schmidt, but Brendan doesn’t find life to be all that difficult in the Sooners’ weight room thus far. In fact, he added 12 pounds of muscle to his frame over the course of his first six weeks of workouts alone.

“It’s been a little easier than I thought; I was expecting to just die every single day,” he remarked last month. “I came right out of football season; I didn’t have time to rest before I moved in. So I feel like I was conditioned a little bit before I came. I feel a lot better; I feel stronger throwing the ball. I feel faster, more explosive. Schmidty’s getting us right.”

The expectation across the board is that Brendan will redshirt, as the Sooners likely won’t require his services in 2024. Arnold is poised to start, Hawkins has taken the majority of the second-team reps and Thompson — who led the Big 12 in touchdown passes while at Texas in 2021 — will spend his final year of eligibility as the Sooners’ insurance policy. But again, Brendan is under no delusions. He knows the plan, and he’s on board with it.

“I think this year is a big year for me [as far as] learning,” he shared at the beginning of spring ball. “Get better, get faster, get stronger, get myself ready to play in the future — learn and be ready to compete in my future years."

To that point, he hasn’t treated any of the other quarterbacks with competitive animosity. There’s great camaraderie within the room at Oklahoma, and Brendan’s made it a goal to absorb all the knowledge he can from the more experienced members of the group.

“We do things together — quarterback dinners, that type of thing,” he said. “Jackson and General and Casey, being the older guys in the room, they lead us well. They share their experience; I can go to them if I need help with anything.”

It’s been a continual learning process for Brendan on the practice field. He’s thrown touchdown passes; he’s thrown interceptions. He’s had bright spots and not-so-bright spots. It’s all part of the process, and Brendan’s bought in. He’s figuring it out in real time as he adjusts to the speed and physicality of the collegiate game.

“I know at this level everybody’s bigger, better, faster, stronger,” he acknowledged. “It’s probably going to take some getting used to, playing live against big D-linemen and fast defenses. But I’ll get used to it; it’ll be all right. The leadership thing is huge. At the quarterback position, it’s easy to lead in high school. When you get to college, it’s different. You have to step up your leadership, be more vocal.

“I went from a team of maybe 50 to a team of 110 now. So getting to know everybody, starting to lead, and the playbook is obviously a huge thing. Me and Mike [Hawkins] had eight or nine weeks to learn it all before we got into spring ball, and we’ve been attacking it. It was tough the first few weeks, because they put so much on us at once. But once we got it down, everything started to make sense and click.”

It might be 2025 and it might be 2028 before Brendan’s number is called at Oklahoma. That’s entirely up to him — and his peers in the quarterback corps, naturally. But although it’s an uncommon trait these days, patience has reaped rewards for many of the great collegiate quarterbacks of the 21st century, and that includes a pair of legendary Sooners. It took five years and two knee surgeries for Jason White to become the full-time starter at Oklahoma, and he promptly won a Heisman Trophy. Meanwhile, Kyler Murray had to hold a clipboard for two full seasons before he got his shot to start in Norman — and he won a Heisman Trophy as well.

Another prominent example, albeit one that wore a slightly different shade of crimson, is former Alabama quarterback Mac Jones. A three-star recruit who signed in the same recruiting cycle as the more ballyhooed Tua Tagovailoa, Jones waited three years for opportunity to rear its head. That opportunity arrived when Tagovailoa entered the NFL draft in 2020, and in his lone season as the starter for the Crimson Tide, Jones threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns en route to the Davey O’Brien Award. He finished second in the Heisman vote to his A1 receiver, DeVonta Smith, and then capped off the season by leading the Tide to a national championship.

Similarly, in Brendan, the Sooners have a quarterback who’s willing to wait his turn. And mindful of the example set by White, Murray, Jones and others, Goodman trusts that the pride of Alliance will see his patience rewarded in the end.

“He’s not gonna get turned off when he faces a little bit of adversity,” said Goodman of Brendan. “He’s not gonna get turned off when he sees an upperclassman starting over him. I think those kinds of things are getting more rare to find, but usually, those people that stick it out have a level of success at some point. And I think not being turned off and not being afraid of hard work is going to lead to success down the road for him.”

Come the weekend, Brendan will trot onto the Owen Field turf for the spring game with the number 12 on his back. It’s a nod to his old man, who wore 12 during his time at Michigan. And Chris will be there in the grandstands, watching with pride as his only son enjoys his first real taste of a football Saturday in the 405.

Chris knows as well as anyone that the game has changed drastically since he first donned the maize and blue in 1983. But as there is always change, there is always constancy as well. Embedded in Brendan’s identity are the same qualities that enabled Chris to become the starting quarterback at one of the nation’s most revered football institutions. From father to son, the Zurbrugg spirit of courage, diligence and poise remains evergreen.

“One of the reasons we’re really proud of him is he’s shown that kind of maturity, even at a young age, as the kind of kid that’s patient,” said Chris. “And you don’t see that a lot with guys anymore. If things don’t happen right now, they feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve gotta do something different. I gotta move.’ But that’s not the kind of attitude that Brendan has. He understands patience, and there’s a lot of young men out there that don’t. When I went to school, the transfer portal wasn’t a thing. But even if it was, it’s about being patient and making yourself better and keeping yourself confident, because things are going to be tough. And I think going in and understanding that is a big thing for these young men that get into any big program.”

Indeed, Brendan Zurbrugg gets it. And although he would never have imagined one year ago that he’d wind up going to college in such foreign territory as Oklahoma, he’s proud to wear the crimson and cream — and to be designated a trustee in the Sooners’ illustrious lineage of quarterback excellence.

“He enjoys what he’s doing,” said Chris. “I think he realizes, ‘Hey, I’m going to have to do everything that I can do to make myself better and help the team.’ And he’s looking forward to competing there too. I’m sure this has all been an adjustment, but I think that was the whole point of early enrollment — get there, get your feet wet, get in there and see what it’s all about and get started.

“And I think that’s one of his biggest attributes, is that he’ll figure it out. He’ll figure out how to be successful. He’s just one of those guys.”

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