The top grad transfers in the country look a lot like the Heisman Trophy ceremony—quarterback heavy with a dash of defense. 

Here, I’ll tell you which are likely to make an impact on their new teams this fall, beginning with...

Joe Burrow, QB, LSU, Cincinnati or UNC

By now we all should know that attending Ohio State as a quarterback means you’re taking your life into your own hands. If Joe Burrow wasn't aware of that before, he is now. 

Burrow graduates this May having thrown for just 287 yards and two touchdowns in four years at Ohio State. As of this writing, he’s openly considering three schools: LSU, Cincinnati and North Carolina. And, whichever program he chooses, he will be the rare graduate transfer with two years of eligibility remaining.

Burrow can attend LSU where the running back situation looks dicey, but the defense will probably help you win more games than it is likely to lose. Plus, no one in Bayou country is ready to say Myles Brennan or Lowell Narcisse—all-namer if there ever was one—are guaranteed to win football games without a solid running game. And that’s suspect at LSU, too, with running back Nick Brossette—again with the names—as the heir apparent to recently departed Derrius Guice. 

So, while former LSU quarterback Danny Etling wasn’t exactly a world-beater, LSU fans had more faith in him than they do Brennan or Narcisse—or Orgeron’s ability to beat Alabama presently.

At Cincinnati, Burrow knows Bearcats coach Luke Fickell from his days as the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator. However, the Bearcats finished last season 4-8 and didn’t feature a running back or wideout who notched more than 676 yards rushing or receiving, respectively, in 2017. 

That option looks grosser than Nic Cage in “Bangkok Dangerous.”

He visited both schools last week. This week, the Tar Heels will get a visit and enter themselves into the Joe Burrow Sweepstakes. 

Under head coach Larry Fedora, North Carolina has been a mixed bag—both in general and at the quarterback position, specifically. Needless to say, Mitch Trubisky and Marquise Williams had their fair share of success, combining for 7,375 passing yards and 19 wins from 2015-'16. But, highly-touted LSU transfer Brandon Harris never found his footing last season and UNC cratered as a result.

Wherever Burrow chooses to suit up this fall and next, there's little doubt that he'll be the man. And, if he chooses correctly, his NFL ceiling remains intact.

Dru Brown, QB, Oklahoma State

Dru Brown landed in a nice spot for any air raid quarterback in Oklahoma State—a program led by a pair of coaches who love to push the ball down the field. 

It’s quite the pity that his defense is also from Oklahoma State. Can’t hire that kind of work out or just let the opposing offense score so you can get the ball back quickly. Not in today’s college football at least.

While Brown will follow Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award winner Mason Rudolph and will not have the services of Biletnikoff Award winner James Washington, he will have a sexy choice for the Heisman in running back Justice Hill—not to mention a pair of wide receivers who can run 100-yard receiving circles around every team in the Big 12.

Brown threw for 2,785 yards and 18 touchdowns for the Rainbow Warriors in 2017 while riding a running back with similar credentials to Hill. Former Hawaii running back Diocemy Saint Juste rushed for 1,510 yards last season.

Keller Chryst, QB, Tennessee

Tennessee picked up a quarterback who was undefeated as a starter (6-0) in 2016 at Stanford, played 13 total games, and looks ready-made to lead the Volunteers back. 

Back to where, you ask? 

In Nick Saban and Kirby Smart’s SEC, that remains to be seen. However, with Vols headman Jeremy Pruitt building a program around defense, Chryst looks like the stable, don’t-turn-the-ball-over, game-manager Pruitt watched Alabama coach Nick Saban name the starter for years. The Saban school of quarterbacks lives on. 

Over his career Chryst threw 19 touchdowns to just six interceptions while playing musical chairs at quarterback for the Cardinal.

Gardner Minshew, QB, Washington State

Mike Leach looked deep into his inner pirate and pulled one out of Greenville, N.C. 

Minshew passed for 3,487 yards and 24 touchdowns in two seasons at East Carolina. While he had an opportunity to play at Alabama—and by “play” I mean “play scout team quarterback”—his is a match made in football heaven with Washington State.

East Carolina ran a derivative of Leach’s Air Raid, and Minshew looked good running it. The most interesting part of this is Minshew's want and need to coach following his football career. 

“This is an opportunity to compete for a (starting) job on a very good team with a staff that I’ve always looked up to and respected,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I’ve got goals as an (aspiring) coach but also as a player, and my goal right now is to get a shot in the NFL. And I think this will give me a good opportunity at that.”

The only coaching tree rivaling Saban’s among active college coaches is the one Leach has created. Where better for an air raid quarterback to reach that upper-level, where the mind, body and soul must be one, than Air Raid Pai Mei himself? 

(In the above metaphor, Minshew is Bruce Leroy and Leach is the irritable Kung Fu master. Stay woke, fam.)

Jabril Robinson, DT, West Virginia

Robinson looked like he was finally figuring out how to break into the rotation at Clemson when defensive coordinator Brent Venables went and reloaded on him. 

In 2017, he accounted for 19 tackles, two quarterback pressures and half-a-tackle-for-loss in 11 games. Over those 11 games, he received a total of 206 snaps. This means he made a play about every 10 snaps. From a defensive tackle, that’s putting in work when most defenses will see between 60 and 70 snaps per game.

At West Virginia, Robinson is liable to see even more clock. Three Big 12 teams ranked among the top 15 in the country in plays per game—Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State—and every team in the Big 12 likes to throw the ball around the yard. Dominant defensive schemes in the Big 12 rely on defensive backs who can run and defensive linemen who can consistently beat pass-blocking. 

Robinson will have a chance to put some outstanding pass-rush film on tape—or maybe that’s just the Kansas game.

RJ Young is a former Oklahoma Sooners football and basketball beat writer, investigative journalist, essayist, novelist, and Ph.D student. His memoir "LET IT BANG" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) hits shelves and earbuds in October. His YouTube channel is fire if you're into storytelling and topics ranging from Baker Mayfield to The Rock's early wrestling career to this one time when a guy got a little too interested in RJ's "Black Panther" cup at a urinal inside of a movie theater.