All's good with letting the athlete have some options

It’s not a surprise that Colson Yankoff wants to transfer from Washington.

Nor does it mean that Yankoff lacks the competitive spirit to fight for time as the Huskies’ quarterback.

And it certainly does not add to the notion that college athletics has become “total chaos” — as suggested by Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.

Yankoff, the former Coeur d’Alene High star and high-end recruit who redshirted during his freshman year at UW, was caught in a logjam with five highly pursued, elite QBs all stuck in the Washington program at the same time.

Ironically, he was shoved a spot down on the depth chart when another transfer, Jacob Eason from Georgia, arrived to inherit the No. 1 quarterback job for 2019.

So last week, Yankoff put his name in the NCAA’s transfer portal — which sounds a bit like something out of Star Trek — and thus can be recruited all over again.

Hopefully, he can be beamed into a program where he gets a legit chance to play.

THIS WHOLE concept of a transfer portal irritates Swinney and many other Division I coaches, who presumably would like to have players under lock and key once they’ve signed on for scholarships.

As a guy who has won two national championships in the past three years, Swinney creates more of an audience than anyone else about the idea of transferring.

He seems to think switching schools implies some kind of weakness.

“What we’re trying to create is no consequences,” Swinney said. “We want a society with no consequences. You deal with young people, sometimes young people need to learn how to hang in there a little bit.”

That’s easy to say for the highest-salaried college coach in America.

But the unpaid athletes who put millions into the coffers of their schools deserve a shot at achieving their dreams, too.

Yes, coaches routinely overrecruit at various positions to ensure depth, which make sense.

If you’re a very good receiver or linebacker, you’re going to get on the field at some point.

But quarterbacks are a different breed, because most programs tend to anoint a No. 1 — leaving backups to wear ballcaps and hold clipboards.

NO SHOCK, then, that QBs consider the transfer route if they’re simply going to sit behind one or more players who have won spots higher up the depth chart.

In the Pac-12 alone, 14 of 39 quarterbacks rated among top 50 recruits by 247 Sports in the past five years are no longer at their original schools — or like Yankoff, are headed out the door.

Washington State had great success with grad transfer Gardner Minshew, and this fall will take another stab with Eastern Washington transfer Gage Gubrud.

It’s not just the Pac-12, either.

The past two Heisman Trophy winners, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, transferred in to Oklahoma from Texas Tech and Texas A&M, respectively.

And obviously, we’ve seen the impact transfers have had on college basketball.

Gonzaga has been extremely grateful to land Nigel Williams-Goss (UW), Jordan Mathews (Cal) and Johnathan Williams (Missouri) from the team that played for the national title — and most recently, Brandon Clarke (San Jose State) brought thrills and electricity into the program.

On the hoop side, there are more than 200 players in the transfer portal at the moment, all looking for new schools and teams.

Gonzaga was actively trying to find a guard in that crop, and apparently has found one, as Texas A&M guard Admon Gilder tweeted Sunday that he is coming to Gonzaga as a grad transfer.

BUT BACK to football…

Despite all the hand-wringing at Clemson, the portal won’t destroy the sport.

Young athletes like Yankoff didn’t know — and weren’t told — that they would wind up in a five-way battle for playing time; or that head coach Chris Petersen isn’t a huge fan of dual-threat quarterbacks, preferring pure drop-back guys.

Yankoff’s athleticism didn’t mean much in the Huskies’ QB plans.

When you think about it, the transfer portal was created for players just like Colson Yankoff, who become victims of unforeseen circumstances.

Three years ago, Marcus McMaryion was deemed unsuitable to keep his starting QB job at Oregon State — despite some success on a poor team as a sophomore.

McMaryion decided he’d be better off at Fresno State, which was rebuilding under new coach Jeff Tedford.

The Bulldogs promptly became the first Division-I team to go from 10 losses to 10 wins in a single season.

McMaryion led Fresno State to a 22-6 record in two years, captured the Mountain West championship as a senior (beating Boise State on the famous blue turf), won a pair of bowl games, and now is competing in the Oakland Raiders rookie minicamp.

Yankoff might want to give McMaryion a call, and ask about the decision to transfer.

They could both chuckle about Dabo Swinney.

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball once monthly during the offseason.

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