Nebraska quarterback transfer Chubba Purdy, the younger brother of 49ers star quarterback Brock Purdy, committed Monday to play for the Nevada football team.
As NSN exclusively reported last week, Purdy was in Reno on Thursday visiting with the Wolf Pack coaching staff. Purdy committed to San Jose State eight days ago but had a change of heart after Spartans head coach Brent Brennan accepted the Arizona job two days after his commitment.
Nevada will be the third college for Purdy, who played two seasons at Florida State and two more at Nebraska. Purdy will have two seasons of eligibility at Nevada and could play in 2024 if he's a graduate transfer or gets an NCAA waiver for immediate eligibility. Purdy also considered Cal, North Texas and TCU after entering the portal Dec. 21.
The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Purdy has played sparingly during his four college seasons. He's appeared in 16 games and completed 85-of-163 passes (52.1 percent) for 846 yards with six touchdowns and seven interceptions, posting a 99.3 passer rating. He's rushed 73 times for 315 yards and three touchdowns.
Purdy has started five college games, including one at Florida State and two each during his two seasons at Nebraska. He started the Cornhuskers' final two games of 2023, completing 30-of-52 passes for 358 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in those contests, losses to Iowa and Wisconsin. He also rushed 26 times for 147 yards and a touchdown.
Nevada's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach is expected to be Matt Lubick, who was Nebraska's offensive coordinator from 2020-21, although his time with the Cornhuskers did not overlap with Purdy, who joined the team in 2022.
Purdy was a four-star recruit coming out of high school in Queen Creek, Ariz., and the No. 7-ranked dual-threat quarterback in the 2020 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings, which placed him as the No. 192 national recruit. He picked Florida State out of more than 20 scholarship offers from FBS schools that included Arizona State, Michigan State, Purdue, Oregon State, Louisville, Boise State, Cal, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kansas State, Washington State and UNLV,
Purdy is listed by 247Sports as a three-star transfer recruit and the No. 69 quarterback available in the portal this offseason. Nevada already received a commitment from junior-college quarterback Anthony Grigsby Jr., from College of San Mateo, in this recruiting period. It also pursued New Mexico State transfer quarterback Diego Pavia, who committed last week to Vanderbilt.
The Wolf Pack has four returning scholarship quarterbacks in Brendon Lewis, A.J. Bianco and Shane Illingworth, who have all started multiple games at Nevada, plus Jax Leatherwood, who redshirted as a freshman last year. Reed High alum Baylor Horning is a walk-on quarterback. Purdy's addition gives Nevada seven potential quarterbacks entering the 2024 season, although it would not be a surprise to see more action after spring camp, which ends in early May.
Nevada has been unable to sufficiently replace star quarterback Carson Strong since his graduation. Strong was the MW's offensive player of the year in 2020 and 2021, but the Wolf Pack has started four quarterbacks in the last two seasons, those players completing 408-of-741 passes (55.1 percent) for 4,329 yards with 13 touchdowns and 20 interceptions in 2022-23. Last season, Nevada had just six touchdown passes to 12 interceptions.
Purdy's dual-threat abilities would seem to be a good fit for first-year head coach Jeff Choate's desire to be a run-first team. When he was the head coach at Montana State from 2016-20, Choate's quarterbacks were relied upon to provide a running threat in addition to the passing game, with Purdy having success so far in his college career with his legs.
Purdy's older brother, Brock, has led the 49ers to back-to-back NFC championship game appearances. His father, Shawn, played baseball at Miami in the minor leagues as a pitcher, rising to the Triple-A level in 1997 and 1998.