Max Shortell To Transfer

In news that should surprise no one, Gophers quarterback Max Shortell has decided to transfer. Here's the U's short release:

University of Minnesota football coach Jerry Kill announced today that sophomore quarterback Max Shortell will transfer for the upcoming school year and football season.

"Max is an outstanding young man, and I respect and understand his decision to transfer," said Kill. "I will help him in any way I can and wish him all the best as he continues his education and football career elsewhere."

Obviously this hurts the QB depth, as a player with a decent amount of experience (including as a starter) will now be replaced on the depth chart with someone (likely soon to be RS Frosh Mitch Leidner) with no in game experience. Other than that, I'm not sure if there is anything else to be said. But given the fact that the coaching staff pulled Nelson's redshirt and played him extensively the rest of the season (including giving him 6 starts in a row) it would have have been more surprising if Max DIDN'T transfer.

Before I get to the ranty part of this post, I want to wish Max good luck! I hope you have lots of success wherever you end up and thanks for being a great Gopher while you were at the U.

Ok, back to the other point of this post...

Someone should tell the editors at ESPN1500 that this wasn't a shocking development. Either they're working for a sports outlet while possessing no sports common sense, or they think stirring the pot with sensational headlines and tweets is more important than being objective. Their tweet linking to Tom Pelissero's story:

And the headline of the story (UPDATE: Looks like the headline has been updated to be not so stupid since it first went up. That's why you get screenshots of stuff.):

The story iteself isn't bad and readily notes the fact that this is expected, which only makes the headline worse and more misleading. This is, to be kind, a very stupid take. Unless Max has secretly told ESPN1500 something shocking, something I doubt very much given the fact that they'd be flogging it already.

Troll on editors of ESPN1500! Where would the world be without your worthless brand of "journalism"?