Like the Indianapolis Colts' transition from Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck, Florida State could go from one top-tier quarterback to another.
Without all the losing in between, that is.
Some pieces have to fall in place first, but the thought of Ohio State's Braxton Miller finishing his college career at Florida State could be a great move for both parties. Nothing is close to official yet, but Tom D'Angelo of The Palm Beach Post tweets that FSU has been told that Miller is interested in playing for the Seminoles in 2015.
Officially, there has been no comment from Miller, Ohio State or Florida State on the matter. Earlier this week, a report surfaced from Blue Devil Lair that Miller was interested in transferring to Duke.
However, let's say for the sake of conversation that the Miller-FSU marriage comes to fruition.
The first thing it would do is give Florida State an experienced, dynamic quarterback following the likely departure of Jameis Winston to the NFL. As a soon-to-be redshirt senior, Miller would be available to play right away as a grad student.
Florida State's quarterback situation would definitely be a question mark. Sean Maguire has been Winston's backup this season, but hasn't thrown a pass in a game since Oct. 4 against Wake Forest. Meanwhile, Deondre Francois and De'Andre Johnson are two quarterback prospects verbally committed to Florida State for the class of 2015.
There simply isn't a lot of experience behind Winston. If Miller were to come to Tallahassee, it could allow head coach Jimbo Fisher to redshirt his younger players while maintaining a high level of play.
It would also get Ohio State out of an obvious bind, which is a tough thing to think about given Miller's production over the years. However, the elephant in and around Columbus this spring would revolve around how head coach Urban Meyer potentially handles three quarterbacks—Miller, J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones—who have all shown they can win games and put up big numbers.
After the year Barrett had—2,834 passing yards, 45 touchdowns accounted for—there may not be any room for Miller to overtake him after missing the season with a shoulder injury.
If Miller wants to have a shot as a quarterback at the next level, he needs to show what he can do in 2015. That chance may not happen with the Buckeyes, as noted by Matt Hayes of Sporting News:
As much as Miller loves playing for Ohio State, he has no other option but to leave for his final season if he wants to play in the NFL. He’s not helping his draft stock by sitting behind Barrett (because that’s where he’ll be), and he’s not getting critical repetitions against college football’s elite teams unless he transfers as a graduate student and plays somewhere else in 2015.
"You hate to see a kid leave his school," Bleacher Report draft guru Matt Miller told B/R's Ben Axelrod. "But for his career, I think the best thing would be going to somewhere that’s going to run a little bit more of a pro-style offense and where he would get on the field right away."
That's where Florida State enters. Fisher runs a more traditional offense, if you will, and has groomed his fair share of first-round quarterbacks over the years, from Christian Ponder to EJ Manuel. Winston, barring an unforeseen circumstance, should go in the first round of the upcoming draft as well.
Fisher doesn't get nearly enough credit for developing quarterbacks at the college level. Miller has all the tools to be successful, he's just played in a different type of offense that depends more on quarterback runs. Combining Miller and Fisher would be a fascinating marriage of styles. It would challenge Miller as a quarterback and Fisher as a coach in how he calls plays.
If and when Miller does declare a transfer, he would be the hottest college "free agent" on the market—though limitations can still be applied by Ohio State. At the very least, it would be as big as the Russell Wilson-to-Wisconsin acquisition in 2011, if not bigger.
Certainly, it could be one of the most-followed stories of next season.
Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.
Read more Big Ten Football news on BleacherReport.com