ESPN JC 50 No. 1-rated QB Jarrett Stidham nears decision

— -- After a five-month hiatus from college football, former Baylor quarterback Jarrett Stidham will decide on his next destination soon.

The coveted transfer and No. 1-ranked prospect in the ESPN JC 50 has narrowed his focus down to a few options for 2017 and wants to decide before Christmas. The front-runner still appears to be Auburn, but Stidham is waiting on a wild card: He wants to see where his former offensive coordinator at Baylor, Kendal Briles, ends up next.

"Honestly," Stidham told ESPN, "it's so up in the air right now."

Stidham decided to transfer from Baylor on July 7, a little more than a month after coach Art Briles was fired in the wake of the sexual assault scandal that rocked the school. He says he left Baylor after his freshman year because he came there to play for Art and Kendal Briles.

But instead of transferring to another school or a junior college program, Stidham took an alternative route. He stayed in Waco and signed up for online classes from McLennan Community College. He'll be eligible to play in 2017 and will have three seasons of eligibility remaining when he enrolls at a school in January.

Auburn has persistently recruited Stidham since he left Baylor. He's taken multiple visits there this year and is planning to host coach Gus Malzahn for an in-home visit on Friday.

"They've been with me from day one when all of this went down," Stidham said. "They've been good to me. Some other teams have also been good to me. It's just a matter of time until everything happens."

Stidham's relationship with Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee has been one of the keys to that recruitment. He spent nearly 12 hours with Stidham last week while visiting with him in Stephenville, Texas.

"He's a great dude," Stidham said. "I've gotten to know him a lot over this semester. Really, really solid dude. I've probably gotten to know Coach Lashlee the most because I've seen him the most."

Florida is also in the picture and Texas A&M had been, too, though Kevin Sumlin and his staff seem content to stand pat after landing ESPN 300 early enrollee QB Kellen Mond. And then there's the still-unknown option of teaming up again with Kendal Briles.

"KB is my dude," Stidham said. "I'm super tight with him. I still talk to him all the time. I'm still waiting to see what happens with him and where he might go and just take it into consideration."

Stidham is still living five minutes from Baylor's McLane Stadium but didn't attend any games. He watched the Bears' 6-6 season on TV as much as he could but said doing so was tough at times.

"It would've been hard for me to go in the stadium and be around those fans," Stidham said. "I love Baylor. It's just an unfortunate situation. I just couldn't be around it."

He has spent every day of the past five months preparing to win the starting job wherever he goes.

In addition to taking his online courses, Stidham has been working out four days a week with a local trainer to maintain his strength and conditioning. He served as a volunteer scout team quarterback at Waco Midway High School this season, participating in their practices to keep his arm fresh.

He busied himself on weekends by watching as much college football as possible and has been carefully studying coaches, offenses and depth charts to figure out where he'll fit best.

"I tried to really grasp everything I could about these teams," he said. "Sometimes I'd have one game on my TV, one on my laptop next to me and one on my phone. I can't tell you how much football I watched this fall."

Through it all, Stidham has badly missed being on the field and called his semester hiatus "pretty uneventful." He joked that this was his first season off since age 4.

"Man, it's tough not playing," Stidham said. "I miss it every single day. I'll go back and watch film from last year like, man, I wish I was out there. But it's been a good learning experience, even though it's been hard."

Although he's spent more than enough time studying for his next step, Stidham said he still has no idea where he's going to end up continuing his playing career. He's looking forward to figuring that out in the next few weeks.

"It's exciting to think about, but it's also pretty nerve-wracking just because, as of this very second, I don't know where I'm going to be in a month," Stidham said. "That's a little hard to take in. It's going to work out. I'm going to end up somewhere that wants me and somewhere I want to go. But it is pretty hard to sit here and think, a month from this very second, I don't know where I'm going to be."