Report: Sox sign ex-Arkansas, USC QB Mustain

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The White Sox have a decade-long tradition of acquiring former college quarterbacks, for what it's worth. Joe Borchard played QB at Stanford, Josh Fields was a signal-caller for Les Miles at Oklahoma State and Clayton Richard backed up Chad Henne at Michigan.

And now, according to a report, the White Sox have signed former Arkansas and USC quarterback Mitch Mustain to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. Mustain told KNWA, a Fox affiliate in Northwest Arkansas, that he will report to White Sox camp on March 8, about two weeks after pitchers and catchers report.

Mustain was a pitcher in high school, but didn't play any collegiate baseball as he focused on his football career.

A native of Springdale, Ark., Mustain was rated as a five-star quarterback by Rivals in 2006 and ranked only behind current Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (who, for the record, played baseball with reigning NL Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw at Highland Park High School near Dallas) among prep quarterbacks.

In his first season at Arkansas, Mustain put up fairly normal numbers for a true freshman, completing 52.3 percent of his passes for 894 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions. But toward the end of the season, his playing time dwindled and he decided to transfer following the Razobracks' Nov. 28 win over LSU.

His pedigree led him to USC, where he found himself stuck behind Mark Sanchez and Matt Barkley on the Trojans' depth chart. He only started one game for USC, that being a 20-16 loss to Notre Dame on Nov. 27, 2010 in Los Angeles.

After failing to be selected in last year's NFL Draft, Mustain had an unsuccessful 10-day trial with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League.

According to USA Today, Mustain signed a contract with the Georgia Force of the AFL on Sept. 30 of 2011 with plans to report to the team in March. That article was published on Dec. 26 of last year, though, so something must have changed for Mustain to have signed this deal with the White Sox.

Or maybe Mustain will give baseball a shot and then go back to football if he struggles in spring training. Either way, this should be an interesting story to follow this March.

Woo pig sooie.

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