Looks like he meant it, as Justin Burns, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound quarterback and senior-to-be at Georgia’s Alpharetta High, has given UD an early verbal commitment.

Rivals.com listed Purdue, Appalachian State, Bowling Green, East Carolina, Holy Cross, Miami of Ohio, Samford and William & Mary as other schools with an interest in Burns. It didn’t mention any other offers.

Keeler’s reliance on transfers at QB has been widely documented since he became Delaware coach in 2002. He had Andy Hall (Georgia Tech) in 2002 and 2003, Sonny Riccio (Missouri) in 2004 and 2005 and Joe Flacco (Pittsburgh) in 2006 and 2007. But Ohio State transfer Schoenhoft’s troubles and the inability of Ritacco, who became the first Keeler recruit to start for him at QB late in the 2008 season, exposed Delaware’s lack of depth in a 4-8 finish. In retrospect, the Hens were lucky something like that hadn’t happened before because their QB depth had not been great.

Penn State transfer Pat Devlin is expected to take the helm in 2009, when he’ll be a junior. He’ll be very good, no doubt. In the meantime, Delaware will have two freshmen on the 2009 team – scholarship recipient Trevor Sasek of Spring-Ford, Pa., and recruited walk-on Tim Donnelly of Berlin, Md. Burns will join them next year as Delaware begins building its own stable of quarterbacks.

In new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jim Hofher, a former Cornell QB and head coach at Cornell and Buffalo, it has a worthy architect.