Fresno State football: Quarterback Brian Burrell leaves program

Fresno State head coach Tim DeRuyter announced Friday that quarterback Brian Burrell has been released from his football responsibilities and is giving up his final year of eligibility with the Bulldogs, and will call it a football career.

He is on track to graduate this spring with a bachelor's in communication.

Burrell started 13 games for Fresno State and helped lead the team to the Western division title and to the Hawaii Bowl, but he was far from the entrenched starter as the quarterback position was a turnstile most of the year.

"I'm very thankful for the dedication and determination that Brian Burrell brought to our program, especially this past season," DeRuyter said in a press release. "He now wishes to pursue other avenues with his life and we wish him nothing but the best moving forward."

This past year, Burrell threw for 2,620 yards and 22 touchdowns and 18 interceptions and had four games where he threw for over 300 yards.

Losing Burrell means that there is going to be a wide open competition this spring. Zack Greenlee -- who will be a redshirt sophomore in 2015 -- will be the only quarterback on the roster to take snaps, and should be the player to beat to be the starting quarterback for Fresno State next year. The only other competition at this time is Kilton Anderson and he redshirted this past year as a freshman.

Burrell leaving the program comes on the heels of Myles Carr, Maurice Poyadue, Dillon Root and T.J. Thomas all leaving the Fresno State program on Jan. 30.