The Bachelorette’s Tyler Cameron was almost a USF quarterback

When The Bachelorette premiered its newest season last night, contestant Tyler C. gave a shout out to his time at Wake Forest.

If things had gone slightly differently, he might have been bringing up USF on national television.

That’s because Tyler C. is Tyler Cameron, whom Bulls fans might remember as a former high-profile quarterback commit.

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Cameron starred at Jupiter High as a prized recruit in the 2012 class. Rivals ranked him as the state’s No. 2 quarterback prospect that year, behind Nathan Peterman (who has started four games for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills before signing with the Raiders in December).

Cameron committed to USF the August before his senior year but flipped to Wake Forest four months later.

The dual-threat passer’s decommitment left the Bulls in a bind; by that point, it was too late to land another quarterback.

“When a young man changes his decision, it's hard to pick up in January and start calling quarterbacks and saying, 'Oh, hey, we're interested again…’” then-USF coach Skip Holtz said that signing day.

“We would have liked to have a quarterback. When you looked at some of the quarterbacks that were available, we were behind, and I did not want to take one just to take one. At that point, I said I'd rather hold onto it. I feel very comfortable with our quarterback situation right now. ... We'll address it in next year's recruiting class.”

The Bulls did that by signing three-star recruit Mike White in ’13. But Holtz wasn’t around for it (he was fired after a 3-9 season).

Signing Cameron probably wouldn’t have saved Holtz’s job or drastically changed the program’s trajectory. Cameron appeared in only six games as a backup quarterback over three years at Wake Forest, then transferred to Florida Atlantic and finished his college career at tight end.

Two-plus years later, Cameron is starting a new career … as a reality TV participant.