Ryan Mallett, a former quarterback for Michigan, reportedly drowned in Florida at the age of 35.
The employer of former Michigan football quarterback Ryan Mallett, who played one season in Ann Arbor, confirmed his passing on Tuesday.
First reported by the Deltaplex News, Mallett drowned in Destin, Florida. He was taken to a nearby hospital and eventually declared dead.
A message on the White Hall, Arkansas, School District Facebook page, where Mallett was hired a few months ago as the head football coach, said, “It is with great sadness that we share the loss of Coach Ryan Mallett.” “Coach Mallett was a well-liked educator and coach. We kindly ask that you keep the White Hall School District personnel, students, teammates, family, and coaches in your thoughts.”
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A Batesville, Arkansas native, Mallett spent his freshman year at U-M in 2007, before he transferred to Arkansas (2008-10), where he’s one of the school’s most decorated signal callers and holds more than a dozen records.
Seen by some evaluators as a first-round NFL talent, Mallett was selected No. 74 overall in the third round of the 2011 NFL draft by the New England Patriots. He spent three seasons with New England (2011-13), parts of two years in Houston (2014-15) and the final three years of his playing career in Baltimore (2015-17).
In total, he started eight games and appeared in 13 others across six NFL seasons; he went 190-for-345 passing (55.1%) and threw nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
Mallett was ranked by 247Sports as U-M’s third-best recruit since the tracking of such metrics began. The five-star quarterback was rated the No. 5 overall player in America and No. 1 in Texas, where he was a standout at Texas High School (Texarkana) and was Texas Gatorade Player of the Year in 2006.
Mallett played in parts of 11 games in Lloyd Carr’s final season in Ann Arbor, completing 61 of 141 passes (43.3%) for seven touchdowns and five interceptions. He largely backed up for Chad Henne and is widely known for his three-touchdown performance in Michigan’s 38-0 romp of Notre Dame.
However as a pro style quarterback, Mallett’s style didn’t quite fit the new direction of the roster when U-M hired coach Rich Rodriguez, who featured a spread offense.
Mallett opted to transfer to hometown Arkansas where he became a star as he was named second-team All SEC for the Razorbacks in both seasons (2009-10) as he threw for nearly 7,500 yards, 62 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
