Quarterbacks: There are a lot of them! Each week throughout the season, we will help you keep the game’s most important position in perspective by ranking the SEC starters 1-14 according to highly scientific processes and/or pure gut-level instinct.
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1. Matt Corral, Ole Miss

More than any other college quarterback of the past few seasons, Corral exists in what I’ve described before as the Mahomes Zone: A prolific quarterback, a miserable defense, engaged in a weekly struggle to see which one can break the scoreboard first.

The final score in 2020 split roughly right down the middle. The Rebels finished 5-5, outscoring opponents by a grand total of 9 points (392-383) in 10 games. They led the SEC in total offense and finished dead last in total defense. They won twice while allowing 42+ points; they also lost 3 times while scoring 35+, including the highest-scoring regulation game in SEC history against Alabama and an emblematic barn-burner at LSU in which Corral accounted for 409 total yards, 4 TDs and 6 turnovers to close the regular season. It was that kind of year.

Given that Corral smashed just about every school record in the books for a single season – total offense, completion percentage, yards per attempt, overall efficiency, you name it – the giveaways were less of an issue than a defense that regularly forced him to play recklessly in an effort just to keep pace in shootouts. With that kind of production, the turnovers they can live with. A defense that routinely leaves zero margin for error is another story.
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2. JT Daniels, Georgia

No position in college football has been more heavily scrutinized over the past few years than Georgia’s starting quarterback, and at no point has the situation looked as bleak as it did last year following season-defining losses to Alabama and Florida. Enter Daniels, cue the choir. After sitting out the first 6 games with a lingering knee injury, the former USC transfer was who he was supposed to be down the stretch, averaging 10.3 yards per attempt with 10 TDs, 2 INTs, and a stellar 175.8 passer rating in his 4 starts. The bowl game, a come-from-behind win over unbeaten Cincinnati, capped a 4-game winning streak to close the year and reset expectations for 2021 to the default setting: Playoff or bust.

Set aside the question of why it took till late November to finally get Daniels on the field, along with the larger questions about how Kirby Smart has managed the position throughout his tenure. Going forward, the offense has the potential to be the most explosive in Athens in ages. Offensive coordinator Todd Monken was hired to breathe life into a stagnant downfield passing game, and Daniels clearly has the arm to deliver on that mission. He should also have the weapons – his top 4 targets (George Pickens, Kearis Jackson, Jermaine Burton and Darnell Washington) were all freshmen and sophomores who collectively averaged 16.1 yards on 54 catches in Daniels’ starts – just a glimpse of an inexperienced lineup still working on its chemistry at the end of a frustrating campaign.

The pressing concerns going into Saturday’s opener vs. Clemson have less to do with Daniels than with injuries among his receivers. UGA still doesn’t know exactly what if anything it will get from Pickens this season coming off a torn ACL in the spring, or from 2020 injury casualty Dominick Blaylock as he continues his recovery; ditto LSU transfer Arik Gilbert, who has yet to join the team due to undisclosed personal reasons. Washington is also doubtful against the Tigers. Still, the Bulldogs’ remarkable depth at wideouts (as elsewhere) guarantees blue-chip options across the lineup. Given a full offseason together, this group has the opportunity to propel UGA to a special year, and Daniels into the top tier of draft-eligible passers in 2022.
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3. Bryce Young, Alabama

Young isn’t the first 5-star quarterback to sign up to play for Nick Saban (see also: Blake Barnett, Tua Tagovailoa), but he is the first since Alabama’s evolution into a spread passing juggernaut, and in many ways, he symbolizes that shift. Only a few years ago, the standard-issue Bama quarterback for decades was a limited, “plays within the offense” type with an in-state address, a frat boy haircut and a bright future in insurance. The new standard – the one Young knows, and the one he’ll be measured against – is a prized athlete recruited from a different time zone who’s bound for Heiman buzz and a lucrative career at the next level.

For some context, consider that the last former Alabama QB to start a season-opener in the NFL was … wanna take a shot at it before reading on? Fine: Richard Todd, in 1984. The only others who have pulled starting duty at any point in the intervening 37 years are Brodie Croyle (10 career starts in relief), Tagovailoa (9 starts), AJ McCarron (4 starts), Hurts (4 starts) and Greg McElroy (1 start). As of this week, though, with Mac Jones’ official promotion to QB1 in New England, Bama arguably rivals Oklahoma and Clemson as the sport’s premier QB pipeline.

It’s almost impossible to imagine a player like Young, a dynamic athlete from southern California with maximum hype from the online recruiting services, opting to play for Alabama as recently as 4 or 5 years ago. (In fact, his high school program, Mater Dei, is – or was – a renowned pipeline to USC, where Young was committed for most of the recruiting process.) Even as the sport’s dominant brand, that version of Alabama football offered little for an ambitious young quarterback on the other side of the continent. The current version offers him everything.
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4. Emory Jones, Florida

After 3 years as QB2, we don’t know much about Jones as a passer. But we’ve seen enough of him in the Wildcat role to know what he brings to the table as a runner, and we’ve seen more than enough of Dan Mullen’s offense over the years to know his mobility will be put to good use. The play-calling figures to be much more run-oriented with Jones at the helm than it was with Kyle Trask – last year’s top 3 receivers are gone, too – but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be any less efficient.
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5. Bo Nix, Auburn

Nix is still a Tiger and still atop the depth chart, neither of which was certain after Gus Malzahn was shown the door last December. Now: How firm is his grip on the starting job?

Unlike Malzahn – who recruited Nix, groomed him as a Day 1 starter, and relegated the other intriguing talents in the room, Malik Willis and Joey Gatewood, to the transfer portal as a result – the new staff under Bryan Harsin doesn’t have a personal stake in Nix’s success. After getting a good look at the incumbent in the spring, they pursued LSU transfer TJ Finley, who started 5 games last year as a true freshman, with a clear motive: To stoke the kind of legitimate competition Nix has largely been spared up to this point.

Ideally, you’d like to think a former 5-star prospect with 24 starts is on the verge of a breakthrough in Year 3. But Nix has never come across as a breakthrough sort of talent. The hype that accompanied him out of high school was based on his pedigree, production and polish; his arm and athleticism, not so much. His profile is more along the lines of a player who reaches his ceiling relatively quickly and sustains it, not a raw specimen who needs 3 years before the light comes on. If the Nix we saw in 2020 – limited, erratic and underwhelming in big games – was the finished product, it’s only a matter of time before Finley gets his crack.
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6. Max Johnson, LSU

The league’s most compelling QB competition got a lot less interesting earlier this month when the front-runner, Myles Brennan, broke his non-throwing arm preparing for a fishing trip. His absence (duration TBD) leaves the job to Johnson, the lanky sophomore who achieved folk hero status last December by leading wins over Florida and Ole Miss in his first 2 carer starts.

Johnson, a 4-star lefty listed at 6-5/219, isn’t likely to blow anyone away with his arm strength or mobility. But then, neither did his dad, Brad, who played 15 years in the NFL and won a Super Bowl as starting QB of the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In a limited role last year, he made plays (8 touchdowns, 9 completions of 25+ yards), kept the ball out of trouble (1 INT) and by season’s end looked right at home in a college offense. After the upset over Florida, he was singled out as the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Week; in the finale against Ole Miss, he put the ball in the air 51 times for 435 yards, a school record for a freshman, in one of the wildest shootouts of a season that saw more than its share.

Of course, having a rising talent like Kayshon Boutte on the receiving end goes a long way. (Often literally.) Their numbers in the last two games alone put Johnson and Boutte on the short list of the most productive returning pass-catch connections in the SEC. By the time Brennan returns to the fold the question may have been long settled.
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7. Connor Bazelak, Missouri

Bazelak’s first start, a 406-yard, 4-TD outing in an upset win over LSU, was his best by a mile: He didn’t come close to putting up those kinds of numbers again, managing just 3 touchdown passes over Mizzou’s last 7 games vs. 5 interceptions. As you’d expect for a redshirt freshman not far removed from running the triple-option in high school, he especially struggled to push the ball downfield, connecting on just 14 of 50 throws of 20+ yards per PFF. His long gain in that span covered just 33 yards.

Still, 5-3 as a starter vs. SEC opponents is 5-3 as a starter vs. SEC opponents, and for an outfit that came into the season with no identity or expectations under first-year coach Eli Drinkwitz that counts as a solid first step. Incoming freshman Tyler Macon will get a good, long look in the spring (which will be Macon’s first action in more than a year due to COVID-19), but displacing an incumbent who’s still on the upward slope of his career would be a significant upset. If Bazelak survives the challenge from a more dynamic athlete, he has the makings of a potential four-year starter.
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8. Joe Milton, Tennessee

Milton, a Michigan transfer, was the latecomer to Tennessee’s QB competition this summer, and arguably the longest shot to win it after crashing and burning in 2020 in his first turn as a starter in Ann Arbor. Ultimately, though, his upside carried the day. The depth chart for the Vols’ opener against Bowling Green lists Milton on top over fellow transfer Hendon Hooker and blue-chip sophomore Harrison Bailey.

At 6-5/244, Milton certainly looks the part, and he has the military-grade arm strength his stature suggests. At his last stop, though, a promising start quickly gave way to indecision and inaccuracy as the Wolverines’ season deteriorated; in his last 3 starts he completed just 48.4% of his passes with 3 TDs, 4 INTs and 6 sacks before coaches finally pulled the plug with the Wolverines trailing 17-0 at Rutgers. Between the pandemic, the small sample size and a thumb injury on his throwing hand, there are still plenty of reasons to defer to Milton’s potential over his performance so far. But Vols fans eager for some stability might want to give it a while before they get too comfortable with the idea of him, or anyone on the current depth chart, really, as a long-term solution.
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9. Will Rogers, Mississippi State

Mississippi State fans spent all of 2020 listening to warnings that Mike Leach’s version of the Air Raid is not really as dynamic as its high-flying reputation suggests, because so much of his scheme revolves around short, safe passes along the line of scrimmage that effectively function as handoffs. In practice, Rogers’ stat line as a true freshman was a perfect example: Although he led the league in attempts per game (38.4), Rogers ranked last among SEC starters in average depth of target (5.7), yards per attempt (also 5.7), and yards per completion (8.2), with a little more than 25% of his passes aimed behind the LOS. By comparison, only 6.8% of his attempts traveled 20+ yards, with only 5 completions.

All of that said, it would be unfair to focus too much on the results without acknowledging the circumstances. In normal conditions, Rogers would have been tagged for a redshirt; instead, he was thrown into the fire almost immediately, and by the time he was promoted to full-time starter at midseason, the offense he inherited was a hopeless, depleted wreck that had managed a grand total of 3 touchdowns in its previous 4 games. To go from that point to closing with back-to-back wins over Missouri and Tulsa was as encouraging as the first half of the season was deflating. Leach made it a point to bring in some competition, but Rogers is on track to make strides in Year 2.
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10. Haynes King, Texas A&M

More than any other player here, King is a blank slate: He arrived as a 4-star recruit; he took 16 snaps as a true freshman, all in garbage time; he attempted 4 passes yielding 1 touchdown and 1 interception. But expectations are running high for A&M following a top-5 finish, and as the heir apparent to the departing Kellen Mond, King will be thrust into a spotlight role with virtually everyone else who touched the ball in 2020 back in the fold and very little margin for growing pains. Either he rises quickly on this list, or else he may not be on it for long.
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11. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas

Arkansas fans have only gotten a couple of glimpses of Jefferson’s potential over the past 2 years, but what little they’ve seen has been encouraging. His lone 2020 start in place of Feleipe Franks – a 306-yard, 4-TD effort in a shootout loss at Missouri – was effectively an audition for the full-time job, and went well enough that it may have staved off an effort to pursue a veteran transfer with more starting experience. The Razorbacks did bring in former Ole Miss backup Kade Renfro (who never saw the field in Oxford), and also owe redshirt freshman Malik Hornsby a chance to make good on his 4-star billing out of high school. Clearly, though, Jefferson enters the season as the frontrunner, with all the expectations that go with it.
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12. Will Levis, Kentucky

Levis, a Penn State transfer, crashed a wide-open QB competition this summer and wasted no time resolving it in his favor. At Penn State, Levis was largely relegated to a sort of jumbo Wildcat role, logging more rushing attempts (133) than passing (102) over the past 2 years, and failed to capitalize on his audition for the full-time job last year after starter Sean Clifford was benched. In Lexington, though, the optimism in camp has been all about Levis’ arm, a big-league asset that reportedly separated him from the less imposing Beau Allen and the less accurate Joey Gatewood. (Gatewood subsequently opted to reunite with Gus Malzahn at Central Florida.)

After years of conservative, run-oriented attacks that relied heavily on the quarterback as a rusher, Mark Stoops has made no secret about prioritizing the passing game under new offensive coordinator Liam Coen. In Levis, if he pans out, the Wildcats potentially found a guy who can do both. But as always, that’s a very big if.
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13. Ken Seals, Vanderbilt

Seals’ growth as a true freshman was the only remotely positive aspect of an otherwise miserable season for Vandy — Sarah Fuller’s successful PATs notwithstanding — and keeping him in the fold was an important win for new head coach Clark Lea. Despite a respectable midseason run, though, Seals went out on a low note in season-ending blowouts vs. Missouri and Tennessee, and the Commodores finished as the SEC’s lowest-scoring offense en route to the first winless season in school history. Whatever long-term promise he may possess going into Year 2, there won’t be any bonus points for merely surviving long enough to see Year 3.
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14. Zeb Noland, South Carolina

The Gamecocks’ starting QB in 2020 was Collin Hill, a 6th-year senior whose career had been largely derailed by multiple ACL tears at his previous stop, Colorado State, and who seemed like an afterthought until he unexpectedly beat out incumbent Ryan Hilinski in the preseason. Their starter for Saturday’s season opener against Eastern Illinois: Noland, a 6th-year senior with prior stops at Iowa State and North Dakota State, who was such an afterthought he wasn’t even expected to be on the roster at all – he originally transferred to Carolina to serve as a graduate assistant coach, only to take up the call earlier this month following an injury to presumptive starter Luke Doty.

(Say what you will about the ongoing professionalization of college football: You will never see an NFL team promote an intern to starting quarterback.)

Obviously, turning to obscure transfers on their last legs 2 years in a row is an indictment of recruiting at the position under the departed Will Muschamp. His first major QB signee, Jake Bentley, never reached his potential at Carolina and transferred out after being surpassed by Hilinski. (Bentley spent last season at Utah and is currently the projected starter at South Alabama.) Hilinski, a blue-chip prospect, struggled as a freshman and barely stepped on the field last year behind the pedestrian Hill. (Hilinski transferred to Northwestern, where he’s slated to be the backup.) Brandon McIlwain and Dakereon Joyner, both 4-stars, transferred out and switched to wide receiver, respectively. The other contender for the starting job following Doty’s injury, senior Jason Brown, transferred in the spring from an FCS school, St. Francis, whose 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19.

Barring a dramatic turn of events, the job will be Doty’s once he returns from his foot injury, which could be as soon as a Week 2 trip to East Carolina. Doty was also a touted recruit, and although he had little opportunity to validate that last year in a couple of season-ending starts under a lame-duck coaching staff, he does represent the Gamecocks’ best hope going forward. If he’s not representing them in this feature the rest of the season then something has gone very wrong. But given the track record here, that’s hardly an unthinkable scenario.
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