At this time last year, I pointed out how unique it was that there really weren’t any quarterback battles heading into fall camp. The only QB room that wasn’t publicly decided was, ironically enough, Vanderbilt. But we knew that Diego Pavia was going to be the guy. We just didn’t know that he was going to be the guy.
This year, there are a handful of unsettled quarterback battles in the SEC. I know that it might not feel like it after 11 SEC teams brought a quarterback to SEC Media Days, but there are technically some “QB battles” going into fall camp.
Yes, I put that in quotes. Call me crazy, but I don’t think all of these are true QB battles in the way that we’re accustomed to talking about in college football. In fact, there might only be 1-2 of those.
So, let’s discuss the remaining SEC “QB battles” ahead of fall camp:
Unless Ty Simpson shows up to camp without his right arm, he’s QB1 in Tuscaloosa
After several public declarations that Simpson would be the starter if Alabama played a game tomorrow, I’m joining in on that. I’d love to know how many quarterbacks haven’t gotten the starting job after getting that type of declaration from a head coach or offensive coordinator.
To a certain extent, I get why Kalen DeBoer played it that way. He’s got a transfer portal situation to manage. If Austin Mack was told that he wasn’t going to be the guy, he could announce his intentions to transfer elsewhere even though he’d be ineligible in 2025. That would leave Alabama with a QB1 who has 0 career FBS starts and a true freshman backup, albeit a decorated one in Keelon Russell. Going into a season with 2 scholarship quarterbacks isn’t ideal. Florida endured that last year and had to turn to a walk-on transfer from Yale (Aidan Warner) after Graham Mertz and true freshman DJ Lagway both got hurt.
But my guess is that Simpson will receive that vast majority of the first-team reps in fall camp, and internally, everybody in that locker room will know that he’s in line to be Jalen Milroe’s successor.
Eli Drinkwitz says he has a QB battle but I say he already went all in for Beau Pribula as QB1
Drinkwitz decided not to bring Pribula to SEC Media Days, perhaps under somewhat similar logic that DeBoer had with managing the transfer portal and not wanting to go into the season with just 2 scholarship quarterbacks with a true freshman backup. MLB Draft pick/quarterback Sam Horn was once considered the quarterback of the future. The emergence of Brady Cook put that on the back burner, and Tommy John surgery kept him sidelined for all of 2024. With all due respect to Horn, who’ll enter Year 4 at Mizzou, he’s locked in as the backup.
There’s no way that Drinkwitz signed Pribula off a Playoff-bound Penn State team to have him back up Horn. Pribula could’ve stayed at Penn State and had a legitimate role if he felt like he was in a true 50-50 battle at Mizzou or anywhere else that he was recruited. A reported 7-figure price tag wouldn’t have made sense if that were the case. Pribula’s skill set in the Kirby Moore offense is all sorts of intriguing, which will make the “fall camp battle” more of a formality than anything else. Pribula’s work ethic has been praised by his teammates, so I wouldn’t even entertain the notion that he could show up too entitled to hold onto that opportunity.
Mizzou will be an easy team to sleep on with an extremely favorable start to the schedule, but don’t sleep on Pribula emerging in a post-Cook world.
Kentucky is gonna end up starting Zach Calzada, and I’m gonna end up comparing him to Josh Johnson
As in, NFL quarterback Josh Johnson, AKA the guy who set the league record by playing for 14 different teams. Calzada is only on his 4th college team, but being a part of 3 different SEC teams is extremely rare. What are my favorite things about Calzada, you ask?
- He’ll turn 25 years old in November
- He committed to Texas A&M before Jimbo Fisher ever coached a game in College Station
- He was in the same 2019 recruiting class as guys like Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix, Spencer Rattler, Sam Howell and Max Duggan
- In 2021, he helped A&M end Alabama’s win streak vs. unranked teams, which dated back to the Louisiana-Monroe loss in 2007
- The last time he won a game as an FBS starter came vs. Bryan Harsin’s No. 12 Auburn in 2021 … in a game that had 0 offensive TDs
- He didn’t play a down at Auburn in 2022 behind TJ Finley (the even better Josh Johnson comp) and Robby Ashford (another adequate Johnson comp)
- He had 64 touchdowns (54 passing, 10 rushing) in 2 seasons at FCS Incarnate Word
- Mark Stoops turned to him as his transfer portal QB after Kentucky had a bottom-15 scoring offense in FBS
Calzada’s bio is … a trip. Local favorite Cutter Boley got the late-season nod from Stoops at the end of his true freshman campaign, but after a 4-8 year, the expectation is that the veteran (that’s an understatement) will get the nod to start as QB1. UK’s offensive savior won’t exactly enter the year with a boatload of external optimism.
Tennessee will go with Joey Aguilar to start, but my guess is that Jake Merklinger will get his opportunity soon
Aguilar was the “player to be named later” in the Nico Iamaleava trade with UCLA. Oh, are we not calling it that? OK, sure. I’m not ruling out the possibility that Josh Heupel figures things out and leads Tennessee to an 8-4 season. But how it gets there with this offense remains to be seen. A post-spring transfer who has to learn a new system will be in a tough spot, much less one who led FBS in interceptions (14) and turnover-worthy plays (25) at Appalachian State.
When Heupel started at Tennessee, Joe Milton was the starting quarterback as a post-spring transfer. Injuries and poor performance gave way to Hendon Hooker. Could Merklinger follow Hooker’s path? It’s possible, though those dynamics are different because Hooker came to Tennessee as a multi-year starter from Virginia Tech. Tennessee was always going to add someone to the quarterback room because again, teams don’t want to enter a season with just 2 scholarship quarterbacks with a true freshman backup. Teams coming off Playoff berths especially don’t want to do that.
Aguilar will have a big say in whether Tennessee wins the Iamaleava breakup/trade, so he’ll get the job out of camp as long as he doesn’t look completely overwhelmed by the tempo. How long he holds onto the starting job is anyone’s guess. My guess? A rough day at the office against Georgia could open the door for Merklinger by mid-September.
And Marcel Reed is locked in as Texas A&M’s QB1, but don’t sleep on the presence of Jacob Zeno
Let’s be clear. There’s not a quarterback battle in College Station. Reed isn’t going into fall camp trying to win a job. He’s got an opportunity to become a star in Year 2 with Collin Klein.
That’ll depend on A&M’s new receiver options providing a lift, as well as whether Reed can improve on a 27.8% adjusted completion percentage on throws 20 yards downfield (No. 15 among 16 qualified SEC quarterbacks) and a 46.2% adjusted completion percentage under pressure (No. 18 among 18 qualified SEC quarterbacks). That’s not a dealbreaker for a redshirt freshman.
But the presence of the well-traveled Zeno is worth monitoring. Why? The defensive-minded Mike Elko switched his starting quarterback multiple times in Year 1. Quietly, A&M added a guy who has 628 passing attempts at the FBS level. Zeno is so old (how old is he?) that he committed to Matt Rhule a few months after he led Baylor to a 1-11 mark in Year 1. The Class of 2019 recruit is entering Year 7 at the college level. He’s in his 4th different conference and Elko will be his 5th different head coach. In other words, don’t expect new surroundings to faze Zeno.
A&M knows how important it’ll be to have a trusted backup for a variety of reasons. One is that Reed has to be a factor with his legs with the full playbook at his disposal. There’s risk in that. A&M knows about that risk all too well. In each of the 4 seasons of the post-Kellen Mond era (2021-24), it had multiple guys earn multiple starts at quarterback. Again, there’s also the possibility that Elko could make a performance-based, in-season switch if Reed doesn’t look the part in what’s a relatively favorable start to A&M’s schedule.
I’d still bank on Reed holding down the starting job and leading one of the SEC’s better offenses. Just don’t dismiss the significance of Zeno in the backup role.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
