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The top 4 finishers from last year’s SEC will all have new quarterbacks in 2025. The conference champion, Georgia, said goodbye to Carson Beck and will look to Gunner Stockton to lead it back to the College Football Playoff. Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe were just drafted into the NFL. Nico Iamaleava left Tennessee in a brief bit of disarray to join UCLA.
Going on down the league table, the next 8 teams to finish behind the top 4 return 6 quarterbacks. That group includes Garrett Nussmeier, LaNorris Sellers, DJ Lagway and Diego Pavia.
It will be a year marked by change at the quarterback spot in the SEC. Last year’s marquee names are gone, but there are a number of young passers looking to make a move and assert themselves as household names the country over.
There’s plenty of reason to have confidence in this crop of quarterbacks.
And that’s what this ranking will be about: who do you have the most confidence in right now, at the end of the spring, to lead their team to success in 2025? Success looks different for different teams in the SEC. That will be taken into account. This isn’t a power ranking of quarterback quality. My colleague, Connor O’Gara, did that on Tuesday. Your list will look different than mine, and that’s fine. But here’s where I’m at.
16. Beau Pribula, Mizzou
2024 stats (with Penn State): 275 yards, 5 TD, 1 INT, 74.1% completion, 76.7 QBR
Why he’s here: Pribula could be excellent for Mizzou, but we don’t know what we don’t know about him as a starting quarterback. He wasn’t a blue-chip recruit, and in 24 career appearances for Penn State he only attempted 56 passes. I don’t know what he’ll be.
15. Jackson Arnold, Auburn
2024 stats (with Oklahoma): 1,421 yards, 12 TD, 3 INT, 62.6% completion, 47.8 QBR
Why he’s here: Less than 1 season into the Arnold experience, Oklahoma pulled the plug. The former 5-star quarterback was the talk of the town throughout the offseason leading into 2024, and OU benched him for Michael Hawkins after 4 games. It turned out the issues with OU’s offense weren’t just a product of the quarterback, but Arnold had his part in one of college football’s most sluggish offenses. Now, he’s taking over a Hugh Freeze offense that has routinely proven to be challenging for quarterbacks. He didn’t have a major turnover problem last season, and his legs add an extra dimension that should be utilized, but this is a big season coming up for Arnold.
14. Zach Calzada, Kentucky
2024 stats (with Incarnate Word): 3,744 yards, 35 TD, 9 INT, 65.6% completion
Why he’s here: Calzada has had a long and winding career. He has played in 38 career games (23 at Incarnate Word and 15 at Texas A&M) and made 32 starts (22 at UIW and 10 at Texas A&M). He has 8,707 career passing yards, 73 passing touchdowns, and 11 rushing touchdowns. Calzada spent a season at Auburn as well. During his starting season at A&M in 2021, he completed 56.1% of his passes, averaged 6.7 yards per attempt, and was picked off 9 times. Is his third stint in the league going to yield better results? Kentucky is hoping so.
13. Blake Shapen, Mississippi State
2024 stats: 974 yards, 8 TD, 1 INT, 68.5% completion, 50.5 QBR
Why he’s here: Shapen has thrown for 6,548 yards and 44 touchdowns throughout his career. He has 31 career appearances and 27 career starts. He played in a conference championship game several years ago. But he’s 11-16 as a starter and a shoulder injury sustained 4 games into last season put him on the shelf for the rest of the year.
12. Ty Simpson, Alabama
2024 stats: 167 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 56.0% completion, 73.3 QBR
Why he’s here: I have plenty of confidence in Alabama’s quarterback room as a whole. The Crimson Tide have a pair of former 5-star recruits and a guy coach Kalen DeBoer identified early as a fit for his offense who has now spent 2 seasons learning that offense. Simpson, the favorite to view the starting job, has been around the college game longer than either of his peers but he has very little live-action experience. And he’s another quarterback DeBoer inherited.
11. Gunner Stockton, Georgia
2024 stats: 440 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 70.3% completion, 54.9 QBR
Why he’s here: Georgia didn’t lose its CFP quarterfinal game because of Stockton, but the quarterback did post a 47.5 QBR in the game. He fumbled twice, losing a critical one inside his own 15 at the end of the first half. Stockton’s legs caught Texas off guard in the SEC Championship Game, and that element was a non-factor against Notre Dame. As the likely starter in 2025, Stockton has questions to answer.
10. Marcel Reed, Texas A&M
2024 stats: 1,864 yards, 15 TD, 6 INT, 61.3% completion, 75.4 QBR
Why he’s here: We know what Reed can do with his legs. He finished last season with 547 yards and 7 scores on the ground. He had 83 rushing yards in the win over Florida late in the year. And when Reed first entered the lineup, A&M’s run-first offense was a headache for everyone. But can Reed be effective as a dropback passer? According to PFF, Reed had 10 turnover-worthy plays last season and a 46% completion rate on passes that traveled at least 10 yards.
9. Austin Simmons, Ole Miss
2024 stats: 282 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 59.4% completion, 95.0 QBR
Why he’s here: Simmons won the backup job as a redshirt freshman for Ole Miss last season, and he stepped in for Dart early against Georgia when an injury briefly knocked the Rebels’ starter out of the game. The drive was incredibly impressive, though it was just one drive.
8. Joey Aguilar, Tennessee
2024 stats (with Appalachian State): 3,003 yards, 23 TD, 14 INT, 55.9% completion, 66.4 QBR
Why he’s here: The former Mountaineer has nearly 7,000 career passing yards and 56 passing touchdowns. He has had some outstanding games, and he has had some stinkers. The most immediate concern is that Aguilar has 51 turnover-worthy plays in the last 2 seasons. He led the nation in that category last fall and had the second-most in 2023. Now, Aguilar has to learn a new offense on the fly and Tennessee, which plays Syracuse and Georgia in the first 3 weeks of the season, can’t exactly give him a ton of time to get acclimated.
7. Taylen Green, Arkansas
2024 stats: 3,154 yards, 15 TD, 9 INT, 60.4% completion, 70.5 QBR
Why he’s here: I like Green quite a bit for his ability to hurt defenses with his legs, but he’s sort of like Aguilar in that turnovers are just part of the equation with him. Over the last 3 seasons, Green has a turnover-worthy play rate of 4.1%. He also holds onto the ball longer than anyone in the SEC outside of LaNorris Sellers. Green is one of the most physically gifted quarterbacks in the conference, so Bobby Petrino will live with him trying to run around and make something out of nothing, but he has a tendency to make some real head-scratching decisions.
6. Arch Manning, Texas
2024 stats: 939 yards, 9 TD, 2 INT, 67.8% completion, 87.5 QBR
Why he’s here: No one knows what Manning will look like when the lights get hot and he has to go out and beat a defense like Georgia’s. Last season, Manning flashed a cannon and an ability to rip through defenses with his legs. He started against a pair of terrible defenses, however. He was a top-ranked recruit for a reason, we just need to see him actually do it against a quality opponent before getting too far ahead of ourselves.
5. John Mateer, Oklahoma
2024 stats (with Washington State): 3,139 yards, 29 TD, 7 INT, 64.6% completion, 71.3 QBR
Why he’s here: Mateer had nearly 4,000 yards of total offense and 44 touchdowns last season for Washington State. He served as Cam Ward’s understudy and then emerged as a true game-changing weapon for the Cougs once Ward left. Mateer is taking a big step up in class, moving from what amounted to a Mountain West schedule last fall to an SEC one this fall, but he’s among the most dangerous quarterbacks in all of college football. He’s a gamer. I’m high on Mateer.
4. LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina
2024 stats: 2,534 yards, 18 TD, 7 INT, 65.6% completion, 69.8 QBR
Why he’s here: South Carolina’s starting quarterback is one of the most challenging players to bring down at the position in all of college football. He’s built like a tank and makes would-be tacklers bounce off him. He forced 47 missed tackles last season and averaged more than 4 yards per carry after contact. Sellers is still developing as a passer, though. He had more turnover-worthy plays (19) than touchdown passes (18) last fall and though he can rifle a football into any spot on the field, some of the touch throws that needed to be made last season were missed. Sellers closed the season strong; if he can hit the ground running in 2025, South Carolina is capable of challenging for a Playoff bid.
3. DJ Lagway, Florida
2024 stats: 1,915 yards, 12 TD, 9 INT, 59.9% completion, 57.9 QBR
Why he’s here: Lagway was exciting as a true freshman, and Florida hardly lost when he started. The Gators were one of the best stories in all of college football over the back half of the season, and Lagway was a big reason why. Lagway might have one of the best arms in the country. The ceiling is insanely high, and that was evident last season as he peppered defenses with deep shots. Florida was a different team with him at the controls.
2. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
2024 stats: 2,293 yards, 20 TD, 4 INT, 59.4% completion, 74.6 QBR
Why he’s here: The year prior to Pavia’s arrival at New Mexico State, the Aggies went 2-10 and averaged just 22.6 points per game. In Pavia’s final season with the Aggies, NMSU won 10 games for the first time in 60 years and improved its scoring by nearly a touchdown a game. The year prior to Pavia’s arrival at Vanderbilt, the Commodores went 2-10 and averaged 22.8 points per game. The ‘Dores improved by nearly a touchdown on offense in 2024 and beat Alabama for the first time since 1984. Pavia is a winner. As last season wound down, Pavia looked worn out. But he was spectacular early in the year before the workload took its toll. His 801 rushing yards ranked second only to Riley Leonard among power conference QBs last season, and there might not be a tougher player anywhere. If a team is looking to win games and compete, Pavia is the man to have steering the ship.
1. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
2024 stats: 4,052 yards, 29 TD, 12 INT, 64.2%, 80.0 QBR
Why he’s here: I think LSU’s starting quarterback can make a run at being the first player drafted in the 2026 NFL Draft. He’s that talented. Nussmeier had some troubling moments last season — he has a bit more gunslinger in him than a national title contender would like to see — but he’s a fearless pocket passer who can avoid pressure and hit every spot on the field. In his first year as a full-time starter, Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing and produced the seventh-most big-time throws, per PFF.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
