Welcome to our Week 10 quarterback rankings.
Week 9 saw a couple of quarterbacks drop off the list while the top 3 remained intact. Injuries also continue to plague some of the country’s best passers as Julian Sayin is expected to be out again this week while the likes of Kamario Taylor and Dante Moore are out for the year.
Below, you’ll find a ranking of the nation’s 7 best quarterbacks entering Week 10.
A few notes to know before we dive in:
I’ll be leaning heavily on available advanced statistics, which recently got better thanks to CollegeFootballData.com’s addition of new passing metrics. A few helpful definitions to know:
Deep-throw rate — share of attempts targeted 15+ yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
CPOE (Completion Percentage Over Expected) — actual completion % minus expected completion %, where “expected” is what an average FBS QB would complete given each throw’s depth, direction, down, distance, and field position.
Dead-end play rate — share of all QB plays (pass attempts + sacks + rushes) that gain 4 yards or fewer without converting a first down or scoring. Measures how wasteful a QB is on a down-to-down basis.
(Rush) success rate — share of QB rush attempts that gain 50% of the yards-to-go on 1st down, 70% on 2nd, or 100% on 3rd/4th (TDs always count). Sacks and kneel-downs are excluded.
ADOT (Average Depth of Target) — average air yards per attempt: how far downfield past the line of scrimmage the average throw is aimed, counting incompletions and INTs at their intended target depth. Measures aggressiveness and intent, but not whether the pass was completed.
College quarterback rankings
Here we go:
1. Darian Mensah, Miami (Last week: 1)
Miami was nearly upset by North Carolina this past week, but the close call wasn’t Darian Mensah’s fault. He averaged over 10 yards per attempt again and threw 3 touchdown passes with 0 interceptions. It wasn’t all Malachi Toney, either — Mensah completed 15 passes for 199 yards to non-Toney targets. For the season, he’s still running a CPOE of nearly 16%.
2. CJ Carr, Notre Dame (Last week: 2)
No changes at No. 2 either, with Carr retaining his position ahead of this week’s massive tilt between the Fighting Irish and Hurricanes in South Bend. Carr has a CPOE of nearly 6% this year, though he has struggled to convert on deep passes (-1.5% deep CPOE), which is the main flaw in his profile. Carr rarely takes sacks or throws bad interceptions.
3. Gunner Stockton, Georgia (Last week: 3)
Gunner Stockton had a rough outing last week, but the Bulldogs didn’t ask him to do too much in a relatively easy win over Florida. Stockton is still running a 7.5% CPOE and his 4.7% sack rate is slightly above average.
4. Keelon Russell, Alabama (Last week: 7)
Keelon Russell was on bye last week, but I’ve still got him moving up a few spots this week as others on this list struggled. Despite being one of the P4’s youngest starting quarterbacks, Russell has an 8% CPOE, an ADOT of 10, a rushing success rate of 60% and he’s leading the SEC with 9.3 yards per attempt. The only issues — a sack rate near 9% and he’s thrown 3 interceptions in his last 2 games.
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5. Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss (Last week: 4)
I dropped Trinidad Chambliss a spot because he continues to underperform his reputation (and even this top-5 ranking) on a weekly basis. Last week, Chambliss threw yet another interception, giving him 8 on the year and 6 in his last 5 games alone. Although Ole Miss blew out Auburn, Chambliss had a modest CPOE of 1.7% and hardly pushed the ball downfield (12% deep-throw rate).
6. Devon Dampier, Utah (Last week: Not ranked)
Devon Dampier makes the list this week after a 260-yard, 3-touchdown performance against Cincinnati. He also rushed for 5 yards per carry in that win. For the season, Dampier has a borderline-elite CPOE of 8% and doesn’t have an eyesore anywhere on his profile. His sack rate is below 4% and his rushing success rate is almost at 60%. When he’s passing the ball well, Utah is very difficult to beat.
7. Lincoln Kienholz, Louisville (Last week: Not ranked)
Lincoln Kienholz makes his first appearance of the season. It may be a bit overdue — the former Ohio State transfer is leading the nation’s No. 1-ranked offense in yards per play. Last week against Stanford, Kienholz threw for 250 yards, rushed for 7 yards a carry and scored 3 total touchdowns. For the season, he has a 6% CPOE and a 54% rushing success rate on a high volume of attempts. Louisville will need some help to make the ACC title game, but the Cardinals would be dangerous if they get there.
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Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
