Quarterbacks: There are a lot of them! Each week throughout the season, we’ll 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. Previously: Week 1 … Week 2 … Week 3 … Week 4 … Week 5 … Week 6 … Week 7 … Week 8 … Week 9 … Week 10 … Week 11.

1. Jayden Daniels, LSU

Alright, for weeks now out of respect for them both I’ve been heroically resisting the urge to compare Daniels’ gonzo statistical pace this season to Joe Burrow’s justifiably revered Heisman campaign in 2019. No more. After Daniels’ historic, 606-yard bonanza against Florida, the time has come. To the tape!


Let’s start with the obvious caveat: Burrow’s totals here cover a full 15-game season including the postseason, in which he was as productive as he was all year long all the way through the National Championship Game. The dude accounted for 65 touchdowns. Daniels has only played two-thirds as many games, with no shot at a championship of any kind. LSU is 0-3 in its 3 biggest games of the season.

On the other hand:

Am I saying Hand Him the Heisman? In mid-November? No, but also … kinda, yeah.

Daniels is swimming against the current in some crucial ways, the loss column coming in at the top of the list. There are still 3 Saturdays to go before the ballots are due, on the last of which he’ll will be sitting at home with the rest of us watching the other leading candidates make their final statements in their respective conference championship games.

Nobody outside of LSU fans will be watching him this weekend against Georgia State — unless something goes horribly wrong, anyway — and aside from Texas A&M’s coaching search, there won’t be much buzz surrounding next week’s finale against the Aggies. Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr. remain the betting favorites, for good reason: Both still have the opportunity to put up big numbers on big stages, including a potential head-to-head rematch in the Pac-12 title game. The other guy in the race, Marvin Harrison Jr., has a chance to ball out against Michigan in front of the season’s largest TV audience. It’s an active race with a lot of possibilities.

But is there any serious doubt right now who has been the most outstanding player in college football in 2023? By any measure, Daniels is having one of the greatest individual seasons the sport has ever seen. He’s excelled in week-in, week-out, in every aspect of the game, opposite a defense that ranks 109th in total D and 97th in scoring. In its 3 losses, LSU has allowed 45, 55 and 42 points against opponents with a combined 27-3 record; pair Daniels’ production with an average defense, and he’s running away with it. An awful lot can change in 3 weeks. But from this vantage point, that’s exactly what it should take to move him out of the driver’s seat: An awful lot.
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(Last week: 1⬌)

2. Carson Beck, Georgia

While we’re on the subject of lofty comparisons, Beck’s production through 10 games remains virtually indistinguishable from Stetson Bennett IV’s output in 2022. And just like Bennett, it’s almost impossible to separate his success from his surroundings. Per PFF, Beck faced pressure on exactly 1 of his 28 drop-backs in Saturday’s 52-17 romp over Ole Miss, as pristine a pass-blocking performance as you’re ever going to see in an SEC game. The Rebels, like multiple other defenses this season, never laid a hand on him. Until somebody does with some frequency, the Dawgs will continue to cruise.
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(Last week: 2⬌)

3. Jalen Milroe, Alabama

He’s still firmly on the growth curve, but with each passing week, Milroe is looking more like a quarterback capable of taking the Tide all the way. Building on his Week 10 breakthrough against LSU, he accounted for a school-record 6 touchdowns in Alabama’s division-clinching, 49-21 win at Kentucky — 3 rushing and 3 passing, to 3 different receivers. If the past 2 weeks are any indication, the 2024 Heisman buzz will be arriving right on schedule.
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(Last week: 4⬆)

3. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss

Add Dart to the long list of quarterbacks whose egos were as bruised in a lopsided loss to Georgia as their bodies. Lane Kiffin said postgame that Dart was cleared to return following a nasty collision in the third quarter, but by that point there was no reason to put him back in harm’s way. The focus now shifts to closing out a 10-win regular season against UL-Monroe and Mississippi State in pursuit of a New Year’s 6 bowl.
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(Last week: 3⬇)

5. Brady Cook, Missouri

Cook’s ascent over the first half of the season was based almost exclusively on his prowess through the air. As his passing stats have cooled off, though, he’s made up much of the difference with his legs, running for 216 yards (excluding sacks) and 3 touchdowns over the past 4 games. Meanwhile, his 176.7 passer rating on 24 attempts in a 36-7 win over Tennessee was his best since Week 5.

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(Last week: 5⬇)

6. Spencer Rattler, South Carolina

When Rattler looks good, he looks very good, and his 351-yard, 3-touchdown afternoon against Vanderbilt was one of those occasions. The 47-6 final marked South Carolina’s largest margin of victory vs. an FBS opponent since 2013. Not coincidentally, it also marked Rattler’s least-harried outing of the season, by far: Per PFF, Vandy generated pressure on just 3 of his 36 drop-backs and didn’t record a sack despite a 61.1% blitz rate.
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(Last week: 6 ⬌)

7. Graham Mertz, Florida

Florida’s season is off the rails, but give Mertz some credit: Opposite a collapsing defense, at least he has not made the Gators’ problems worse. His streak of 227 consecutive passes without an interception is a school record and the longest active streak in the country. Be sure to cite this statistic to Gators fans in your personal orbit to reassure them Mertz remains the man for the job in 2024.
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(Last week: 7⬌)

8. Joe Milton III, Tennessee

Milton never quite won over a fan base with a renewed sense of expectations, and the Vols’ 36-7 flop at Missouri might have been the moment he lost them. For starters, there was the point total itself, the lowest of Josh Heupel’s career as a head coach. (Or as a player, for that matter.) Then came the turnovers — back-to-back giveaways in the 4th quarter that cemented both the defeat and Milton’s status as the resident goat (not the good kind):

Of course, whether anyone ultimately remembers any of that or not depends on this weekend’s upset bid against Georgia, Milton’s last chance to rewrite his chapter in Tennessee history. Otherwise, most of the locals are ready to turn the page to the heir apparent, Nico Iamalavea.
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(Last week: 8⬌)

9. Devin Leary, Kentucky

Leary has not been the difference-maker the Wildcats hoped, posting the worst passer rating among SEC starters in conference play. At 6-4, though, Kentucky’s situation could be a lot worse. There’s still time to go out on a high note vs. South Carolina and Louisville, against whom Kentucky is a combined 10-3 since 2016. Spoiling the Cardinals’ dream season, especially, would rank among the most satisfying accomplishments of Mark Stoops’ tenure.
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(Last week: 9⬌)

10. Payton Thorne, Auburn

Thorne’s turnaround over the past 3 games probably owes as much to Auburn’s opponents (Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas) as it does to a light coming on. Then again, a month ago, the idea of Auburn scoring 48 points against anybody would have seemed like a fantasy. Whether Thorne gets the benefit of the doubt as the incumbent in ’24 still hinges on his performance in the Iron Bowl; in the meantime, it says enough about how far he’s come that another season in the saddle is even within the realm of possibility.
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(Last week: 12⬆)

11. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas

Of all the reasons the Hogs crashed and burned in 2023 — injuries, attrition, a doomed hire at offensive coordinator — quarterback might not crack the top 5. Still, given the enormous potential Jefferson teased as an underclassman, there’s no way to describe his season as anything but an enormous disappointment. Arkansas ranks among the nation’s most anemic attacks, and his stock is at an all-time low.

Now that a losing record is guaranteed, the next question is whether Jefferson’s run as QB1 is bound for the past tense. He has a 6th-year option in ’24 if he wants it, courtesy of the free COVID year. Considering the trajectory, though, that’s a big if. In his 3rd season as a starter, the product on the field has regressed to nearly as dismal a state as the outfit he initially joined in 2019, when the Chad Morris-era Razorbacks were the laughingstock of the league. Sam Pittman’s fate is hanging by a thread. It’s not a foregone conclusion, but all signs suggest the status quo in Fayetteville has run its course.
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(Last week: 10⬌)

12. Max Johnson or Jaylen Henderson, Texas A&M

Johnson, owner of a 4-4 record as a starter over the past 2 years, sat out Saturday’s 51-10 win over Mississippi State with broken ribs. Henderson, a transfer from Fresno State, stole the show in his place, accounting for 210 total yards and 4 touchdowns (2 passing, 2 rushing) in his first meaningful action as an Aggie. With a head-coaching search in full swing and Conner Weigman entrenched in 2024, who draws the starting assignment this weekend against Abilene Christian could not matter less.
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(Last week: 11⬇)

13. Will Rogers, Mississippi State

We’ll never know if Rogers’ presence over the past month would have been enough to save Zach Arnett’s job, but his absence certainly made the decision to move on from Arnett a lot easier. With Rogers reduced to a bystander, the offense cratered, managing a grand total of 2 touchdowns in its past 4 games. (The Bulldogs’ only TD in Saturday’s blowout loss at Texas A&M came via kickoff return.) Backups Mike Wright and Chris Parson were plainly overmatched, combining for 8 turnovers in that span.

For what it’s worth, Rogers is expected back this weekend, just in time for a last-gasp bid at bowl eligibility against Southern Miss and Ole Miss. The real question at this point concerns his 5th and final season of eligibility in 2024. Is he up for another rebuilding year in Starkville? Once a new coach lands, will it even be Rogers’ decision to make? As productive as his tenure has been, whether Rogers still fits into the equation is one of the first and most important variables the next staff will have to address.
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(Last week: 13⬌)

14. Ken Seals, Vanderbilt

Clark Lea summed up his approach to the position Saturday when he told reporters he didn’t consider pulling Seals in a 47-6 debacle at South Carolina because “I appreciate the fact that when he was in there, he took care of the ball and gave us a chance to punt.”

Which … fair enough. That he did. Vanderbilt punted 8 times (1 of which was blocked a returned for a touchdown), and Seals was not responsible for either of Vandy’s second-half fumbles. As the score indicated, he wasn’t responsible for much in the opposite direction, either, averaging 3.7 yards per attempt on 13-of-28 passing. The loss dropped Seals to 0-20 career as a starter vs. SEC opponents, an astounding run of futility in which the Commodores have topped 21 points only once.

Vandy only has 1 more game, at Tennessee in Week 13 following an oddly-timed open date. But the decision to stick with the juiceless Seals over the second half of the season over the bigger-armed but more turnover-prone AJ Swann has implications going forward, as well: Assuming Swann portals out, that would leave Seals as the de facto incumbent in ’24, a make-or-break year for Lea’s tenure. If that prospect bothers Lea at all, he’s running out of time to do anything about it.
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(Last week: 14⬌)