You can split returning SEC quarterbacks into groups.

There are the 5 guys fresh off New Year’s 6 bowl berths (Carson Beck, Jalen Milroe, Quinn Ewers, Jackson Dart and Brady Cook). There are talented quarterbacks-in-waiting who will be first-time starters barring injury (Garrett Nussmeier, Jackson Arnold, LaNorris Sellers and Nico Iamaleava). There are the returning starters who flashed potential but ultimately weren’t world-beaters after transferring from Big Ten schools (Graham Mertz and Payton Thorne).

And of course, there are transfers at Mississippi State (Blake Shapen), Vandy (Diego Pavia/Nate Johnson), Kentucky (Brock Vandagriff), Arkansas (Taylen Green).

Then there’s Conner Weigman.

Weigman doesn’t fit into a box with this batch of SEC quarterbacks. He returns on a path that’s 1-of-1 among that group. That’s without digging into the fact that the coach who recruited/developed him was just handed a $77 million buyout to do anything but stay and coach at Texas A&M.

You can all but guarantee that a guy without more than 4 starts in a season won’t be a preseason All-SEC guy, and because of those aforementioned talented new starters, he’s going to be on the back burner. That’s reality. That’s fine.

But a lack of preseason All-SEC love doesn’t mean that Weigman is lacking All-SEC upside.

Yes, he has to stay healthy. A&M has to get better with pass protection, plus he needs to develop a rapport with his new pass-catchers. Jabre Barber came over from Troy after a 999-yard season and Cyrus Allen should become a go-to target after a prolific season at Louisiana Tech. Did the latter half of that sentence underwhelm you? It shouldn’t have. A year ago, that would’ve described Tre Harris, who went from a lesser-known but effective receiver at Louisiana Tech to one of the SEC’s most prolific receivers at Ole Miss.

(Don’t take that as my way of saying that Allen will be the next Harris. I’m just saying if you rolled your eyes at where he’s coming from, you’re probably forgetting that.)

My optimism in Weigman is rooted in a couple of things. First, look at what he’s done as a starter. In those 8 games, he has a 16-2 TD-INT ratio. Those 2 picks came at Miami, where Ainias Smith had a drop that led to a pick and Weigman was trying to make something happen on 4th down when they were trailing late in a 48-33 loss. That loss was the byproduct of a young A&M secondary getting shredded, not the 365 total yards and 3 touchdowns from Weigman behind an overmatched offensive line.

That was 1 of the 2 instances in which Weigman started and finished a game — that’s excluding his season-ending injury against Auburn as one of those starts — in which he failed to have a QB rating of at least 158.0. Just for a little perspective, Quinn Ewers had a QB rating of 158.5 in 2023.

Ewers took that next step and benefited from having an elite play-caller in his ear in Steve Sarkisian. If Sarkisian was considered the top offensive mind in the Big 12, Collin Klein wasn’t very far behind him. With full play-calling duties in 2022, he navigated a midseason quarterback injury and helped guide Kansas State to a Big 12 title. All Klein did was follow that up by leading the Wildcats to a top-10 scoring offense. Mind you, that was with a team that lost historically prolific tailback Deuce Vaughn.

Klein, of course, is now the A&M offensive coordinator. His arrival was the first big hire by Mike Elko. There was a question about whether Klein would bring his Kansas State quarterback, Will Howard, who hit the portal at season’s end.

Nope. That’s because Weigman stayed in College Station. He and Klein appealed to one another, which has only continued since the latter’s arrival.

“I think it’s been tremendous,” TexAgs’ Billy Liucci told me. “Just talking to Conner, I can see a difference. There’s been a couple times where he’s been about to come here for interviews and he’s texting me, ‘Hey, I’m sitting here watching film.’ He’s in it. He’s in the offense. He’s really excited about it, and I think Collin Klein is beyond excited for a guy like him.”

If you do as Weigman, watch the film, you can see the appeal for an OC.

I know, I know. It’s New Mexico. You weren’t impressed.

Still. Go back and watch him against Miami or the Ole Miss game in 2022, and you’ll see it. The poise, the pocket presence, the mobility, the touch, etc. It’s all there.

That Miami game especially showed off Weigman’s ability to handle pressure. He was under duress all afternoon and he still gave A&M a shot. Heading into that Auburn game, he led all FBS quarterbacks with 8 touchdown passes against the blitz (via PFF). In those 4 starts in 2023, his 3rd-down QB rating was 176.4 and he averaged 9.8 yards per attempt.

In a small sample size, Weigman looked like a guy who was on his way to living up to that 5-star billing in Year 2. Much like we saw in that LSU game to close 2022 when the Aggies actually ran pre-snap motion and utilized tempo, Weigman’s skills were on display with a play-calling upgrade under Bobby Petrino (the offense improved by 11 points per game even though it had 3 starting quarterbacks because of injuries).

That should continue with the type of tempo that Klein likes to run. That appealed to Elko in the hiring process.

Klein, a 34-year-old OC, is exactly what the doctor ordered after 6 years of Fisher with his archaic approach to offense. Weigman has more upside than any A&M quarterback since Kyler Murray left College Station. We haven’t gotten to see it on display for a full season yet.

If we get a full season of Weigman, it could be the best season that we’ve seen from an A&M quarterback since … nah. Let’s not go there. Let’s instead just lay out the realistic expectation for Weigman in 2024.

By season’s end, he won’t be forgotten among SEC quarterbacks.