Get Ready for College Football's QB Battle Saturday
Even though the college football season is still 20 long weeks away, this Saturday could have the biggest impact on 2016 of any single date on the offseason calendar.
A sizable amount of major programs across the country will be putting their all-important quarterback battles on full display in the busiest spring-game Saturday of 2016.
These competitions stretch across the bluest of college football blue bloods—Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, defending national champion Alabama, Georgia, LSU, USC—and some under-the-radar programs looking to make some noise in 2016:
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| Mississippi State | Nick Fitzgerald, Elijah Staley, Nick Tiano and Damian Williams | Noon ET | SEC Network |
| Maryland | Perry Hills and Caleb Rowe | 12:30 p.m. ET | BTN2Go |
| Notre Dame | DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire | 12:30 p.m. ET | NBCSN |
| Arizona State | Bryce Perkins, Brady White and Manny Wilkins | 1 p.m. ET | Pac-12 Networks |
| California | Ross Bowers, Chase Forrest, Max Gilliam, Zach Kline and Luke Rubenzer | 2 p.m. ET | Pac-12 Networks |
| Penn State | Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens | 2 p.m. ET | BTN2Go |
| Texas | Shane Buechele, Jerrod Heard* and Tyrone Swoopes | 2 p.m. ET | Longhorn Network |
| Alabama | Blake Barnett, Cooper Bateman, David Cornwell and Jalen Hurts | 3 p.m. ET | ESPN |
| Georgia | Jacob Eason, Greyson Lambert and Brice Ramsey | 4 p.m. ET | ESPNU |
| LSU | Danny Etling and Brandon Harris | 4 p.m. ET | SEC Network |
| Oregon State | Darell Garretson, Marcus McMaryion and Mason Moran | 4 p.m. ET | Pac-12 Networks |
| USC | Max Browne and Sam Darnold | 6 p.m. ET | Pac-12 Networks |
Of course, few of these battles—if any—will be decided Saturday. Competitions like these aren't usually won or lost in a spring game unless there's already a huge favorite coming into the scrimmage.
Several head coaches of the above teams have already confirmed their respective quarterback battles will last until fall camp, including Georgia's Kirby Smart and Notre Dame's Brian Kelly. The same can be expected from others such as Alabama's Nick Saban, who is presiding over his third quarterback conundrum in three seasons.
But as Kelly said this past weekend, the spring game could still go a long way toward evaluating who should lead his team at the most important position on the field for 2016.
"I think it will help immensely [in evaluating the quarterbacks], absolutely," Kelly said, per Nick Ironside of 247Sports. "They've got to be able to run a little bit, so we'll let them compete a little bit. ... This game kind of really is that dress rehearsal for them to be in that role as the starter and go out there and be focused and be locked in."
Kelly obviously values his quarterbacks' performances in a spring-game setting, and he'll oversee perhaps the highest-profile one of the upcoming weekend (he's even letting his defenses hit the quarterbacks for some portion of the scrimmage).
At the Fighting Irish's Blue-Gold Game inside Notre Dame Stadium, former starters Malik Zaire and DeShone Kizer will go head-to-head, leading separate teams in the contest.
Zaire opened last season as the new starting quarterback for Notre Dame but suffered a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2 against Virginia. Kizer, a former third-stringer, came off the bench to lead the Irish to a win in that game and then eight more victories en route to the Fiesta Bowl.
Now the Fighting Irish have a huge decision to make for 2016. Do they go back to Zaire, who edged Kizer in past quarterback battles in South Bend before his injury, or do they stick with the player who led them for most of 2015?
Any sort of separation in production Saturday could play into the final decision later this fall, as Bleacher Report's own David Kenyon wrote this week:
"With or without definitive conclusions, though, there will be expectations—and reactions. How well the quarterbacks execute during the spring game will shape the narrative of the competition throughout the coming months and briefly into fall camp. ...
Both players will likely put together respectable outings, perhaps reminding viewers that a starting job is never won or lost during the spring game. ... this offseason milestone will linger as evidence in a lengthy competition.
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Other powerhouse names will find themselves in the midst of one-on-one showdowns at the quarterback position Saturday, including USC.
The Trojans seemed to have a clear front-runner for its Cody Kessler replacement heading into spring ball in Max Browne, who was Kessler's backup for the last two seasons.
But the junior Browne has been pushed hard in camp by redshirt freshman Sam Darnold, who Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports said was "a bit more athletic and seems to have the stronger arm." While Browne still has the edge in the race, USC head coach Clay Helton won't call it, thanks to how Darnold is playing.
"I would say, 'Don't ever put anything past anybody,'" Helton said, per Scott Wolf of the Los Angeles Daily News. "The best player plays. Whether it's a redshirt freshman or a true freshman. You play him."
Another head-to-head competition will happen at Penn State, where Trace McSorley and Tommy Stevens will battle it out for an advantage in the race to lead offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead's new quick-strike offense in State College.
McSorley has the experience edge, but Stevens is a bigger quarterback and may have more of the durability needed to last in a long Big Ten season. Both have the athleticism to thrive in the system, which will rely on its quarterbacks to carry the ball on running plays.
At LSU, Brandon Harris will look to keep his starting job in a quarterback battle of sorts that also features former Purdue transfer Danny Etling.
Harris had an up-and-down sophomore season for the Tigers, and his development is widely viewed as the potential difference between a championship run for talent-laden LSU or another underwhelming campaign.
Texas, another proud powerhouse looking to get back to its glory days with a new-look offense in 2016, will be forced into a sort of one-on-one quarterback battle in its spring game Saturday.
With former starter Jerrod Heard going down for the rest of the spring with a shoulder injury, the spotlight will be on senior Tyrone Swoopes and true freshman Shane Buechele. The veteran Swoopes already had an advantage in the race before the Heard injury and has received rave reviews in the spring from his coaches.
However, Buechele seems tailor-made for new offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert's Baylor-esque, run-pass option attack, and head coach Charlie Strong won't rule out starting a true freshman if he's the right fit for the Longhorns this fall.
Georgia is in a similar situation this spring with its quarterback battle—split between valuable experience and overwhelming potential from a true freshman.
Greyson Lambert ran hot-and-cold for the Bulldogs in his first season since transferring from Virginia, and backup Brice Ramsey couldn't nail down consistent playing time in 2015.
They're both in a battle with Jacob Eason, a 5-star early enrollee who remained loyal to Georgia after Mark Richt's firing and Smart's hiring.
Many of the Bulldog faithful are anxious to see Eason take the reins under a new coaching staff, but throwing a true freshman into a starting role in the SEC is brutally tough. Eason, who has been rotating with Lambert and Ramsey during spring camp, has to prove he's Georgia's best choice for 2016—and that starts at the G-Day game.
"I need to use this game to judge [the quarterback battle], because this is hopefully going to be a real game environment, so I wouldn't want to name anybody going into it," Smart said, per 247Sports' Jake Rowe.
Smart's former team, Alabama, will find itself in a familiar position Saturday when it has its ESPN-televised spring game at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Alabama has faced a quarterback battle each of the last two offseasons, and the Crimson Tide have emerged from those competitions with a player capable of leading the team to a College Football Playoff berth. Last year, Jake Coker won a national title after emerging victorious in a race similar to the one Alabama faces right now.
Saban and offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin will have to sort through an array of quarterback-battle archetypes—the experienced former backup (Cooper Bateman), the consistent yet underrated contender (David Cornwell), the heavily hyped former 5-star prospect (Blake Barnett) and the exciting true freshman (Jalen Hurts).
While Saban told Chris Low of ESPN.com that Bateman is ahead in the race right now, there's still plenty of time for another contender to close the gap, beginning with Saturday's spring game.
Although fans shouldn't expect finality from the quarterback battles stretching from Mississippi State's search for Dak Prescott's replacement at high noon to USC's continued competition on the West Coast, Saturday will still be important for a number of potential title contenders.
This weekend will be the last time these quarterbacks get to show their worth in front of fans and under the microscope of the media until the opening kickoff this fall. Coaches will use that to evaluate who should lead and who should stay on the bench.
Numbers can and will lie from spring-game box scores thanks to differences in squad talent, scoring systems and clock management. But there's still plenty of room for reasonable takeaways.
This won't be a Saturday that shows up in the final win-loss records for 2016, but its effects at the quarterback position could carry far into the title races and playoff picture. Don't sleep on these spring games.
Stats courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.
Justin Ferguson is a National College Football Analyst at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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