Power Ranking College Football Conferences by 2015 QB Depth
As Ohio State showed us last year, there are few things more valuable than having depth at the quarterback position in college football. By the time they were hoisting up the national championship trophy, the Buckeyes were on what was essentially their third-string passer, yet the quality of Cardale Jones' play was at (or above) the level of most teams' starters.
Few schools in the country are so fortunate as to have three QBs who could start, let alone two. In many cases, if the starter goes down, there's a whole lot of uncertainty waiting in the wings.
The range of quarterback depth varies from school to school, as it does from conference to conference. Some leagues not only bring back a lot of starters from 2014 but also have some talented backups available in a pinch, while others are heading into this season pretty thin across the board.
Here's our ranking of all 10 FBS conferences based on overall QB depth, factoring in their overall experience, performance and quality of potential backups.
10. Mountain West
1 of 10
The Mountain West is coming off a banner year that saw Boise State beat Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl while Air Force, Colorado State and Utah State each won 10 games. None of them return their primary starting quarterback from 2014, part of a league-wide dearth of experienced passers.
In its conference preview, rather than list the top five quarterbacks in the league, Athlon Sports ranked the five best QB battles to watch. They include ones at Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada and San Diego State, five of the eight bowl-eligible teams from last season.
Utah State is set to go with Chuckie Keeton, who has been starting games since 2011, but because of injuries has played in only nine games over the past two seasons. Yet he's the most-experienced quarterback in the conference.
Hawaii will have former USC quarterback Max Wittek starting, but most other jobs in the league are wide open at this point.
9. Sun Belt
2 of 10
For a league that regularly ranks at the bottom of FBS on most lists, the Sun Belt has a pretty decent group of quarterbacks. It's a lineup that isn't going to pull off a lot of big upsets against power opponents, but also not one that contains guys who are going to be liabilities for their respective teams.
Georgia Southern's Kevin Ellison ran for more than 1,000 yards at the helm of the nation's top rushing offense, while Arkansas State's Fredi Knighten was 12th in FBS in total offense. Georgia State's Nick Arbuckle and Texas State's Tyler Jones were solid as well, while Appalachian State (Taylor Lamb) and Troy (Brandon Silvers) were strong as freshmen in 2014.
The Sun Belt also adds a key transfer in ex-UAB quarterback Cody Clements, who could replace the departed Brandon Bridge at South Alabama. Louisiana-Lafayette has to replace multi-year starter Terrance Broadway, but the rest of the league is pretty set at quarterback.
8. Conference USA
3 of 10
Western Kentucky's Brandon Doughty led FBS in passing yards (4,830) and touchdowns (49) last season, and the NCAA gave him a sixth year of eligibility, so he can assault opposing secondaries for another year. But other prolific passers from 2014 have moved on, leaving Conference USA relatively thin at the top in terms of talent and experience.
The addition of Florida graduate transfer Jeff Driskel at Louisiana Tech helps, but a quarterback who struggled with consistency in the SEC becoming the second-best passer in C-USA doesn't speak well for the league's QB depth.
Austin Grammer (Middle Tennessee), Driphus Jackson (Rice) and Jaquez Johnson (Florida Atlantic) are solid passers, but overall the league isn't very strong at the position.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
7. American
4 of 10
The American Athletic Conference lost its best quarterback to graduation in East Carolina's Shane Carden, but nearly every other notable passer is returning for 2015. And many of them are juniors, which should make for strong QB play this fall and next.
Cincinnati's Gunner Kiel, Memphis' Paxton Lynch and Houston's Greg Ward all ranked in the top 50 nationally in passer rating in 2014, per CFBStats.com, with Kiel the highest at No. 18. Other returners include Temple's P.J. Walker, Tulane's Tanner Lee, Tulsa's Dane Evans and UCF's Justin Holman.
The league's newest member, Navy, brings the most experienced quarterback of the lot in senior Keenan Reynolds, who has 32 starts.
There are plenty of established starters in the American, but few teams can afford to lose that starter to injury or ineffectiveness.
6. Mid-American
5 of 10
The Mid-American Conference might be the deepest league in the country in terms of returning starters, but only a handful of these passers would likely have a chance to compete for a starting job in a power conference.
There were 16 players who attempted at least 100 passes in 2014, and 15 of them are slated to return. Miami (Ohio) is the only team that is guaranteed to start someone new this fall, though a handful of other teams still have decisions to make regarding their starter.
The MAC's top quarterbacks are very good, just not great. Western Michigan's Zach Terrell, Massachusetts' Blake Frohnapfel, Buffalo's Joe Licata, Central Michigan's Cooper Rush and Northern Illinois' Drew Hare will all put up big numbers, but none were particularly outstanding last season when facing power-conference opponents.
5. Big 12
6 of 10
TCU's Trevone Boykin is the early favorite in Las Vegas (per Oddsshark.com) to win the Heisman Trophy, which would give the Big 12 that award for the fifth time since 2001. He's not only the league's top hope for that award but also the flag-bearer for an overall thin quarterback lineup.
Iowa State's Sam B. Richardson, with 22 starts, is the second-most experienced starter behind Boykin (28 starts), followed by Oklahoma's Trevor Knight (15), Texas Tech's Davis Webb (14) and Texas' Tyrone Swoopes (12). Those last three, though, are all mired in quarterback battles and could each end up serving as backups in 2015.
That bodes well for the league's overall depth, especially since Knight and Webb are competing with players who have also started (Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes, respectively). But it also speaks to the Big 12's lack of established talent who can be counted on, which is why the conference ranks last among power leagues.
Baylor's Seth Russell, Oklahoma State's Mason Rudolph and West Virginia's Skyler Howard all have starting experience, too.
4. SEC
7 of 10
The SEC might be thin on returning starters at the quarterback position, but what it lacks in experience it makes up for with talent and promise.
Arkansas senior Brandon Allen is the most veteran, with 24 starts over the past two seasons, while Mississippi State's Dak Prescott (20) and Maty Mauk (18) and LSU's Anthony Jennings (13) and Patrick Towles (12) have been the starters in double-digit outings. After that the move goes from worldliness to aptitude, starting with Tennessee junior Joshua Dobbs.
Dobbs appeared slated for a redshirt each of the past two years before getting inserted into the lineup during the second half of the season. He ended up starting Tennessee's final four games in 2013 and the last five in 2014, going 5-4 overall but shining in last year's duty, and is now looked at by Volunteers coach Butch Jones as a "CEO quarterback" due to his headiness and talent, per Wes Rucker of 247Sports.
Auburn is putting everything behind junior Jeremy Johnson, who made two spot starts in his career but now is getting hyped as a potential Heisman candidate (and OddsShark.com has him as a solid 12-to-1 shot).
Other teams that return players who started last year include Texas A&M (Kyle Allen), Florida (Treon Harris) and Vanderbilt (Wade Freebeck and Johnny McCrary), while LSU's Brandon Harris started once in 2014 and is battling Jennings for the full-time job.
There's also Georgia's Greyson Lambert, a graduate transfer from Virginia who started nine games for the ACC school last season.
SEC's lineup of second-stringers is top-notch, which adds to its depth. A&M has Kyler Murray, the top-rated dual-threat passer from 2015, who is one of several true or redshirt freshmen that could end up being backups this season and in some cases get to start. Others include Alabama's Blake Barnett, Florida's Will Grier and Kentucky's Drew Barker.
3. Big Ten
8 of 10
Ohio State has so much quarterback depth it didn't bat an eye at the decision by senior (and three-year starter) Braxton Miller to move to wide receiver for 2015. If there were other teams in the Big Ten that had this luxury the league would have been ranked much higher.
But the Big Ten still has some good overall quarterback depth, just not outstanding. The Buckeyes have J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones—who were the starters during last year's title run—fighting for the job in training camp, and the loser could end up being the third- or fourth-best quarterback in the league behind the winner and Michigan State senior Connor Cook and Penn State's Christian Hackenberg.
Cook heads into his third year running the Spartans offense, same as Hackenberg with the Nittany Lions. Other veteran starters include Nebraska's Tommy Armstrong, Minnesota's Mitch Leidner, Illinois' Wes Lunt, Indiana's Nate Sudfeld and Wisconsin's Joel Stave.
Michigan's Jake Rudock has started 25 games, but those were all at Iowa, and Maryland's Daxx Garman has eight starts from his stint at Oklahoma State. Both moved on after getting passed over on their old teams' depth charts but could be the starter at their new locale.
Iowa's C.J. Beathard and Purdue's Austin Appleby both figure to take over as full-time starter after seeing action last year, while Northwestern and Rutgers are in line to have all-new starters.
2. Pac-12
9 of 10
A year after it opened play with 10 returning starters under center (or in the shotgun), the Pac-12 only has six quarterbacks who were their teams' No. 1 passer in 2014. But of that group, five are entering either their third or fourth season as a starter, and the sixth—Arizona's Anu Solomon—was the most prolific freshman quarterback in the country.
Stanford's Kevin Hogan has been starting since 2012, while California's Jared Goff, Colorado's Sefo Liuafu, USC's Cody Kessler and Utah's Travis Wilson are all juniors or seniors in their third year at the helm of their respective offense.
The Pac-12 also features two new starters who subbed in for injured teammates in 2014 and thrived. Arizona State's Mike Bercovici went 2-1 in place of Taylor Kelly, while Washington State's Luke Falk threw for 1,427 yards and 10 touchdowns in his three starts after Connor Halliday broke his leg.
Four schools will be going with new starters, including Oregon, which has to replace Heisman winner Marcus Mariota. But the Ducks aren't lacking in options. They'll either be going with Mariota's backup from last year, Jeff Lockie, who starred in the spring game, or Eastern Washington graduate transfer Vernon Adams.
Oregon State, UCLA and Washington could all be starting freshmen, though that group includes the top-rated pro-style passer in the 2015 class in UCLA prospect Josh Rosen.
1. ACC
10 of 10
It was a tight race for the top spot on this list, but the ACC gets the nod because all but one team in the 14-member league could be going with a quarterback that has starting experience. And of those potential starters, they include some of the best young passers in the nation.
Clemson's Deshaun Watson and Miami's Brad Kaaya combined to start 18 games last season as true freshmen, with Kaaya getting the nod for all 13 of the Hurricanes' contests en route to 3,198 yards and a conference-best 26 touchdown passes. And that was after not arriving at Miami until the summer.
"Week to week, I just learned from my mistakes and kept getting better and better and better," Kaaya said last month at ACC Media Days, per Paul Myerberg of USA Today. "Eventually, the game just slowed down for me."
Watson likely would have topped Kaaya's numbers had he not suffered numerous injuries in 2014, including a torn ACL that knocked him out of Clemson's postseason and shelved him for spring ball.
The ACC brings back six other quarterbacks that started all of their teams' games last season, including North Carolina State's Jacoby Brissett and Georgia Tech's Justin Thomas. Duke, Louisville, Syracuse and Virginia all return players with starting experience, while Florida State's quest to replace Jameis Winston includes ex-Notre Dame starter Everett Golson but also features Winston's backup from a year ago in Sean Maguire.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
