Power Ranking College Football's Best 2016 Dual-Threat Quarterbacks
Will they throw the ball or keep it and run? And will we be able to stop them either way?
This is what goes through the minds of college football defensive coordinators as they prepare for the top dual-threat quarterbacks, those who are so dangerous that any game plan to slow them might end up having the size and complexity of a Stephen King novel.
Though the dual-threat passer still hasn't become the status quo at the professional level, it remains a staple of quarterback play in college. Most FBS teams are steering in this direction, as eight of the top 100 rushing tallies in 2015 were by QBs, and a dozen passers had at least 157 carries last season.
Not all of those dual-threat quarterbacks are still in the college game, but those who return still make up a strong group. We've ranked the best of them heading into 2016, based on their past production and what's expected this season.
12. Skyler Howard, West Virginia
1 of 12
Year: Senior
Height, weight: 6'0”, 207 lbs
2015 stats: 3,145 passing yards, 54.8% comp., 26 TD, 14 INT; 502 rushing yards, six TD
Skyler Howard struggled with his accuracy throughout last season, completing below 50 percent on four occasions and getting picked off in 11 of 14 games in 2015. He's been a hit-or-miss passer, but when able to run the ball his throwing performance tends to do better.
Four of his six touchdowns came in the red zone, when Howard was able to throw defenses off-balance while having to worry about his ability to take off. That led to 13 red-zone passing TDs and just one interception.
Howard was one of three West Virginia players to rush for at least 500 yards and six TDs last year, and with Wendell Smallwood leaving for the NFL his involvement in the run game should increase.
11. Joshua Dobbs, Tennessee
2 of 12
Year: Senior
Height, weight: 6'3”, 207 lbs
2015 stats: 2,291 passing yards, 59.6% comp., 15 TD, five INT; 671 rushing yards, 11 TD
Joshua Dobbs has been starting since his freshman year, but last season was his first where he had the job from the outset. He was best in the second half, when Tennessee ran off six straight wins, but for the Volunteers to meet expectations in 2016 he'll have to put it all together throughout the year.
The ability to make big plays with the run has been established, as Dobbs has scored 20 rushing touchdowns in his career and had three 100-yard rushing games. It's the passing part that has to improve, as Dobbs has failed to complete 60 percent of this throws in 12 of 26 appearances.
"If UT is going to compete for bigger, more important things, Dobbs has to be more accurate and get some chunk plays through the air," Bleacher Report's Brad Shepard wrote.
10. DeShone Kizer, Notre Dame
3 of 12
Year: Redshirt sophomore
Height, weight: 6'4”, 230 lbs
2015 stats: 2,880 passing yards, 62.9% comp., 21 TD, 10 INT; 520 rushing yards, 10 TD
DeShone Kizer may be the only quarterback on this list that isn't a certainty to be starting this fall, since Notre Dame is taking its time deciding between he and Malik Zaire. Zaire has shown flashes of great play, both after taking over for Everett Golson at the end of 2014 and before getting hurt early last season, so the Fighting Irish are keeping their options open.
Based on performance alone, though, Kizer has shown what he's capable of. Thrust into the middle of a road game as a redshirt freshman last September, Kizer calmly and cooly throwing two touchdown passes (including the game-winner in the final minute) at Virginia.
Kizer went on to average just short of 300 yards per game of total offense in his 11 starts, and as the year went on he showed more of a willingness to run. His 143 rushing yards and two TDs at Temple were critical to victory, and if not for his 128 rushing yards and a TD at Stanford the Irish wouldn't have been in it at the end.
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9. Quinton Flowers, South Florida
4 of 12
Year: Junior
Height, weight: 6'0”, 210 lbs
2015 stats: 2,290 passing yards, 58.9% comp., 22 TD, eight INT; 991 rushing yards, 12 TD
The second-half surge of South Florida last season can be directly tied to the emergence of Quinton Flowers. During the Bulls' 1-3 start, Flowers threw half of his interceptions, scored only twice on the ground and averaged 183.5 yards per game of total offense.
In going 7-2 the rest of the way, South Florida benefited from Flowers' 283 yards per game of total offense that included five games with at least 200 passing yards and seven with at least 50 rushing yards.
"Flowers' ability to get the ball downfield was huge," SB Nation's Bill Connelly wrote. "He averaged 14.1 yards per completion."
Flowers averaged at least 7.94 yards per play six times in the Bulls' final seven games, and he accounted for at least three TDs in seven of the last eight games.
8. Lamar Jackson, Louisville
5 of 12
Year: Sophomore
Height, weight: 6'3”, 196 lbs
2015 stats: 1,840 passing yards, 54.7% comp., 12 TD, eight INT; 960 rushing yards, 11 TD
It's best to evaluate Lamar Jackson by looking at him at the end of the 2015 season compared to the start. Going strictly off his numbers won't fully describe the improvement he made as a true freshman, though it does speak to how much better he can still get.
Jackson's first career pass attempt, in the opener against Auburn, was horribly overthrown and intercepted. By mid-October, though, he'd thrown for 307 yards and three touchdowns against a Florida State secondary stocked with future NFL stars, though further struggles moved him in and out of the lineup.
By year's end, Jackson had a breakout game in the Music City Bowl win over Texas A&M when he threw for 227 yards and two TDs on just 12 completions. He also ran for 226 yards and three scores in that game, finishing the season as Louisville's leading rusher by more than 300 yards.
7. Patrick Mahomes II, Texas Tech
6 of 12
Year: Junior
Height, weight: 6'3”, 219 lbs
2015 stats: 4,653 passing yards, 63.5% comp., 36 TD, 15 INT; 456 rushing yards, 10 TD
Last year's national leader in total offense, Patrick Mahomes has been a product of both his ability to make plays but also his team's inability to stop other teams from doing so. This isn't meant to slight Mahomes as much to point out that he basically had to average 393 yards per game just to give Texas Tech a chance each week.
The Red Raiders allowed 43.6 points per game in 2015, yielding 50 or more on five occasions. Knowing that he had to engineer a scoring drive basically every time he was on the field, Mahomes did his best but also forced things from time to time. This resulted in the third-most interceptions in the country.
Mahomes also took 27 sacks, accounting for more than 20 percent of his run plays, yet he still scored on the ground in eight different games. For the year, he had six games with at least 400 yards of total offense, though Texas Tech was only 3-3 in those contests.
6. Chad Kelly, Ole Miss
7 of 12
Year: Senior
Height, weight: 6'2”, 215 lbs
2015 stats: 4,042 passing yards, 65.1% comp., 31 TD, 13 INT; 500 rushing yards, 10 TD
Ole Miss hasn't been known for its ability to run the ball in recent years, which only adds to the value Chad Kelly brought to the offense in his first year with the program. His 10 rushing scores were the most by any Rebel since Brandon Bolden had 14 TDs in 2010.
That came on 163 carries, while Kelly was credited with 107 rushes in 2015 including 18 sacks. Combined with a strong and accurate arm, it's not surprising that he essentially rewrote Ole Miss' record book by setting new marks for passing yards, total offense and total TDs.
Kelly came to Oxford, Mississippi, with a checkered past, one that saw him booted from Clemson early in 2014 and then arrested in his hometown of Buffalo later that year, right after signing with the Rebels out of junior college. He's been nothing but positive since joining the team, though, leading Ole Miss to its most wins in 12 years and pacing a win over eventual national champion Alabama.
5. Greg Ward Jr., Houston
8 of 12
Year: Senior
Height, weight: 5'11”, 185 lbs
2015 stats: 2,828 passing yards, 67.2% comp., 17 TDs, six INT; 1,108 rushing yards, 21 TD
Houston ranked 13th nationally in rushing offense last season, at 235.8 yards per game, and its 39 runs of 20 or more yards were tied for second-most in FBS. Greg Ward had 16 of those long runs, including nine that went for 30 yards and four that gained at least 40 yards.
No dual-threat quarterback in the country was more explosive on the ground than Ward, whose career with the Cougars has bounced between QB, receiver and running back but under the guidance of head coach Tom Herman found its best use in 2015. Herman, who turned J.T. Barrett into a star as Ohio State's offensive coordinator, found the perfect blend of run and pass that brought out the best in Ward.
He had four 100-yard rushing games and seven contests with at least two touchdowns, scoring 14 times on the ground in Houston's first six games. Yet it was Ward's accuracy—he ranked ninth in FBS—that was even more notable, and only once did he get intercepted multiple times in a game.
4. Seth Russell, Baylor
9 of 12
Year: Senior
Height, weight: 6'3”, 220 lbs
2015 stats: 2,104 passing yards, 59.5% comp., 29 TD, six INT; 402 rushing yards, six TD
Seth Russell was on his way to a monster 2015 when he injured his neck, requiring surgery that ended his season after seven games. He still managed to post some incredible numbers, particularly his rate of one touchdown pass for every 6.9 attempts.
But just like the way Baylor's run game tends to get overshadowed by the team's ability to throw, Russell was more than just a passing threat. He averaged 8.2 yards per carry and was only sacked three times in those seven games, which included 81 yards and two TDs against Texas Tech as well as 160 yards and a score against West Virginia.
Russell has 12 career TD runs on 105 carries, though it remains to be seen whether he'll continue to be willing to take off after his injury came on a run play.
"When you get injured, it definitely puts things into perspective," Russell told Tim Griffin of the San Antonio Express-News. "You pay attention to every snap, every detail because you never know when your last snap will be."
3. Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma
10 of 12
Year: Senior
Height, weight: 6'1”, 212 lbs
2015 stats: 3,700 passing yards, 68.1% comp., 36 TD, seven INT; 405 rushing yards, seven TD
The mark of a great player is being able to stand out in a way others before him haven't. Baker Mayfield has accomplished this by causing us to take a different look at quarterbacks that operate the Air Raid offense, which has always been known just for what happens in the air with little regard to the ground attack.
Both at Texas Tech—where he started seven games as a freshman in 2013—and Oklahoma, Mayfield has managed to make his legs just as valuable to the offense as what he does with his arm. His rushing numbers aren't as prolific as other dual-threat passers, but he's still a player who defenses have to worry about taking off.
Mayfield ran for a touchdown in each of Oklahoma's first three games last season, injecting his own influence on the Sooners' new Air Raid scheme. Run plays weren't designed for him as much as created through his observation of the field, though his desire to keep plays alive also resulted in 39 sacks (and a few nasty hits to the head) along the way.
It's a shame this will be Mayfield's final college season, even though it's only the third in which he's playing. His transfer from Texas Tech kicked in a Big 12 rule that called for him to not only sit out a season but also lose a year of eligibility.
2. J.T. Barrett, Ohio State
11 of 12
Year: Junior
Height, weight: 6'2”, 225 lbs
2015 stats: 992 passing yards, 63.3% comp., 11 TD, four INT; 682 rushing yards, 11 TD
The two-quarterback system that Ohio State tried to make work last year was far from a success, mostly because it kept J.T. Barrett from being able to show any real growth. After a breakout redshirt freshman season in 2014, one that was cut short by injury, Barrett spent most of 2015 playing second fiddle to Cardale Jones through no fault of his own.
It wasn't until mid-October that Barrett began to move back into the lead role, but by that time it was too late for he and OSU to be able to live up to expectations. A poor overall effort in the home loss to Michigan State crushed the Buckeyes' dreams of repeating as national champs, and as a result Barrett's reputation took a hit since he was 9 of 16 for 46 yards in that game.
OSU is hoping we've yet to see the best of Barrett—which considering how he performed his first season, setting numerous school records, is a scary thought—and that it's on tap for 2016, the first year that he heads into having been the clear starter all offseason.
"Now the focus is just trying to get better and developing skill," Barrett told Bleacher Report's Ben Axelrod.
Barrett has amassed 5,446 yards of total offense, including 1,600 rushing yards, in 23 career games.
1. Deshaun Watson, Clemson
12 of 12
Year: Junior
Height, weight: 6'2”, 210 lbs
2015 stats: 4,104 passing yards, 67.8% comp., 35 TD, 13 INT; 1,105 rushing yards, 12 TD
Deshaun Watson is a one-of-a-kind dual-threat quarterback, and we're not using hyperbole. He's the only player in FBS history to throw for more than 4,000 yards and rush for and additional 1,000 yards in one season as he did in 2015 in leading Clemson to the national title game.
Getting to play 15 games will help create such great numbers, but his 347.3 yards per game of total offense was still eighth-best in the country and third among players on this list. And the most notable thing about those numbers was that they improved as the season went on, with increased competition actually bringing out the best in Watson.
His five 100-yard rushing games came in the Tigers' final seven contests, a product of him becoming more confident about the strength of his surgically repaired knee as well as more willing to create with his legs. He threw for 400 or more yards twice, the second time coming against Alabama in the national championship game in which he accounted for 478 of Clemson's 550 yards.
After finishing third on last year's Heisman Trophy ballot, Watson is the early front-runner (per Odds Shark) to win in 2016.
Statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com or Sports-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports, unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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