Quarterback Battles That Will Have the Biggest Impact on the 2020 CFB Season
The start of the 2020 college football season is rapidly approaching. Hopefully. But for a lot of teams expected to at least compete for a spot in a New Year's Six bowl, that means time is running out to make a decision on who starts at quarterback.
As I noted earlier this week, it's a brutal year to have any semblance of uncertainty at quarterback. Most teams lost most of spring ball because of COVID-19. Summer camps and fall camps have been compromised. Several conferences have already decided they'll only be playing conference games. Opportunities for these contests to play themselves out either on the practice field or in early buy games have been limited.
For the likes of Trevor Lawrence at Clemson and Justin Fields at Ohio State, no big deal. Those stars are talented enough and established enough to dive straight into the rigors of league play without a hitch.
But Alabama, Georgia and LSU all might open the season in the AP Top Five despite question marks at quarterback. Five other projected-to-be-ranked teams are in similar predicaments.
Which players are involved in those quarterback battles?
Who is most likely to win?
We'll see what the coaches decide, but we are generally erring on the side of experience to answer that latter question.
Schools are listed in alphabetical order.
Alabama Crimson Tide
1 of 8
The Candidates: Mac Jones (RS Jr.), Bryce Young (Fr.), Paul Tyson (RS Fr.)
Just like two years ago with Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama's quarterback battle has been the most frequently debated one in the entire country throughout the offseason. The Crimson Tide are all but guaranteed to open the season ranked in the Top Three of the AP poll, and it'll be up to the winner of this battle to keep them there.
One significant development since this debate began in January is that Tua's younger brother, Taulia, is no longer part of the conversation. The younger Tagovailoa entered the transfer portal in early May and committed to Maryland less than two weeks later.
However, it always felt like he was a distant third-best option behind Mac Jones and Bryce Young.
The former is now in his fourth year in Tuscaloosa. He redshirted in 2017 and barely saw the field in 2018, but he was the guy head coach Nick Saban relied on last season when Tua was injured. Jones made four starts and threw for at least three touchdowns in each of those contests.
The latter is a true freshman but a damn fine one. 247Sports rated Young as the top quarterback and second-best overall player in the 2020 class. He is one of just three quarterbacks in the past decade to receive a rating of 0.9990 or better, and the other two—Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields—certainly lived up to that hype.
Prediction
Under normal non-pandemic circumstances, I believe Young was the favorite to win the job. Hurts won the job as a true freshman in 2016, Saban replaced Hurts with Tagovailoa at halftime of the national championship and then he stuck with Tagovailoa the following year despite Hurts' impressive career numbers.
Saban has never been shy about rolling with who he feels is the most talented quarterback in the room, regardless of years of experience.
But Alabama didn't have a single spring practice before COVID-19 postponed sports indefinitely, which means Young didn't get as much of an opportunity to prove himself as true freshmen usually would.
And if the SEC follows in the Big Ten's and Pac-12's footsteps by canceling nonconference play but keeping its conference schedule intact, Alabama would be facing Georgia in the season opener. It would be harsh to throw a true freshman out there for that one.
Georgia Bulldogs
2 of 8
The Candidates: Jamie Newman (Grad Sr.), Stetson Bennett (Jr.), D'Wan Mathis (RS Fr.), Carson Beck (Fr.), JT Daniels (RS So.)
Some quarterback battles are due to a lack of viable options.
Let's just say that's not the case for Georgia.
Even before accounting for the guys head coach Kirby Smart added via the transfer portal, the Bulldogs had a litany of candidates.
Stetson Bennett was Jake Fromm's primary backup last season and put up solid garbage-time numbers (20-of-27, 260 yards, two TDs, one INT, one rushing TD). The year before that, he was Jones County Junior College's starting QB.
In the "less experienced but talented" department, Carson Beck is a top-20 quarterback in the incoming class, and D'Wan Mathis—who has been cleared to play after missing all of last season following emergency brain surgery—narrowly missed out on a top-20 designation in the 2019 class.
But it's possible that none of those three quarterbacks will take a meaningful snap in Athens following the additions of Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman and USC transfer JT Daniels.
Last year, Newman led the Demon Deacons to a 5-0 start and their first AP ranking in more than a decade. They faded considerably down the stretch, but the dual-threat quarterback accounted for nearly 3,500 total yards and recorded 32 touchdowns. With a more talented supporting cast, he could thrive in Georgia.
Daniels missed the majority of 2019 after suffering a torn ACL in the season opener. But the No. 3-rated QB in the 2018 class was a starter from Week 1 as a true freshman. It was a rocky year with a young offense and a head coach on the hot seat, but the fact that he won the job immediately was a clear indication of his potential.
Prediction
It wasn't clear until earlier this week that there would be a battle here, but Daniels was granted his waiver for immediate eligibility Monday. If he can show he has fully recovered from his knee injury, game on. It may be his job to lose.
Whether Daniels swoops in and steals the job or the initial incoming transfer (Newman) gets it, we'll probably be right back here for another debate next year, as Georgia holds a commitment from 2021 5-star quarterback Brock Vandagriff.
LSU Tigers
3 of 8
The Candidates: Myles Brennan (RS Jr.), Max Johnson (Fr.), TJ Finley (Fr.), Peter Parrish (RS Fr.)
First things first: Peter Parrish does not appear to be an option for LSU anymore. He was indefinitely suspended for an undisclosed violation of team rules in March and—as of July 3—is no longer listed on the team roster.
Parrish was a 4-star recruit in LSU's 2019 class who likely was at least in the mix for the backup job, considering LSU only has one quarterback with any college experience. We will at least leave him on this list in case he happens to get reinstated, but let's just say it's highly unlikely he goes from "suspended" to "starter" in a few months' time.
As far as the players actually on the roster are concerned, Myles Brennan is the heavy favorite to attempt to follow in Joe Burrow's footsteps.
Brennan has been LSU's backup quarterback in each of the past three seasons. But he only saw action in one game in 2018, so that counted as a redshirt year for him. He did play in a fair amount of garbage time while LSU ran rampant over the rest of the country last season, attempting 40 passes with a 60 percent success rate.
Those aren't particularly noteworthy numbers, but there's no question that his case is helped by the fact that he has been in and around this LSU offense for more than three years now. Max Johnson might have a higher ceiling than Brennan, but it's a rough year for true freshmen trying to beat out upperclassmen.
Prediction
The real surprise here is that the Tigers didn't snag a graduate transfer from the portal. When former Houston QB D'Eriq King entered the portal—in the middle of LSU's national championship victory, no less—the natural assumption was that he was LSU-bound. When JT Daniels entered the portal in mid-April, similar conclusions were drawn.
No such acquisition was made, though, so it's looking like Brennan or bust in the Bayou.
Michigan Wolverines
4 of 8
The Candidates: Dylan McCaffrey (RS Jr.), Joe Milton (RS So.), Cade McNamara (RS Fr.)
Michigan has a sensational quarterback in the on-deck circle, if you will. Class of 2021 5-star recruit J.J. McCarthy has been committed to the Wolverines since May 2019, and he is expected to become the face of this program, possibly as a true freshman.
But before head coach Jim Harbaugh can pass the torch to McCarthy in 2021, he needs to figure out who will replace Shea Patterson in 2020. Patterson was responsible for 706 of Michigan's 756 pass attempts over the past two seasons, and now that former Ole Miss transfer is somewhere well behind Patrick Mahomes on the Kansas City Chiefs depth chart.
Which of the three 4-star recruits on the roster will fill that void?
Dylan McCaffrey has the most experience of the bunch, though 35 pass attempts in 26 team games isn't saying much. He also has 166 rushing yards on 23 career carries, though, which would provide a new wrinkle for Harbaugh's offense in his sixth season at U of M.
Patterson was the most mobile QB Michigan has had in the past half-decade, and he only registered 50 rushing yards in 2019. Not for nothing, Clemson's Trevor Lawrence ran for more than 100 yards against Ohio State in the College Football Playoff last year, so a little RPO with McCaffrey could be the key to the Wolverines finally beating the Buckeyes for the first time since 2011.
While McCaffrey would provide some versatility in the running game, Joe Milton is the guy better suited for taking the top off the defense. Michigan hasn't had much of a home run threat in recent years, but Milton has such a cannon for an arm that "Just Go Get It" deep balls would almost inevitably become a regular fixture of the offense.
Cade McNamara is the dark horse in this race with no game experience at the collegiate level. However, he drew high praise from Harbaugh last spring, and it's not like there's an obvious front-runner he needs to supplant.
Prediction
Patterson was a pro-style QB for the past two years, and McCarthy will be a pro-style QB from 2021 to '24. So it would stand to reason that the pro-style Milton would be the preferred route for Michigan. No sense in rewriting some pages of the playbook for just one season if you don't need to, right?
But whether Milton actually wins/maintains the job will depend on his ability to show some touch and accuracy in addition to his strength. In just 11 career pass attempts, Milton has been picked off twice. And if he does something like that in the first half of Michigan's season opener, it would quickly become McCaffrey's job to lose.
Oregon Ducks
5 of 8
The Candidates: Anthony Brown (Grad Sr.), Tyler Shough (RS So.), Cale Millen (RS Fr.), Jay Butterfield (Fr.)
Just like Michigan's situation with Shea Patterson, it was pretty much all Justin Herbert all the time for Oregon over the past two years. He attempted 832 passes since the start of 2018, while all other Ducks combined for 27.
So while Tyler Shough has long been considered the heir apparent, it's not like he has had any meaningful game experience in Eugene. His 2019 numbers (12-of-15, 144 yards, three touchdowns) were fantastic as far as efficiency is concerned, but how much information can you glean from 15 pass attempts in the fourth quarter of blowouts?
The good news for Shough is that he has a leg up on both Cale Millen and Jay Butterfield. Per James Crepea of The Oregonian, head coach Mario Cristobal said, "It's very, very clear that Tyler Shough came out of spring ball—he entered the starter, he left there the starter."
Granted, they only got four spring practices in before COVID-19 shut camp down. But barring a preseason injury to Shough, it would be quite a surprise if either the redshirt freshman or the true freshman starts Oregon's season opener.
The bad news for Shough is that less than two weeks after spring camp abruptly ended, former Boston College starting quarterback Anthony Brown—who had been in the transfer portal since early December—committed to spending his final collegiate season with the Ducks.
Brown's career numbers with the Eagles were nothing special, but he was enjoying a breakout junior year prior to suffering a season-ending knee injury in Week 6. Provided he makes a full recovery, it would be fun to see what he could accomplish with Oregon's stable of wide receivers.
Prediction
After three seasons as a starter at Boston College, Brown didn't spend four months in the transfer portal just to move some 3,000 miles across the country for a backup gig. Shough might enter fall camp as the front-runner, but he's going to have to prove his mettle in a battle with Brown.
If Brown does win the job, don't be surprised if Shough is in the transfer portal shortly thereafter, considering Butterfield figures to be Oregon's QB of the future at this point.
UCF Knights
6 of 8
The Candidates: McKenzie Milton (RS Sr.), Darriel Mack Jr. (RS Jr.), Dillon Gabriel (So.)
The colossal unknown on UCF's QB depth chart is whether McKenzie Milton will be physically able to play and whether he'll be able to regain his pre-injury form.
In case you've forgotten, Milton was a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate in both 2017 and 2018, finishing top-10 in that vote in both of those seasons. He was particularly sensational in 2017, leading the Knights to an undefeated season with more than 4,000 passing yards, more than 600 rushing yards and a total of 45 touchdowns. But he is still working his way back from the devastating leg injury that he suffered in UCF's final regular-season game of 2018.
If he's somehow at 100 percent, there's no debate here. Milton gets the job. But if he's questionable or ruled out entirely, UCF still has a tough decision to make between Darriel Mack Jr. and Dillon Gabriel.
Based on Mack's incredible performance against Memphis in the 2018 AAC Championship (348 passing yards, 59 rushing yards, six total touchdowns), he was probably in line to become the starter last year. However, he suffered a broken ankle early in fall camp and wasn't able to get back onto the field until Week 5.
In Mack's stead, Notre Dame graduate transfer Brandon Wimbush started Week 1 before quickly losing his job to Gabriel. The left-handed true freshman from Hawaii wasn't on anyone's radar prior to Mack's injury, but he was impressive early and often. Most notably, he torched Stanford for 347 yards and four touchdowns in a Week 3 that ensured Mack would be the backup when he returned to the field.
Prediction
While I'm rooting for Milton to make a full recovery, I'm less than optimistic he'll be able to start UCF's opener—whenever that may be.
Assuming it's a two-man battle between Mack and Gabriel, I choose both. Sort of. We don't get to watch successful platoons often, but UCF could have something of a Chris Leak and Tim Tebow split on its hands.
There's no question Mack is the more effective rushing threat, while Gabriel is arguably the better passer. Which one lines up under center may be dictated by the situation. Even in that scenario, though, Gabriel will presumably start.
Utah Utes
7 of 8
The Candidates: Jake Bentley (Grad Sr.), Cameron Rising (RS So.), Drew Lisk (Sr.)
Tyler Huntley missed a handful of games in 2017 and 2018 because of injury, but he was Utah's main man at quarterback for the past three years. The Utes have a ton of departed starters to replace, and Huntley's shoes may be the toughest to fill.
As far as experience is concerned, though, this competition looks like an open-and-shut case.
Jake Bentley attempted more than 1,000 passes over the past four years at South Carolina. He wasn't one of the SEC's elite quarterbacks, but he was plenty serviceable in that loaded conference. A broken foot suffered in Week 1 last season opened the door for Bentley to take a medical redshirt and play for one more campaign. And that door led him to Utah.
The Utes' next-most experienced quarterback is Drew Lisk, a former walk-on who attempted nine passes last season as one of Tyler Huntley's scarcely-used backups. Lisk probably wouldn't have been a strong candidate under normal circumstances, but he has been around head coach Kyle Whittingham's offense for more than three years. Bentley got all of three spring practices in before things got shut down.
There's also Cameron Rising, a 4-star recruit in the 2018 class who originally committed to Oklahoma, flipped to Texas, transferred to Utah after one season and has yet to take a snap at the collegiate level. Much like Bentley, Rising would have benefited from a full spring and a normal summer. As is, he's the wild card.
Prediction
The safe bet is Bentley. It'd be one thing if the Utes had the luxury of throwing a new starting quarterback onto the field with a bunch of returning stars. But Utah's roster attrition makes the most experienced passer the most enticing candidate.
However, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if Lisk enters the fall as the ever-so-slight front-runner with a real opportunity to prove himself.
Wisconsin Badgers
8 of 8
The Candidates: Jack Coan (Sr.), Graham Mertz (RS Fr.), Chase Wolf (RS So.), Danny Vanden Boom (RS Jr.)
For the past three seasons, Wisconsin's offense was all about Jonathan Taylor. The star running back finished top-10 in the Heisman vote in all three years, racking up 6,174 rushing yards and 50 touchdowns during his time with the Badgers.
Between Taylor's constant herculean effort and Wisconsin's typically stout defense, the quarterback—initially Alex Hornibrook, eventually Jack Coan—was more of a game manager than a load shoulderer, if you will.
Coan was the perfect man for that job last year. He started all 14 games with a 69.6 percent completion rate, but he only once threw for more than 280 yards or accounted for more than two touchdowns. And even that statistically most impressive performance came in the 61-0 desolation of Central Michigan.
Despite Coan's solid percentages and limited interceptions (five), Wisconsin had just 30 completions of 20 or more yards and five that went for at least 40, per CFB Stats. In both of those categories, the Badgers ranked in the bottom 15 percent nationally.
They still won 10 games, though, thanks to the luxury of having a running back who put them in 2nd/3rd-and-short situations on a regular basis.
Now that Taylor is gone, Wisconsin will likely need to lean more heavily on its quarterback.
Is Coan still the man for that job? Maybe. As is the case for Jake Bentley in Utah's QB room, Coan has substantially more college experience than the rest of the options combined.
Graham Mertz attempted 10 passes between a pair of Wisconsin blowouts last season. Both Chase Wolf and Danny Vanden Boom have logged precisely one pass attempt in their respective careers. Comparatively, Coan's career mark of 437 pass attempts looks incredible.
Prediction
247Sports rated Mertz as the fifth-best QB in the 2019 recruiting class, and he was surrounded by the likes of Bo Nix, Jayden Daniels, Ryan Hilinski and Sam Howell, each of whom made at least 338 pass attempts while starting for the majority of their true freshman seasons. Many thought Mertz had a chance of winning the job last fall, and he'll have a good chance at it this year.
If head coach Paul Chryst does roll with Mertz, he best be certain, because Coan will then become a strong candidate to sit out, preserve a year of eligibility and graduate-transfer elsewhere—at which point this presumably becomes the least experienced group of quarterbacks in the nation.
Because of that, Coan will probably be out there for the season opener unless Mertz unequivocally emerges as the better option during fall camp.
.jpg?w=600 "Offseason Moves for Every Team 👉")
.png?w=600 "New NBA Mock Draft 📝")
