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It’s not a fun year to be an unproven SEC quarterback.
In most years, you could talk yourself into sneaking an unproven quarterback into the top 5 going into a season. Quarterback rankings are different entering a season than they are by season’s end. If I wanted to predict how quarterbacks would finish, I’d have to seriously consider guys like Nico Iamaleava and Garrett Nussmeier as top-3 options.
But that’s not how this works.
My SEC quarterback rankings are based on who each of these players will be if they step onto a field tomorrow. For 5 of them, the last time they were on the field was in a New Year’s 6 bowl/Playoff semifinal. Yeah, that matters. It matters when they were a driving force behind those respective runs to 11-win seasons.
In other words, don’t tell me that your team’s unproven quarterback is worthy of starting ahead of those guys. That’s not really a debate for these rankings.
Another thing I’ll do is instead of outlining why 1 quarterback is ranked ahead of another — something that readers already have their minds made up about and are just coming here to see if my opinions align with that — I’ll just state the 1 thing I like about each quarterback.
16. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
One thing I like — Pavia led New Mexico State to more victories against SEC competition (Auburn) than Vandy did in 2023.
15. LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina
One thing I like — Besides the fact that he rocks rec specs like my all-time favorite athlete (former Chicago Bull Horace Grant), I like that he had such a good start to his career that he’s locked in as South Carolina’s QB1 having never thrown a pass against FBS competition.
14. Blake Shapen, Mississippi State
One thing I like — The Baylor transfer is Mississippi State’s best deep-ball passer since Dak Prescott, having completed 22 passes of 40 yards the past 2 seasons, which was No. 2 in the Big 12 behind only Dillon Gabriel.
13. Payton Thorne, Auburn
One thing I like — He has an overhauled receiver room that includes 5-star freshman Cam Coleman, Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith (1,721 career yards, 11 TDs) and Georgia State transfer Robert Lewis (1,323 career yards, 14 TDs), which simply has to improve a passing game that was unwatchable in 2023.
12. Taylen Green, Arkansas
One thing I like — He’s a true 6-6, dual-threat quarterback who’ll get to learn under Bobby Petrino, who most recently led the Texas A&M offense to a double-digit scoring improvement even though injuries forced 3 different quarterbacks to start multiple games.
11. Brock Vandagriff, Kentucky
One thing I like — Vandagriff is a former 5-star recruit who spent 3 years behind Stetson Bennett IV and Carson Beck, plus he learned how to run a pro-style offense under Todd Monken and Mike Bobo, which means if there’s ever someone who should be properly groomed as a first-time starter, it’s Vandagriff.
10. Jackson Arnold, Oklahoma
One thing I like — Arnold is a year removed from being the 2022-23 Gatorade National Player of the Year, and while the turnovers in the Alamo Bowl were the difference in the result, it’s hard not to be bullish on the dual-threat ability in an offense that has one of the best receiver rooms in America.
9. Graham Mertz, Florida
One thing I like — You thought I’d say completion percentage, didn’t you? Nope. In games against teams that finished ranked in the AP Poll, Mertz was No. 10 in FBS in QB rating, which was a stark improvement for someone who never cracked the top 70 in that stat.
8. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
One thing I like — He’s a gunslinging quarterback who didn’t necessarily get forced into bad habits by starting early in his career, and in limited reps in 2023, that maturation was evident.
7. Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee
One thing I like — After handing Iowa’s decorated defense its worst defensive day of the 2023 season, the former No. 2 overall recruit is entering his first season as QB1 for Josh Heupel, who had 5 of his 6 starting quarterbacks as a head coach produce at least 32 total touchdowns.
6. Conner Weigman, Texas A&M
One thing I like — In 8 games as a starter, he has a 16-2 TD-INT ratio and in the games that he started and finished, he had a QB rating of at least 158.2 in 5 of 7 opportunities. Mind you, half of that was as a true freshman with Jimbo Fisher as his primary play-caller.
5. Brady Cook, Mizzou
One thing I like — The only Power 5 quarterbacks who had more 40-yard completions than Cook were 4 guys who were drafted in the top 12 and Dillon Gabriel, who is 31 TD passes away from breaking the all-time FBS touchdown pass record.
4. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss
One thing I like — After he had a stark difference in production against quality competition in 2022, Dart came back and improved immensely against FBS teams with a winning record. In those games in 2023, he was No. 8 in QB rating, he averaged 9.7 yards/attempt and he added an average of 39 rushing yards to lead Ole Miss to its first 11-win season in program history.
3. Jalen Milroe, Alabama
One thing I like — No returning player finished higher in the 2023 Heisman Trophy voting than Milroe, who produced 28 touchdowns (18 passing, 10 rushing) and only had 4 interceptions in the 11 post-benching games, 5 of which were against teams that finished ranked in the AP Poll.
2. Quinn Ewers, Texas
One thing I like — After leading Texas to its first Big 12 title since 2009, Ewers will be a preseason Heisman favorite because of his breakout season, but more important, he’ll be a Year 3 starter in a Steve Sarkisian offense that returns 4 starting offensive linemen.
1. Carson Beck, Georgia
One thing I like — In a season in which top 2 targets Brock Bowers and Ladd McConkey both missed significant chunks of the year, Beck was 8th in QB rating. Even better? Against teams that finished in the AP Poll, Jayden Daniels was the only signal-caller with multiple contests who had a better QB rating than Beck.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
