What a time to be alive! Not only is the College Football Playoff expanding from four to 12 teams this season, but we are so incredibly lucky to have so many great quarterbacks in our game. For every Quinn Ewers and Carson Beck out there, there is an Avery Johnson and a Nico Iamaleava just waiting for their day in the sun. Beck and Ewers are now, but guys like Iamaleava and Johnson have got next.
What the high school game is giving us is plenty of proven passers who are more than capable of making an immediate impact at the college level. Some of these up-and-comers entering the 2024 college football season will be future stars in the NFL. While leashes are getting shorter and shorter by the year at the professional level, the college game is giving us a better product than ever before.
So what I want to do today is take a look at some of the best quarterbacks causal college football fans may not know right now. Trust me, by the end of next season, their names will become part of the sport's lexicon, on par with that of Jalen Milroe, Shedeur Sanders and the short king, Noah Fifita. I am bullish on all 10 of the teams these guys plays for, and a lot of that has to do with their quarterbacks.
Let's start with an ACC playmaker who now gets to play for a proven NFL offensive mind this season.
Even if Jeff Hafley had decided to stay, there is a pretty good chance that Thomas Castellanos would have made this list. The Boston College Eagles struggled a little bit in September, but quickly found their footing as the season progressed. The play and growth of Castellanos under center was a huge reason for that. I cannot wait to see what he can do now that Bill O'Brien is taking over as head coach.
Right now, I would say that BC is a top-half team in the recently expanded ACC. The Eagles are in the same cluster of teams with Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Louisville and SMU where I think they have an outside shot at Charlotte, but don't count on it. What I am counting on is for Castellanos to flourish playing for a head coach who really wants to be there. I am very bullish on BC in the coming seasons.
Don't be shocked if Castellanos has the Eagles cracking the top 25 like they did with Matt Ryan.
9. Iowa State Cyclones QB Rocco Becht
Hey, Rocco! Consider me one of the first members of the Rocco Becht bandwagon starting to gather over in Ames. I have been looking for an Iowa State quarterback who provides a level of stabilization in the wake of Brock Purdy leaving and becoming an NFL star with the San Francisco 49ers. With Iowa State returning so much production next season, I think they are a real contender to get to Arlington.
Becht has NFL pedigree by way of his father Anthony Becht and plays for one of the college game's most underrated head coaches in Matt Campbell. We are looking at one of the best quarterbacks to ever play for the Clones already. This is a team that is going to win at least eight games. If they can approach 10, then maybe they have a shot at making the College Football Playoff for the first time.
The best part in all this is Becht is only getting started in his promising college career at Iowa State.
I'm an idiot... That has been established so many times over. However, I am more than willing to admit when I was wrong. I could not have been more wrong about West Virginia head coach Neal Brown last season. I thought he was on the hottest seat of all time. He proved me and all of his other detractors so wrong. WVU went bowling, and I began to see something. Garrett Greene is a great quarterback.
He may be older and undersized, but his competitiveness gives the Mountaineers a much-needed spark. Greene is a reason why I believe West Virginia not only can get to Arlington, but could be one of the handful of teams in the new Big 12 that could win the league and make the playoff. I am not certain they will do that, but what if he has a 2022 Max Duggan-type of final season inside of him?
I anticipate that once West Virginia cracks the top 25 this year that they will have staying power.
7. Penn State Nittany Lions QB Drew Allar
While I am not the biggest Drew Allar fan, I am intrigued to see what the Penn State quarterback can do in Andy Kotelnicki's offense. Admittedly, I liked Mike Yurcich, but the elephant in the room remains James Franklin. I will give him credit, though. He does tend to attract marquee coordinators. Adding Tom Allen after he was let go from Indiana was genius. Prying Kotelnicki away from Kansas was great.
I have a feeling that Allar will play a lot like what J.J. McCarthy did two years ago in his first season as the Michigan starting quarterback. Although I have reservations about the Nittany Lions' upward trajectory as a program under Franklin's watch, I have this team as a playoff lock for a reason. If anybody is going to be the third-best team in the new Big Ten, it would have to be Penn State, right?
Allar is immensely talented, but has been undercoached. However, I think Kotelnicki can change that.
Anytime you see a proven veteran starter up and leave a program willingly, you have to wonder about the promising backup's ascension. For as down as I am on Oklahoma initially having success upon joining the SEC, Jackson Arnold is a stud! To essentially chase Dillon Gabriel away from Norman within months of him being a Red River legend is stunning. It probably indicates Arnold is that good.
Losing Jeff Lebby to the Mississippi State job could be problematic here, but Arnold's staunch commitment to Brent Venables does register to me. I am not a big fan of Venables as a head coach, but I would love to be proven wrong. To me, Arnold is the type of quarterback who could make up the difference in terms of overall roster construction to have Oklahoma contending for an at-large bid.
Oklahoma is probably not a playoff team this season, but Arnold may make the Sooners that in 2025.
5. Missouri Tigers QB Brady Cook
I debated putting Brady Cook on here, but I asked myself this: Can I really not put a quarterback of a borderline playoff lock team on here? I had to. Cook is a fine signal-caller, but I think his name will be more widely known based on who he is throwing the football to. That would be my pick to win the Biletnikoff in Luther Burden III. He is outstanding. Frankly, I expect for Missouri to be outstanding, too.
The Tigers would have made the expanded playoff last year, if that were such a thing. I trust their ability to go around 10-2 in a deep SEC. I don't know if they have the same upward trajectory of say an Ole Miss, but I still like the Tigers' chances of playing meaningful football well into December. If Cook can cook, then I expect for the Tigers to cook most of their opposition during this upcoming season.
Missouri has had some great quarterbacks in its football history, and I expect for Cook to join them.
If there is one new quarterback that my FanSided.com colleague and False Start co-host Cody Williams and I can agree on will be utterly fantastic this year, that would be new LSU starting Garrett Nussmeier. He is the son of long-time offensive-minded coach Doug Nussmeier. Over the last two years, we have seen flashes of Nussmeier's brilliance. It is time for Brian Kelly to give him the car keys.
Replacing a Heisman Trophy winner in Jayden Daniels will not be easy, but Nussmeier has an abslolute gun. His NFL pedigree and student mentality could make him an extraordinary player for the Bayou Bengals this season. He is why I think LSU stands a fantastic opportunity to make the expanded playoff this season. I have them just barely out, but I would love to be proven wrong here.
It is hard to describe what Nussmeier has other than he has it, and that quarterback has it in droves.
3. Kansas State Wildcats QB Avery Johnson
Avery Johnson does eerily similar things to me that Jackson Arnold does for me at Oklahoma. The fact that Johnson played a part in forcing Will Howard out the door and onto the Ohio State Buckeyes speaks volumes to me. He may be more of a runner than a thrower right now, but we are about to see the best player Chris Klieman has had at K-State to date play up to his lofty potential for this season.
He is still an underclassmen, meaning we will get at least two more years out of him. With Dylan Edwards transferring over from regional rival Colorado, it is about to be an EMAW storm of epic proportions down in the Little Apple. Manhattan could be home to the playoff-bound Kansas State Wildcats. They have a legendary head coach and now have a quarterback who could be an all-timer.
Johnson should be better than Howard, and he might be their best quarterback since Collin Klein.
It's almost not even fair to put Riley Leonard's name on this list. He was a stud playing for Mike Elko at Duke, but now that Elko left for Texas A&M, Leonard decided to take his talents to South Bend. Yes, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is replacing one former ACC quarterback from a North Carolinian private school with another. The only difference is unlike Sam Hartman, Leonard will get drafted, high.
Notre Dame is in that same group of teams like Missouri and Ole Miss where they are nearly College Football Playoff locks. Although I would still attest that Leonard is a bit raw as a passer, I think him teaming up with Mike Denbrock at Notre Dame could be the best thing for him. If the Irish were to go 10-2 or better, Leonard will be quarterbacking a playoff team, and will probably be a first-round pick.
Some college football fans probably knew who Leonard was last year, but his notoriety will go way up.
1. Tennessee Volunteers QB Nico Iamaleava
There was nobody else who could fit this bill. Coming from a Georgia fan and UGA alumnus, when I say that Nico Iamaleava is special, believe me. He has the chance to be the best quarterback to ever play for Josh Heupel. Iamaleava has all the physical traits that everyone loved about Joe Milton, but has the in-game specs of Hendon Hooker. Tennessee will get the best of both worlds with Iamaleava.
Although the top half of the SEC will be unforgiving, Tennessee has a realistic shot at being a top-five team in the conference this year. If the Vols can hold their own vs. the likes of Alabama, Georgia or whomever, that might be enough to convince the Selection Committee that Rocky Top deserves a shot in the big dance. It may not happen this year, but Tennessee will almost certainly get in by 2025.
Iamaleava has an outside shot at being the first player taken in the 2026 or 2027 NFL Drafts, folks!
Next. College football power rankings: Top 10 quarterbacks in 2024. College football power rankings: Top 10 quarterbacks in 2024. dark
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