College Football’s 2022 Jekyll & Hyde QB situations

The top 25 is littered with pinpoint passers or dual threats, ranging from Bryce Young to Devin Leary to Tyler Van Dyke and K.J. Jefferson. For programs returning subpar starting quarterbacks, the offseason was about ironing out the deep wrinkles in their existing starters or hoping a clipboard-holding QB would rise up between the spring and September to bury that aforementioned 2021 starter six feet under the depth chart. For better or worse, ya got what ya got at this point. If you assessed college football’s final AP top 10 poll of the 2021 season by each starting quarterback’s QBR and where those ratings ranked among their peers, here’s what it would look like. (UGA) – Stetson Bennett – 86.7 (3rd) (Alabama) – Bryce Young – 87.6 (2nd) (Michigan) – Cade McNamara – 75.4 (24th) (Cincy) – Desmond Ridder – 71.9 (28th) (Ohio State) – C.J. Stroud – 91.6 (1st) (Oklahoma State) Spencer Sanders – 68.1 (39th) (Notre Dame) Jack Coan – 72.8 (26th) (USC) Caleb Williams – 86.5 (4th) A quarterback with an elite QBR of 80 or above is the ideal benchmark for a playoff or a New Year’s Six bowl game contender, but 75 is still really good. The three quarterbacks in Michigan, Oklahoma City, and Cincy, who didn’t earn QBRs over 75, still ranked among the top 30 in the nation and were all propped up by elite defenses, while Ridder could be challenging to be the starting quarterback in Atlanta by 2023. This season will be no different. Certain playoff contenders could be pulling themselves up by the bootstraps without elite quarterback play to carry them towards the College Football Playoff. Here are the Jekyll and Hyde quarterbacks who college football eyeballs should be trained on this upcoming season: Graham Mertz – Wisconsin source: Getty Images All the ingredients were there for the Badgers to contend for a national title in 2021. Another high-grade offensive line, a 17-year-old in Braelon Allen who emerged as their workhorse. Their rushing defense was the nation’s finest, they led the entire country in total defense and were sixth in scoring defense despite a Sisyphean battle with their own sputtering 85th-ranked offense. An avalanche of graduations or NFL early departures means the pressure will be on the offense to produce early in 2022, but they should still be a top-15 unit. Until the defense gets on track though, Graham Mertz has to erase the aroma of his wretched play when he threw more interceptions than touchdowns. After coughing up 15 turnovers to three touchdowns in his first six games against ranked opponents and losing all six, he stayed out of the way of Wisconsin’s defense in wins over ranked Iowa and Purdue. In both wins, he averaged 80 yards through the air. It’s not as if he’s a rushing threat either. Mertz’s rushing total was negative 25 in 2021. That won’t cut it in 2022 when the Badgers have dreams of winning the Big Ten instead of another 9-4 or 10-4 season. Wisconsin’s rushing attack has always been its bread and butter, but their passing attack can’t be soft and moldy again. Stetson Bennett – Georgia source: Getty Images This isn’t a dig at how he game managed last season, but one has to wonder if 2021 was an aberration for UGA’s Stetson Bennett. In eight starts the year prior, Bennett completed only 55 percent of his passes for eight touchdowns to six picks as a redshirt junior. Last season, he led the entire nation in QBR. Of the 38 quarterbacks to throw for over 20 touchdowns in 2021, only one gained fewer yardage by air than Bennett. The 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions he threw weren’t too shabby, but the quantum leap he made between 2020 and 2021 was so remarkable that one wonders if there’s some regression to the mean right over the horizon. Efficient game managing is what he was required to do in 2021 when the Bulldogs were fielding one of the best defenses in college football history. The defense will be reloading this season, which will require the sixth-year senior to be created as more of a playmaker under center this season. Bennett’s much-improved completion percentage and touchdown-to-interception ratio from 2020 to 2021 should serve as the inspiration for the next quarterback on our list. DJ Uiagalelei – Clemson source: Getty Images On the flip side of Bennett, Clemson might have the most tenuous starting quarterback situation of any top 10 team. Former prep phenom, DJ Uiagalelei was a drag on the Tigers in his first season as the starter. A pair of spectacular performances in relief of Trevor Lawrence as a freshman had Uiagalelei n preseason Heisman convos. Instead, he tossed gutterballs throughout his sophomore campaign. All in all, he tallied nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions, completed 55.6 percent of his attempts, and threw for fewer than 2,300 yards in 13 starts. Clemson’s offense stalled out and the Tigers’ scoring offense bottomed out for the first time since Dabo’s second full season as Clemson’s head coach. That year they had future first-round draft pick Kyle Parker under center — a first-rounder in the MLB Draft. It’s not a great sign when the starting quarterback on a national title contender is working with the quarterback’s coach to eclipse the 60 percent completion percentage threshold. Was last season a fluke that can be repaired with a few tweaks to reinvigorate his dormant draft prospects and can he make a Joe Burrow-like bounce back in his junior campaign? The jury is out. His lower-body footwork has been blamed for his inaccuracy and we won’t know if months of retraining his body will take under the pressure. The early signs haven’t been comforting, which is why offensive coordinator Brandon Streeter has repeatedly reiterated that while Uiagalelei is the starter, five-star freshman Cade Lubnik will reportedly “see the field.’ Spencer Sanders – Oklahoma State source: Getty Images Not to be confused with Jackson State’s Shedeur Sanders, Oklahoma State’s Spencer Sanders had the lowest QBR of any quarterback on a top 10 team last season. His four interceptions in the Big 12 Championship Game held Oklahoma State outside of the College Football Playoff. Gundy trusted him so little that he handed the ball on a series of dives up the middle on four downs that began on the goal line rather than let Sanders take a crack at it. Sanders’ mobility is his saving grace as he rushed for nearly 700 yards in 2021. The problem is that Sanders hasn’t developed much as a passer since his freshman season when he was the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year. Fortunately, the Big 12 is uncharacteristically bad at the quarterback position right now, so Sanders could be perfectly average and still be named to an All-Big 12 First Team. Haynes King – Texas A&M source: Getty Images Texas A&M has college football playoff aspirations with a Cheez-It Bowl quarterback running the offense. Haynes King is technically the returning starter even though he only played two games last season before fracturing his leg in Week 2 against Colorado. The rub on King has been his propensity for turnovers. That continued in the Maroon and White spring game, in which King completed 11-of-33 attempts for 130 yards passing and a pair of interceptions. King is still only a sophomore, but donating the ball to starving defenses has made his hold on the starting job a precarious one. There’s a reason Malachi Nelson visited A&M this month, despite being committed to sitting behind Caleb Williams at USC in 2023. If Nelson were at A&M right now, he’d be their Day 1 starter. Relatedonline football betstop online nfl betting sitescollege football propslegal nba betting sitesonline mlb bettingonline nhl betsbetting on ufc onlinesoccer online betting sitesbetting copa america