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The best QB’s in the nation for ’18 are mostly SEC football players

By Ronald Evans

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide rolls out on a pass play during the third quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 08: Tua Tagovailoa #13 of the Alabama Crimson Tide rolls out on a pass play during the third quarter against the Georgia Bulldogs in the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on January 8, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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SEC football dominates recent lists of the top 2018 college quarterbacks with Alabama football and five other SEC school’s Qb’s in the top 20.

College football offseason is list season for the media. Recent top quarterback lists show the most QB talent in the nation will be playing SEC football this fall.

Athlon Sports made the huge effort to rank 130 quarterbacks. Sporting News took on the more reasonable task of projecting only the top 25. For our review, we narrow the two lists down the top 20.

Combining the two lists for a total of 40 slots allows a comparison of which conferences have the most top QB’s. SEC football leads all the Power Five conferences with seven quarterbacks filling the combined 40, top 20 selections. Those seven Qb’s are: Tua Tagovailoa, Jake Fromm, Drew Lock, Nick Fitzgerald, Jarrett Stidham, Jake Bentley and Jalen Hurts. All but Hurts made both top 20 lists. The seven SEC football Qb’s occupy 13 of the 40 slots.

The other Power Five conferences are well behind SEC football. The B1G and the Pac 12 filled up seven and six top spots, respectively. The ACC QB’s took up four slots and the Big 12, only three. All other conferences combined, filled only seven of the forty slots.

Let’s take a look at the two lists

Sporting News

  1. Trace McSorley – Penn State
  2. Tua Tagovailoa – Alabama
  3. Jake Fromm – Georgia
  4. Khalil Tate – Arizona
  5. Will Grier – West Virginia
  6. Jake Browning – Washington
  7. Drew Lock – Missouri
  8. Brian Lewerke – Michigan State
  9. Jarrett Stidham  – Auburn
  10. McKenzie Milton – UCF
  11. Jalen Hurts – Alabama
  12. Nick Fitzgerald – Mississippi State
  13. Kelly Bryant – Clemson
  14. Justin Hebert – Oregon
  15. Shea Patterson – Michigan
  16. Dwayne Haskins – Ohio State
  17. Jake Bentley – South Carolina
  18. Kyler Murray – Oklahoma
  19. Brett Rypien – Boise State
  20. Nathan Rourke – Ohio

Athlon Sports

  1. Will Grier – West Virginia
  2. Tua Tagovailoa – Alabama
  3. Trace McSorley – Penn State
  4. Khalil Tate – Arizona
  5. McKenzie Milton – UCF
  6. Drew Lock – Missouri
  7. Jake Browning – Washington
  8. Justin Hebert – Oregon
  9. Jarrett Stidham  – Auburn
  10. Nick Fitzgerald – Mississippi State
  11. Jake Fromm – Georgia
  12. Brian Lewerke – Michigan State
  13. Ryan Finley – North Carolina State
  14. Jake Bentley – South Carolina
  15. Shea Patterson – Michigan
  16. Mason Fine – North Texas
  17. Brett Rypien – Boise State
  18. Brent Stockstill – MTSU
  19. Josh Jackson – Virginia Tech
  20. Kelly Bryant – Clemson

The other SEC football quarterbacks listed by Athlon were: No. 24, Shurmur (Vandy); No. 29, Ta’amu (Ole Miss); No. 42, Starkel (TAMU); No. 72, Chryst (Tennessee); No. 85, Brennan (LSU); No. 89, Kelley (Arkansas); No. 94, Franks (Florida) and No. 95, Wilson (Kentucky).

What do these projections mean? First, it takes a bunch of information to fill the space of the college football offseason. Second, SEC football should be known as a quarterback league. Third, former SEC Qb’s are popular in other conferences (three to be exact) and fourth, the Big 12 is again not very good at anything.

Next: Post-spring Crimson Tide Depth Chart

It is interesting that Tua got so much recognition for a total of 77 passes in 2017 – and of course, one marvelous half of championship football.

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