Alabama Football: A new ranking for the Tide’s opposing QBs
By Ronald Evans
Check out some thoughts on the Pro Football Focus ranking of the quarterbacks Alabama football will face in the coming season.
Several weeks ago we published a ranking of the worst to best quarterbacks Alabama football will face in the regular season. Now we can discuss another, admittedly more credible opinion of FBS quarterbacks.
Pro Football Focus (PFF) devotes the majority of its efforts to collect and analyze NFL stats. The same tools are also applied to FBS players.
PFF’s most recently published college data is a ranking of the FBS starting quarterbacks. We discuss it in detail below but since all Alabama football fans will demand it – PFF rated Trevor Lawrence No. 1 and Tua Tagovailoa No. 2.
There are two differences in our earlier ranking and the one published by PFF. Our results were opinion-driven rather than data-driven (and opinion) by PFF. Also, we included the one opposing FCS QB the Tide will face in our ranking. For those skipping the above link to our earlier story, our opinion was, and is, Western Carolina’s Tyler Adams is better than three FBS QBs the Crimson Tide will defend.
Our previous ranking and the PFF list is not too far apart for most of the QBs. Except about Tua not being No.1. PFF rated Jarrett Guarantano and Joe Burrow as the best regular-season QBs the Tide will face. Our top pair were Jake Bentley and Kellen Mond.
The PFF Ranking from worst to best
- New Mexico State – Josh Adkins – Ranked No. 118 in the FBS
- Arkansas – Ben Hicks or Nick Starkel – Both ranked at No. 102 in the FBS
- Auburn – Joey Gatewood – Ranked at No. 96
- Duke – Quentin Harris – Ranked at No. 91
- Mississippi State – Tommy Stevens – Ranked at No. 63
- Southern Miss – Jack Abraham – Ranked at No. 59
- Ole Miss – Matt Corral – Ranked at No. 50
- South Carolina – Jake Bentley – Ranked at No. 33
- Texas A&M – Kellen Mond – Ranked at No. 25
- Tennessee – Jarrett Guarantano – Ranked at No. 21
- LSU – Joe Burrow – Ranked at No. 17
We expect Alabama football fans will find it interesting Tyler Johnson III of the UAB Blazers is rated higher by PFF than any of the above QBs. PFF has Johnson at No. 14 in the FBS.
Some other QB names of interest to Alabama football fans. Oklahoma Sooners’ Jalen Hurts is ranked No. 11. Georgia’s Jake Fromm is ranked at No. 9. Crimson Tide fans will remember a name recruited by Nick Saban to basically be fourth team. Iowa State’s Brock Purdy is ranked above Jalen and Fromm at No. 8 in the FBS.
Next. National Championship Preseason Odds. dark
We defer to PFF in terms of ranking quarterbacks and not just because the world could use more professional courtesy. We will stake out a firm opinion on a related matter. No team without a Top 15 QB will take down the Crimson Tide.