SEC football has a strong group of quarterbacks representing the conference this year. But who are the worst in the conference?
The SEC has many strengths, one of the them has not been quarterbacks lately. Other conferences such as the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC have consistently produced better talent at QB in recent years.
However, the SEC is always among the best, if not the best conference in the country. They do have some quarterbacks that should compete among the nation’s best in 2017 including Alabama’s Jalen Hurts, Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham, Georgia’s Jacob Eason, Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald and Arkansas’ Austin Allen. There’s a lot of inexperience around the conference as well.
The Tennessee Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies, Florida Gators and LSU Tigers all have talented teams with the quarterback position in flux. Tennessee and Texas A&M both had good QB situations when they had Joshua Dobbs and Trevor Knight, respectively, healthy and productive. Yet, both Dobbs and Knight are gone.
Just because a team is breaking in a new starting quarterback does not meet that a certain QB is not as good as established ones. For example, Ole Miss’ Shea Patterson has not even had a full season of experience, yet he is still one of the best and most potent players in the SEC.
This list is more concerned with a few factors to pick the five worst starting quarterbacks in the conference. One big factor is the current situation that a quarterback is looking at with the team around him. Another is the production up to this point in his individual career. The last big factor is how much potential a quarterback has to improve and put himself in a good situation this season.
It’s fun to take a look at these sort of things before the season comes around and see how it ends up by the end of the season. Now, let’s take a look at the five worst starting quarterbacks in the SEC entering the 2017 regular season.
There’s a large possibility that LSU’s offense could see an extreme turnaround in 2017. Former offensive coordinator Cam Cameron is gone and first-year coordinator Matt Canada is now at the helm. The entire coaching staff at LSU has been turned on its head of late. Head coach Ed Orgeron officially signed on with a five-year contract with the Tigers.
Quarterback Danny Etling could either benefit extremely from all the coaching changes or be moved out of the way for the long-term plans that Orgeron has in mind. Overall, Etling performed well last season when thrust into the starting role. He went 8-3 as a starter in 2016 while throwing for 2,123 yards and 11 touchdowns with only five interceptions.
Etling did, however, go through a three-game stretch last season without a single passing touchdown. That’s not something that can happen for an LSU starting quarterback to keep his job for very long. Yet, Etling’s overall production could be more of a symptom of the overall lack of production from LSU’s offense with Cameron as coordinator. We’ll see very soon whether that is true or not.
4. Kellen Mond/Jake Hubenak/Nick Starkel
Texas A&M’s quarterback competition has turned into a three-man battle between true freshman Kellen Mond, senior Jake Hubenak, and redshirt freshman Nick Starkel. The first of the group, Mond, is a four-star recruit that would be the most potent option for the Aggies this season. Yet, Mond is also the most inexperienced option.
Hubenak has the most starting experience with two years under his belt. He would also be the safest pick for the starting job as well. He would give Texas A&M a true pro-style quarterback to work with. Hubenak was 3-3 as a starter with the Aggies last season but he did not win a single conference game.
Starkel is the dark horse in the quarterback battle. He is a three-star recruit from the 2016 Texas A&M class. He originally committed to Oklahoma State but later flipped to Texas A&M. Starkel, like Hubenak, is a pro-style quarterback but he is also more mobile than Hubenak. If the Aggies want to shake things up then Starkel would be the way to go.
Whoever head coach Kevin Sumlin chooses to go with, he’ll have an uphill battle in front of him facing a tough SEC West schedule in 2017. With Trevor Knight gone there’s not a single candidate that offers a good combination of talent and experience.
Kentucky could very easily have a different starter by the end of the 2017 season than Stephen Johnson. He performed admirably in the place of injured starter Drew Barker last season. Before Barker got injured, he threw more interceptions than touchdowns for the second straight season. Johnson did much better than that in his place.
The quarterback competition remains open with Kentucky but Johnson is expected to win the race in the end. However, his leash is likely to be short this season. The Wildcats are competing in a wide open SEC East race but could easily fall to the bottom of the division very fast. Teams like the Missouri Tigers, Vanderbilt Commodores, South Carolina Gamecocks, and Tennessee Volunteers, all have better quarterback situations than Kentucky and will be competing to get into the top half of the division.
Last season, Johnson threw for more than 2,000 yards with 16 total touchdowns and only six interceptions. The highlight of Johnson’s season was a huge win against Lamar Jackson’s Louisville Cardinals in which he threw three touchdowns. He also led Kentucky to victories over Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, South Carolina, and Missouri.
Johnson has a great chance to solidify himself as Kentucky’s starting quarterback for good against Southern Miss in week 1. But he has yet to even win the starting quarterback job for the 2017 campaign so there’s a lot of questions that still need to be answered.
Kyle Shurmur did help the Vanderbilt Commodores with their bowl push at the end of the 2016 season. Big wins against the Tennessee Volunteers, Ole Miss Rebels, and Georgia Bulldogs were not only unexpected but they helped Vandy’s bowl eligibility immensely. Shurmur can be thanked for those efforts but he is not the focal point of the offense.
Running back Ralph Webb is the star of the Vanderbilt offense but Shurmur has a big role in creating running room for him. Ultimately, if Shurmur can help manage the Vanderbilt offense well enough to win eight games in 2017, then he will have successfully completed his role.
The fact that Shurmur threw more interceptions than touchdowns in 2016 is a big reason why he is where he is on this list. Could head coach Derek Mason progress Vanderbilt even further in 2017 and put Shurmur on the map among the best quarterbacks in the SEC? That is certainly a possibility, but honestly not probable.
Shurmur did not end the 2016 campaign out well either. He threw three interceptions and no touchdowns in a bowl loss to the NC State Wolfpack but quite the large margin.
Much like Kellen Mond and Nick Starkel, Florida’s Feleipe Franks’ place on this list is not determined by talent but by lack of experience. Franks has the ability to take advantage of an injury to former starting quarterback Luke del Rio.
Although he’s not yet considered the clear starter for the job, he could very well push for playing time if Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire doesn’t work out. Either way, both quarterbacks possess talent, but lack experience — Zaire was always injured at Notre Dame.
Head coach Jim McElwain has a big decision to make if Florida wants to return to the SEC Championship Game for the third year in a row. If you believe that patterns repeat themselves in the SEC East then Florida might not be the eventual division champs this year.
Next: 5 most important SEC East games for 2017
Franks certainly has a lot of weapons to work with. Wide receivers Antonio Callaway, Tyrone Cleveland, and Brandon Powell give the freshman QB quite the trip to get settled in with. Running back Jordan Scarlett will be a solid option as well. Look out for Franks to rise up the SEC quarterback ranks if he takes advantage of all the weapons at his disposal.