College Football: Ranking the 15 best quarterbacks entering 2018

A good quarterback can go a long way, especially in college football. Here’s a quick look at the top 15 signal callers in the nation entering the 2018 season.

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The college football world lost a ton of quarterback talent to the NFL this offseason, with the likes of Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Rosen all taking their talents to the next level.

That’s not to say there aren’t a ton of exciting players at the position entering 2018. Here are our picks for the top 15 signal-callers to keep an eye on this year. When in doubt, we’ve erred on the side of how we expect each quarterback to do in the coming season, rather than what they’ve done in the past.

Hansen, now a senior at Arkansas State, has had quite the journey. He was a four-star recruit out of Santa Fe High School and enrolled at Oklahoma, but found himself buried on the depth chart behind the likes of Trevor Knight and Baker Mayfield. He transferred out and spent a year at junior college; his stock dipped a bit and he ended up in Jonesboro with the Red Wolves, largely out of the public eye.

Man, has it ever worked out for both Hansen and ASU, though. The Red Wolves have become one of the most consistent Group of Five programs in the nation (the “Group of Five” qualifier may not be necessary there – they’ve haven’t missed out on a bowl game since 2010), and Hansen has done much to keep the momentum rolling in his two years as a starter. ASU has won eight and seven games, respectively, over the past two seasons, and Hansen has been the ringleader. His 2017 season was magnificent, as he threw for 3,967 yards and 37 touchdowns, added 415 yards and seven scores on the ground, and was named the Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year.

If he can cut down on the turnovers (he tossed 16 picks last season, though in fairness, the Red Wolves threw the ball a lot),  he and his loaded Arkansas State squad could find themselves back in the national spotlight in 2018.