Week 1 of college football brings with it a new crop of quarterbacks, several of which were announced for the first time on Monday.
Alabama
Starter: Jalen Hurts / Tua Tagovailoa
The veteran or the young wunderkind? Nick Saban has been skirting the question all summer long and it looks like he’ll delay the inevitable one more week. Hurts and Tagovailoa are officially listed as co-starters entering the Crimson Tide’s Week 1 game against Louisville. Is this all an elaborate plot to avoid a transfer? Probably.
Clemson
Starter: Kelly Bryant
Backup: Trevor Lawrence
Trevor Lawrence is a real contender for the starting quarterback position at LSU. With a Week 2 trip to Kyle field to play Texas A&M it always seemed that Dabo Swinney would opt for the true freshman out of the gate. It’s Bryant’s job, for now.
Florida
Starter: Feleipe Franks
Backup(s): Emory Jones / Kyle Trask
Feleipe Franks is the man in Gainesville. He won the starting job out of the gate last season but was benched after some early season struggles. The inexperienced gunslinger has plenty of raw talent and new head coach Dan Mullen is hailed as a quarterback whisperer of sorts. If he can coach up Franks the Gators could finally have an offense after years of ineptitude on that side of the ball.
Florida State
Starter: DeAndre Francois
Backup: James Blackman
This was one of the closest not-close battles of the spring and summer. Francois was never going to lose his job to injury, especially to a player like Blackman who wasn’t able to seize control of the position after Francois went down last fall. Although Blackman got his fair shot at winning the job, Willie Taggart elected to stick with the more proven commodity in Francois.
LSU
Starter: Joe Burrow
Backup: Myles Brennan
The best quarterback since Zach Mettenberger has arrived in Death Valley. Joe Burrow narrowly missed out on the job at Ohio State before coming south to give LSU a boost. Myles Brennan wasn’t able to beat out Danny Etling. Burrow has to be an improvement.
Ohio State
Starter: Dwayne Haskins
Backup: Tate Martell
After Joe Burrow left this race got a whole lot less interested. Martell was a highly regarded high school recruit, but Haskins was always clearly above him on the depth chart. Haskins played well in relief duty last year and was never really threatened in Colombus this offseason, winning the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback job with relative ease.
Texas A&M
Starter: Kellen Mond
Backup: Nick Starkel
Nick Starkel started the first game for the Aggies last season before an early injury sidelined him for half the season. That gave fans (and opposing defenses) enough time to assess both players. Ultimately, it was Mond’s agility combined with his improvements from the spring into fall camp that tipped the scales, giving coach Jimbo Fisher the confidence to name him the starter entering the season.