On Collegefootballfan’s schedule this season, we will see some of the top QBs in all of college football. Last season, we watched record-setting FBS QB Bailey Zappe at Western Kentucky, a transfer from Houston Baptist, perform twice. He set season NCAA records with 5,967 passing yards and 62 TD passes. He went on to become drafted in the fourth round by the New England Patriots. Our slate this year features some of the “Top Guns” aiming for similar marks and destinations.
The transfer strategy
Our season starts off with Western Kentucky, and with Austin Peay once again. HC Tyson Helton brought on another transfer to assure dominance through the air. Jarret Doege arrives fresh from West Virginia where he threw for 5,635 yards and 33 TDs the past two seasons. Despite last season’s OC Zach Kittley moving on to Texas Tech, his understudy Ben Arbuckle remains. He continues the pass dominated offense preferred by Helton.
We see the Hilltoppers open the season on August 27 hosting FCS Austin Peay. We watched the Governors start to turn the corner last season with a 47-6 win over Murray State led by first-time starting QB Sheldon Layman. The Govs won four of their last five games under young, energetic HC Scotty Walden. Another possible QB starter for APU could be MTSU transfer Mike DiLilleo. Both teams will be learning what they have at QB in this game. It should be fun to watch QB shuttles along both sidelines.
No transfers needed here
In a Big Ten opener the following Thursday, Penn State visits Purdue. Unlike our opener, both squads start very experienced, top QBs. Purdue brings back three-year starter and 2021 second team All-Big Ten QB Aidan O’Connell. We attended his encore performance in the 45-42 Music City Bowl win over Tennessee. There, he spread his passes around to nine different receivers for 543 yards and five TDs. O’Connell found WR Broc Thompson who returns as his favorite receiver. That day, Thompson hauled in seven receptions for 217 yards and two TDS. O’Connell amassed 3,712 yards and 28 TDs for the season.
PSU returns its top QB in Sean Clifford for his fourth season as starting QB. Despite an injury against Iowa that slowed him down last year, he finished with 3,107 yard passing and 21 TDs. In his sixth season with the Nittany Lions, this will be the first time he will have the same OC in Mike Yurich. Despite the graduation of top receiver Jahan Dotson, Parker Washington and KeAndre Lambert-Smith return as top targets from last year. The addition of transfer Mitchell Tinsley from WKU adds to his experienced targets as well. For a Big Ten opener, this match-up could be a barn-burner. The burning question to ask, whose defense will be most up for this one?
In our Annals, Deacons should become “11-1”
On September 10, AP No. 13 Wake Forest comes to Nashville to play Vanderbilt. Demon Deacon QB Sam Hartmann returns with his offensive line and two top receivers intact. They should continue their 41.0 scoring average going into this one. We watched the Deacs in action last season beat NC State at home, 45-42. They finished their regular season defeating Boston College on the road with us, 45-10. Hartman, ranked seventh among top QBs in 2021, led his team with 4,435 passing yards and 46 TDs while only turning over six INTs.
Vanderbilt comes off a 2-10 season. We will scout them hosting FCS Elon the week before to make a true assessment if they have a shot at winning the SEC as some unknown pollster predicted. By the way, even our friends from Wake Forest can’t believe that we’ve seen their Deacs play eleven times since 1980 and that they won ten times (only loss in OT to Louisville in 2019). (Stop the presses – Hartman on the sideline indefinitely for non-football, medical issue. Waiting to hear more).
Auburn transfer: proven Bama-beater
We’ll see Penn State on the road for a second time when they and we travel to Auburn for a rematch of their 28-20 victory over the Tigers we attended last season. However, Auburn QB Bo Nixon has transferred out to Oregon. In his place, we expect to see Soph QB Zach Calzada who transferred in from Texas A&M. Zach’s “claim to fame” comes from his start for the Aggies in last season’s 41-38 upset win over No. 1 Alabama. He completed 21 of 31 passes for 285 yards and three TDs, only one INT. For the season, he threw for 2,185 yards, 17 TDs, but nine INTs. Replacing injured QB Haynes King, the Aggies expected to compete for the SEC West, but among Calzada’s ten starts, A&M finished 4-4 in the conference. Maybe Auburn will allow him to breathe new life as their sophomore starter.
Best meeting of transfer QBs
October 8 sends us to Lexington, KY where the Kentucky Wildcats with QB Will Levis, last year’s starter, will host South Carolina. Levis, who we’d seen previously on display at Penn State spring games, and as back-up to Sean Clifford, led the Wildcats at QB last season to a 10-3 season. He returns after tossing for 2,827 yards and running for 376 yards resulting in 33 UK touchdowns. He has two years of eligibility remaining if he chooses to stay with the Wildcats in 2023. Carolina will counter with their transfer, a top QB with “star potential” in former Oklahoma QB Spencer Rattler.
Rattler’s story is well known having been the starter and a Heisman candidate at OU. Too many turnovers led to his demise last season. Caleb Williams (now with the other USC) took over to lead the Sooners the second half of their 11-2 season. Rattler started the first six games (without a loss) passing for 1,483 yards, 11 TDs, but five INTs plus costly fumbles sat him down. Seeking new opportunities in the portal, he found his former Sooner QB coach Shane Beamer, new HC at South Carolina, a very welcoming option. He’ll undoubtedly be a big boost at QB for the Gamecocks. Pre-season reports caution success, however, with a suspect offensive line returning for Carolina. We’ll get to witness how the Gamecocks stack up first hand in early October.
Eastern Swing, part 1
Since we relocated to Tennessee, we continue to venture east to hit our two favorite eastern venues on back-to-back weekends as we started this tradition last year. We travel to Annapolis on October 22 to see Navy host Houston in the Cougars last season in the American Athletic. Then, we roll on to State College, PA to see the Ohio State Buckeyes tussle with the Nittany Lions for our ninth time. Among top QBs, Houston brings back QB Clayton Tune who pitched for 3,546 yards and 30 TDs leading the Cougs to an 11-2 record. We saw them fall to Cincy in the AAC championship game before defeating Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl.
The Cougs averaged 35.9 ppg, but just beat Navy at home, 28-20. Navy will counter with QB Tai Lavatai running their triple option. He was out for several games last season. He returned to turn that rushing offense around late and upset 9-2 Army. The key to Navy success goes with the effectiveness of their QB running the option. This keeps Tune and the opposing offense off the field. Navy’s ball control helps their defense. Lavatai needs to follow in the footstep of Malcolm Perry and Kennan Reynolds. Both recent Navy QBs ran that offense so effectively that both got drafted as position players by the NFL.
Eastern Swing, part 2
At Beaver Stadium in State College, if Sean Clifford stays healthy up until this point for the Nittany Lions, he’s probably the best bet they have at QB to lead his offense to offset the strength of Buckeyes’ QB CJ Stroud. A pre-season All-American, Stroud returns from the 11-2 season and Rose Bowl win totaling 4,435 passing yards and 46 TDs. He finished fifth among top QBs. Despite losing top receivers to the NFL draft, his top target Jaxon Smith-Njigba returns. He snagged 95 tosses for 1,248 of those yards and 15 scores.
A day game here means no “white-out” in Happy Valley. However, if both schools come in to fight to lead the Big Ten, this will again be an outstanding game. In our annals, PSU leads this series (all at home), 5-3. If we deduct the score of the Lions’ 1994 63-14 win, the Buckeyes hold the edge in points, 157-154. We hope everyone remains healthy for this one which we anticipate as being a close one again.
Run, Malik, run!
On November 5 and 12, we will see Louisville with their top QB returning in Malik Cunningham. Last season he passed for 2,941 yards and 19 touchdowns. He led all QBs in rushing nationally with 1,031 yards and 20 TDs. To stay healthy, reports say HC Scott Satterfield may want him to stay protected in the pocket more often this season. We’ll see him in the first of two consecutive weekends hosting FBS newcomer James Madison.
The Dukes will be breaking in a new QB after the departure of their impressive QB Cole Johnson. HC Curt Cignetti brought in another transfer (nobody needs to recruit high schools for the time being), QB Todd Centeio from Colorado State. Centeio completed 60% of his passes for 2,958 yards in 2021. That’s how this works. CSU brings in Jay Norvell from Nevada as HC, so he brings along freshman (aka first year player) Clay Millen to run his Air Raid offense.
The following week we will follow the Cardinals to see a game at Clemson for the first time. The big question mark for Dabo Swinney’s team is if his top QB DJ Uiagalelei recovers from last season (nine TDs, 10 INTs). Will DJ have to step aside for Frosh QB Cade Klubnik or some transfer in the pipeline? Will Cunningham pass more or run more against this Tiger defense? We get to see some interesting games impacted by QB play this season.
MVP! MVP! Top QB again?
Going back to Kentucky on November 19, we get to see defending champion Georgia. Returning comes their sixth-year QB Stetson Bennet intact. Over the years at Georgia, Bennet outlasted QB JT Daniels who transferred from Southern Cal who all UGA fans clamored for to start. Daniels opted out after last season. In a web of QB transfers, he goes to West Virginia to replace Jarret Doege who we will see play QB at WKU. Is this what college football has become? Transfer until you find a place where you might play? How good is Daniels if he hasn’t stepped up from previous QBs playing ahead of him? Let the pros just draft these guys out of high school and let them invest their money to develop them. Transfer portal – do once and done!
Bennet took MVP honors in their CFP semi-final 34-11 victory over Michigan last season. Defense dominated for the Dawgs last season. Will Bennett step up and lead the offense to offset some of the learning curve a basically new defense needs to undergo? Several offensive linemen return to block and All-American TE Brock Bowers returns as his leading receiver along with WR Adonai Mitchell. Last season, the Wildcats suffered one of their three losses, 30-13, to the Bulldogs on the road. Kroger Stadium will be pumped for this one and so will Collegefootballfan.com. We’ll see what a difference a year will make for both of these programs.
Big 12 battle of QBs inexperience
On Friday of Thanksgiving weekend, we will see Baylor and Texas, preseason favorites with QBs in question early in the season. Baylor HC Dave Aranda favored Soph Blake Shapen after spring sessions which prompted incumbent Brian Bohannon to seek greener portal pastures. Shapen demonstrated his skill in the Big 12 championship win over Oklahoma State. He completed 17 straight passes and tallied 180 passing yards and three TD passes. However, he started only two games last season when the Bears finished 12-2. He sat out the 21-7 Sugar Bowl win over Ole Miss with a should injury.
The Longhorns big offseason story centered around HC Steve Sarkisian luring transfer QB Quinn Ewers away from Ohio State. Unlike Joe Burrows sitting along the Buckeye sideline for four years sopping up some value from that vaunted program, Ewers absorbed whatever knowledge exists there for only one season. He hasn’t played since his last high school game of 2020. How ready will he be?
By the time we attend this game, hopefully Shapen and Ewers will be healthy, “seasoned” veterans of the college game. Whether they both play or either does, we hope to see a game of meaning. If things don’t work out as things appear to be now, the lead story on both by then could be that they may be seeking the transfer portal. We hope not, but this lack of commitment among top QBs has to end somewhere. The lesson in life has to be that eventually, you have to stick it out and battle for what you want. You can’t always walk away. Whatever happened to, “When the going gets tough…”?
Ed. by Steve Koreivo, Author of “Tales from the Tailgate: From the Fan who’s seen ‘em all!” Click on title to buy your copy and add a review today!