Top 10 college football quarterbacks going into 2017 spring practice
By John Buhler
Luke Falk
Quarterback, Washington State Cougars
From the looks of it, the Pac-12 will be far and away the best quarterback conference in the Power 5 this fall. One of the better passers in the Pac-12 will be rising senior Luke Falk of the Washington State Cougars.
While he may get overlooked as a pro prospect by playing in Mike Leach’s Air Raid, don’t let the pass-heavy Washington State offense trick you into thinking Falk is a system product. He has a great feel for the game. Falk is a precise passer that makes NFL reads at the line, and he sets up his own complicated protection schemes and often opts into a run in the Air Raid.
Though Falk puts up great numbers in the Air Raid, he might be the system’s best pro prospect since Leach was the offensive coordinator for Tim Couch with the Kentucky Wildcats. In three years at Pullman, Falk has completed 68.8 percent of his passes for 10,888 yards, 89 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
He will have to improve his yards per attempt beyond his career mark of 7.2 in his final year at Washington State. It may compromise his accuracy, but will increase his draft stock and bring more notoriety to Leach’s Pac-12 program. Washington State should be one of the better teams in the Pac-12 next year any way.
Of all the quarterbacks on this list, Falk might play with the most poise in the pocket. He can run a little bit, but he has the build of a pro-style quarterback despite thriving in an Air Raid system. Marcus Mariota’s success at the NFL with the Tennessee Titans after starring collegiately in Chip Kelly’s up-tempo spread at Oregon might make Falk a more appealing draft prospect than a player like him would have been three years ago.