A magnificent seven! Well, kind of, sort of. Either way, there are seven Power Four teams in the country who are a bit unsettled at quarterback heading into spring practice. While much will be made about Kalen DeBoer's decision to go about replacing Jalen Milroe at Alabama, the same sort of things can be said about Ryan Day's plans to find the heir apparent to Will Howard at Ohio State.
In this exercise, I will touch on who I think will end up leading the Crimson Tide and the Buckeyes out of the tunnel in Week 1, as well as five other teams. Chip Patterson of CBS Sports did a fantastic job outlining the seven teams who are in the midst of a quarterback battle this spring. Some are more obvious than others, but that does not mean any is less important than the other ones he mentioned.
From Alabama to Ohio State, these are the teams Patterson identified having a quarterback battle.
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Colorado Buffaloes
- Maryland Terrapins
- Michigan Wolverines
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Oregon Ducks
As you can see, my beloved Georgia Bulldogs are not listed. To me, that means Gunner Stockton is expected to beat out Ryan Puglisi to lead them Dawgs Between the Hedges on fall Saturdays. For teams like Georgia, the floor is still incredibly high, regardless of who is under center. For teams like Maryland, Mike Locksley has to trust his gut instincts in order to keep his job leading the Terrapins.
Without further ado, I have some predicting to do. Here to getting it right even if I still get it wrong!
College QB battles
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Colorado Buffaloes
- Maryland Terrapins
- Michigan Wolverines
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Ohio State Buckeyes
- Oregon Ducks
Alabama Crimson Tide
Austin Mack, Keelon Russell, Ty Simpson
Right from the jump, we have a doozy on our hands with the battle brewing at Alabama between Austin Mack, Keelon Russell and Ty Simpson. It is a chance for us to really see if Kalen DeBoer has it in him to be Nick Saban's successor. Mack has the prototypical size and followed DeBoer to Tuscaloosa from Washington. Simpson has been around the longest, while Russell is the new guy.
Making the right call here is so difficult. Rewarding Simpson for his loyalty to the program may go a long way, but it might cost DeBoer his job. Mack knows Ryan Grubb's system the best, but Alabama is not going to win with Washington's kind of guys. Russell is the future, but I doubt he is ready for the moment. It is why I think all things equal that it is going to Mack to allow DeBoer to go play spin zone.
Alabama has to make the College Football Playoff either this year or next for DeBoer to stick around.
Projected winner: Austin Mack
Colorado Buffaloes
Julian Lewis, Kaidon Salter
Admittedly, I did not see Colorado having that much of a battle brewing between Julian Lewis and Kaidon Salter, but it does have my attention a bit. Salter has spent the last few years playing for Jamey Chadwell at Liberty to varying levels of success. Lewis is from my neck of the woods in nearby Carrollton, Georgia. This is all going to come down to who can run Pat Shurmur's offense the best.
While I would expect for Deion Sanders to have a ton of say in this, he is going to hear what Shurmur has to say. Salter has far more starting experience at the college level to Lewis' none, but nearly all of it came in a gimmicky, run-centric spread offense for Chadwell at Liberty. Under Shurmur we have seen that Colorado really likes to spin it. In time, Lewis may get his run in Boulder, but not right now.
I think that Sanders can sell the Colorado faithful on Salter, based on what he did at Liberty a bit more.
Projected winner: Kaidon Salter
Maryland Terrapins
Justyn Martin, Malik Washington
While the Maryland Terrapins quarterback race may be the most inconsequential, good luck trying to tell head coach Mike Locksley that it is not. I am legitimately shocked Locksley got another year to coach some more awful Big Ten football. If not for the late-game win over USC, would he have been the first Power Four head coach fired last November? Regardless, he still has a big choice to make.
He could go with the UCLA transer in Justyn Martin, who has played sparingly, or with the promising local product in Malik Washington. Locksley knows quarterbacks, so I trust him to make the right decision. Over the last few years he has had success with Billy Edwards Jr. and Taulia Tagovailoa. Since he has nothing left to lose at this point, I would push all my chips to the center for Washington.
If you are going to go down anyway, you are better served to be going down swinging with your guy.
Projected winner: Malik Washington
Michigan Wolverines
Jadyn Davis, Mikey Keene, Bryce Underwood
I do not need to spend a lot of time on this one. It should be obvious, but nothing is as it seems under second-year head coach Sherrone Moore. He needs to firmly establish that this is his team yesterday, and not him kindly filling in for Jim Harbaugh out of necessity. This is Michigan! Act like it. This is why the job has to go to the promising five-star recruit in Bryce Underwood above all else.
We do not need Michigan to waste our time seeing if guys like Jadyn Davis and Mikey Keene can play. We did that last year with Alex Orji and Davis Warren. It was dreadful! The last time the Wolverines had a quarterback with a five-star pedigree was J.J. McCarthy, and even then they monkeyed around with his playing time in favor of the so-called incumbent Cade McNamara. Make a decision and stick to it!
Michigan may be a borderline College Football Playoff team, but will only get there with Underwood.
Projected winner: Bryce Underwood
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Steve Angeli, C.J. Carr, Kenny Minchey
This one may be closer than we expect. All three quarterbacks were on last year's roster that saw Notre Dame win three playoff games in a row en route to a national championship game appearance. Steve Angeli has the greatest amount of playing experience having backed up Sam Hartman and Riley Leonard the last two years. C.J. Carr is the highly touted prospect. Kenny Minchey can spin it.
I am of the believe that if Lloyd Carr's grandson cannot win the job after this season that he will transfer. Although Minchey may be the most athletic of the bunch, I think Marcus Freeman trusts Angeli the most. The offense will look different with him running point over the run-first Leonard, but Notre Dame should have enough personnel around him to get the most out of Angeli's precession.
I was thoroughly convinced that it was going to be Angeli, but I am opening my eyes to other options.
Projected winner: Steve Angeli
Ohio State Buckeyes
Lincoln Kienholz, Julian Sayin, Tavien St. Clair
The quarterback battle brewing between Lincoln Kienholz, Julian Sayin and Tavien St. Clair is the one I am the most fascinated by. While I have Ohio State as a lock to make the College Football Playoff, I sincerely doubt they are going to repeat. They were unable to repeat the two other times they won a national championship in my lifetime. To me, this coronation by Ryan Day is all about the 2026 season.
That is why St. Clair has more of a chance than I originally thought. Truth be told, I really think it is a two-man race between Kienholz and Sayin. The longer it goes on, I would say it is Kienholz. However, the best and only way I can see Ohio State pulling off the repeat is with Sayin under center. To date, the only time Day was wrong was with Kyle McCord, but even then there were weird circumstances.
Kienholz may have the highest floor, but Sayin having the higher ceiling makes him the safer pick.
Projected winner: Julian Sayin
Oregon Ducks
Dante Moore, Austin Novosad
As is the case with a few of these, I did not realize there was even a quarterback battle brewing at Oregon this spring. My thought was by Dan Lanning not signing another quarterback of note in the transfer portal that it would be former UCLA starter Dante Moore the whole way. Well, Austin Novosad has been at the program longer and has seen everything. What if this one goes down to the wire?
In the exact same vein as Ohio State, Novosad may have the higher floor, but Moore has the higher ceiling. If it is close, then Lanning would owe it to himself to go with Moore. However, the longer it goes on, and Moore cannot honestly separate from Novosad, then you have to go the other way. Lanning may have to put his thumb on the scale to make sure it is Moore to maintain job security.
With his infatuation for transfer portal quarterbacks, I am struggling to seeing Novosad winning this.
Projected winner: Dante Moore