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Jim Hawkins/Inside Carolina

With Week 1 of college football season in the books, the landscape of Power Four quarterbacks has come fully into focus. While some programs are still testing out two players at the position, every program had to pick one to roll with first as the 2024 campaign got underway.

The class of starting QBs for Week 1 spanned from the high school recruiting class of 2018 all the way to the Class of 2024 with Nebraska starting quarterback Dylan Raiola, who was the only true freshman to earn a Week 1 start at quarterback for a Power Four team. Of the 68 starters, a whopping 43 have transferred at some point in their careers.

That includes all three of the Class of 2018 players who are still around starting for their programs. Louisville's Tyler Shough is on his third school, as is Oklahoma State's Alan Bowman. Fellow Class of 2018 QB Cam Rising of Utah is just on his second school after beginning his career at Texas as a true freshman in the 2018 season.

The eradication of transfer restrictions -- paired with relaxed redshirt rules and the extra season of eligibility provided amid the COVID-19 pandemic -- have created a crop of college football college football quarterbacks that now spans a generational divide. Here's a look at the data that helps unpack this year's crop of power conference quarterbacks, or at least the players who took the opening snaps of Week 1. 

Breakdown of 2024 Power Four QBs

SchoolNameWhole career at school?Returning starter?
PittEli HolsteinNoNo
StanfordAshton DanielsYesYes
CaliforniaFernando MendozaYesYes
VirginiaAnthony ColandreaYesYes
SMUPreston StoneYesYes
ClemsonCade KlubnikYesYes
MichiganDavis WarrenYesNo
USCMiller MossYesNo
Penn StateDrew AllarYesYes
NebraskaDylan RaiolaN/ANo
West VirginiaGarrett GreeneYesYes
KansasJalon DanielsYesYes
Iowa StateRocco BechtYesYes
ArizonaNoah FifitaYesYes
TCUJosh HooverYesYes
Texas TechBehren MortonYesYes
Kansas StateAvery JohnsonYesNo
MissouriBrady CookYesYes
South CarolinaLaNorris SellersYesNo
GeorgiaCarson BeckYesYes
AlabamaJalen MilroeYesYes
LSU Garrett NussmeierYesNo
Texas A&MConner WeigmanYesYes
OklahomaJackson ArnoldYesNo
TennesseeNico IamaleavaYesNo
Georgia TechHaynes KingNoYes
Boston CollegeThomas CastellanosNoYes
Virginia TechKyron DronesNoYes
NC StateGrayson McCallNoNo
Wake ForestMichael KernYesNo
MarylandBilly EdwardsNoNo
UCLAEthan GarbersNoYes
PurdueHudson CardNo Yes
IllinoisLuke AltmyerNoYes
Iowa Cade McNamaraNoYes
MinnesotaMax BrosmerNoNo
IndianaKurtis RourkeNoNo
BYUJake RetzlaffNoYes
ColoradoShedeur SandersNoYes
UtahCam RisingNoYes
Oklahoma StateAlan BowmanNoYes
Houston Donovan SmithNoYes
BaylorDequan FinnNoNo
AuburnPayton ThorneNoYes
Florida Graham MertzNoYes
Ole MissJaxson DartNoYes
TexasQuinn EwersNoYes
VanderbiltDiego PaviaNoNo
ArkansasTaylen GreenNoNo
Miami Cam WardNoNo
North CarolinaMax JohnsonNoNo
Louisville Tyler ShoughNoNo
SyracuseKyle McCordNoNo
DukeMaalik MurphyNoNo
Florida StateDJ UiagaleleiNoNo
OregonDillon GabrielNoNo
Ohio StateWill HowardNoNo
WisconsinTyler Van DykeNoNo
WashingtonWill RogersNoNo
NorthwesternMike WrightNoNo
RutgersAthan KaliakmanisNoNo
Michigan StateAidan ChilesNoNo
CincinnatiBrendan SorsbyNoNo
UCFKJ JeffersonNoNo
Arizona StateSam LeavittNoNo
Notre DameRiley LeonardNoNo
Mississippi StateBlake ShapenNoNo
KentuckyBrock VandagriffNoNo

Seven classes represented

Cam Rising (Utah), Bowman (Oklahoma State) and Shough (Louisville) are still hanging around from the Class of 2018. On the other end is Raiola, a five-star prospect from the Class of 2024, who began the season as the only true freshman starter at a Power Four school. However, 66.2% of Power Four starting quarterbacks are in Year 3, 4 or 5 of of their college career.

Recruiting classes of Power Four starting QBs:
2024: 1
2023: 9
2022: 11
2021: 16
2020: 18
2019: 10
2018: 3

Breakdown by recruiting star rating

Six of the eight former five-star prospects beginning the season as Power Four starting quarterbacks are in their first, second or third season of college football. The only former five-stars from the Class of 2021 or earlier are Class of 2021 prospect Quinn Ewers (Texas) and Class of 2020 prospect DJ Uiagalelei (Florida State).

Conversely, all six of the starters who were former two-star or lower prospects are veterans hailing from the Class of 2021 or earlier. Each of them journeyed up from the FCS, Group of Five or junior college ranks. Given time to develop and the freedom to transfer, players such as Minnesota's Max Brosmer -- more on him here -- and Miami's Cam Ward have claimed prominent Power Four roles.

247Sports high school star rating of Power Four QBs:
Five-star: 8
Four-star: 24
Three-star: 29
Two-star or lower: 7

Transfer-heavy group

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See the short-haired freshman in the background? That's a much younger Cam Rising, then with Texas in 2018.  Getty Images

Of the 68 quarterbacks who began the season Power Four starters, 31 are from the Class of 2020 or earlier. Those players are in their fifth, sixth or seventh seasons of college football. Just six of those 31 are playing at the school where they began their career. They are Carson Beck (Georgia), Jalon Daniels (Kansas), Garrett Greene (West Virginia), Michael Kern (Wake Forest), Davis Warren (Michigan) and Brady Cook (Missouri)

Projected Power Four starting QBs who have transferred at any point:
Have transferred: 43
Have never transferred: 25

Where transfer starters at Power Four schools came from:
Another power conference school: 34
Group of Five, FCS or lower: 9

Upward bound

Seven of the 10 projected Power Four starters that transferred up from a lower level of college football are in their first season with their new program. They are:

Conference breakdown

The quarterback breakdown varies from conference to conference. For example, 14 of the 18 projected Big Ten starting quarterbacks have transferred into the league. By contrast, just eight of the SEC's projected 16 starters transferred from out of conference.

Starting QB who transferred in this year:
SEC: 4 of 16 (25%)
Big 12: 4 of 16 (25%)
ACC: 8 of 17 (47%)
Big Ten: 9 of 18 (50%)

Starting QB who has ever transferred:
SEC: 8 of 16 (50%)
Big 12: 9 of 16 (56.3%)
ACC: 11 of 17 (64.7%)
Big Ten: 14 of 18 (77.8%)

Returning starter at quarterback:
Big 12: 11 of 16 (68.8%)
SEC: 8 of 16 (50%)
ACC: 8 of 17 (47.1%)
Big Ten: 5 of 18 (27.8%)

Former 4/5 star prospects:
SEC: 10 of 16 (62.5%)
ACC: 9 of 17 (52.9%)
Big Ten: 9 of 18 (50%)
Big 12: 4 of 16 (25%)

Where they come from

Texas and California produced 41.2% of this year's projected Power Four starting quarterbacks. In total, 24 different states and Canada produced projected P4 quarterback starters.

Power Four starting quarterbacks by home state
Texas: 16
California: 11
Georgia: 7
Florida: 6
Louisiana: 3
Mississippi: 3
Illinois: 2
Kansas: 2
Nevada: 2
Alabama: 1
Arizona: 1
Canada: 1
Connecticut: 1
Hawaii: 1
Michigan: 1
Missouri: 1 
New Jersey: 1
New Mexico: 1
North Carolina: 1
Ohio: 1
Oregon: 1
Pennsylvania: 1
South Carolina: 1
Utah: 1
Virginia: 1