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
| School | Name | Whole career at school? | Returning starter? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitt | Eli Holstein | No | No |
| Stanford | Ashton Daniels | Yes | Yes |
| California | Fernando Mendoza | Yes | Yes |
| Virginia | Anthony Colandrea | Yes | Yes |
| SMU | Preston Stone | Yes | Yes |
| Clemson | Cade Klubnik | Yes | Yes |
| Michigan | Davis Warren | Yes | No |
| USC | Miller Moss | Yes | No |
| Penn State | Drew Allar | Yes | Yes |
| Nebraska | Dylan Raiola | N/A | No |
| West Virginia | Garrett Greene | Yes | Yes |
| Kansas | Jalon Daniels | Yes | Yes |
| Iowa State | Rocco Becht | Yes | Yes |
| Arizona | Noah Fifita | Yes | Yes |
| TCU | Josh Hoover | Yes | Yes |
| Texas Tech | Behren Morton | Yes | Yes |
| Kansas State | Avery Johnson | Yes | No |
| Missouri | Brady Cook | Yes | Yes |
| South Carolina | LaNorris Sellers | Yes | No |
| Georgia | Carson Beck | Yes | Yes |
| Alabama | Jalen Milroe | Yes | Yes |
| LSU | Garrett Nussmeier | Yes | No |
| Texas A&M | Conner Weigman | Yes | Yes |
| Oklahoma | Jackson Arnold | Yes | No |
| Tennessee | Nico Iamaleava | Yes | No |
| Georgia Tech | Haynes King | No | Yes |
| Boston College | Thomas Castellanos | No | Yes |
| Virginia Tech | Kyron Drones | No | Yes |
| NC State | Grayson McCall | No | No |
| Wake Forest | Michael Kern | Yes | No |
| Maryland | Billy Edwards | No | No |
| UCLA | Ethan Garbers | No | Yes |
| Purdue | Hudson Card | No | Yes |
| Illinois | Luke Altmyer | No | Yes |
| Iowa | Cade McNamara | No | Yes |
| Minnesota | Max Brosmer | No | No |
| Indiana | Kurtis Rourke | No | No |
| BYU | Jake Retzlaff | No | Yes |
| Colorado | Shedeur Sanders | No | Yes |
| Utah | Cam Rising | No | Yes |
| Oklahoma State | Alan Bowman | No | Yes |
| Houston | Donovan Smith | No | Yes |
| Baylor | Dequan Finn | No | No |
| Auburn | Payton Thorne | No | Yes |
| Florida | Graham Mertz | No | Yes |
| Ole Miss | Jaxson Dart | No | Yes |
| Texas | Quinn Ewers | No | Yes |
| Vanderbilt | Diego Pavia | No | No |
| Arkansas | Taylen Green | No | No |
| Miami | Cam Ward | No | No |
| North Carolina | Max Johnson | No | No |
| Louisville | Tyler Shough | No | No |
| Syracuse | Kyle McCord | No | No |
| Duke | Maalik Murphy | No | No |
| Florida State | DJ Uiagalelei | No | No |
| Oregon | Dillon Gabriel | No | No |
| Ohio State | Will Howard | No | No |
| Wisconsin | Tyler Van Dyke | No | No |
| Washington | Will Rogers | No | No |
| Northwestern | Mike Wright | No | No |
| Rutgers | Athan Kaliakmanis | No | No |
| Michigan State | Aidan Chiles | No | No |
| Cincinnati | Brendan Sorsby | No | No |
| UCF | KJ Jefferson | No | No |
| Arizona State | Sam Leavitt | No | No |
| Notre Dame | Riley Leonard | No | No |
| Mississippi State | Blake Shapen | No | No |
| Kentucky | Brock Vandagriff | No | No |
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
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:
- Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina to NC State)
- Max Brosmer (New Hampshire to Minnesota)
- Kurtis Rourke (Ohio to Indiana)
- Dequan Finn (Toledo to Baylor)
- Diego Pavia (New Mexico State to Vanderbilt)
- Taylen Green (Boise State to Arkansas)
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