This should’ve been a showdown betw DJ Uiagalelei and Cam Ward, but DJU is injured and Ward is outshining Uiagalelei and backup Brock Glenn.
Before the season started the October 26th matchup between rivals Florida State and Miami should’ve been a battle between DJ Uiagalelei and Cam Ward. However, FSU is sitting at 1-6 and having lost to the Duke Blue Devils for the first time in program history. Uiagalelei is out with an injury and he’s replaced by Brock Glenn.
When you look at the SP+ data, the ‘Noles are 69th overall, 96th in offense, 31st in defense, and 1st overall in kicking. Miami is 10th overall, 1st in offense, 43rd in defense, and 28th in kicking. The FSU defense could matchup well against the Miami offense. However, FSU’s offense is so bad with Uiagalelei or Glenn at QB, Miami’s defense could have a bounce-back game against their rival.
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What’s interesting is that of the nine remaining undefeated FBS programs, eight have a QB with three or more years of experience in college football. Only the Pitt Panthers and Eli Holstein are quarterbacked by a second year passer.
The rest are QB’d by three year (Navy, Iowa State, Penn State), four year (Army WP, BYU, Liberty), five year (Miami) or even six year (Indiana, Oregon) players behind center. And those are just the undefeated teams.
The top-10 of the SP+ also includes experienced QB’s from Ohio State (five years), Texas (four years), Ole Miss (four years), UGA (five years), Alabama (four years), Notre Dame (four years). Only no.9 Tennessee has a two year player in Nico Iamaleava.
In an era of four-game redshirts, COVID years, NIL deals and the freewheelin’ transfer portal experienced QB’s are all over the world of college footballs best, and sometimes worst, teams.
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Prior to his injury, Uiagalelei had throw four touchdowns with six interceptions on 6.8 yards per attempt under Mike Norvell. Brock Glenn (two years) has had a less than stellar stat line of his own- two TD’s with three INT’s on 5.3 ypa this season.
Having an experienced QB is clearly not the ultimate catalyst for success, but the good QB’s, on good teams, have shown their value in modern CFB. JJ McCarthy guided Michigan to a championship in 2023 on three years of experience. The Wolverines beat Michael Penix who was a 6th year player before heading to the NFL.
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UGA’s back-to-back titles were won with Stetson Bennett IV behind center. Bennett was notoriously a walk-on in 2017 and didn’t start until the 2021 and 2022 seasons. QB’s that have felt the big game pressure and have pushed through longer seasons are more likely to be the QB of the most successful programs in ‘24.
NIL has kept QB’s in college football that otherwise would have tried their hand in the NFL to get paid to play football. While they might’ve wound up on practice squads or in the XFL in years past- they’re now staying in college to play another season while getting paid to play college football.
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Of the non-service academy QB’s only Rocco Becht and Drew Allar are at their original school. Experience and transferring into favorable situations seems to be another recipe for success. But again, plenty of transfer QB’s never pan out including Uiagalelei at FSU, Grayson McCall at NC State, and KJ Jefferson at UCF.
Is there a true recipe for success for veteran transfer QB’s? It certainly helps to align yourself with an OC that knows how to take advantage of the passer’s skillset.
Will Howard (Kansas State) transferred to a Ryan Day and Chip Kelly coached offense at Ohio State and he’s also surrounded with top skill talent at RB and WR including Jeremiah Smith.
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Cam Ward came to Miami to run the Air Raid offense under Shannon Dawson and has a solid OL with NFL quality skill guys in Xavier Restrepo and Elijah Arroyo.
Quinn Ewers left OSU for Texas and offensive-minded HC Steve Sarkisian. The Longhorns have been loaded with talent on offense the past two seasons including Alabama transfer WR Isaiah Bond this season.
While Miami returned Mark Fletcher, Arroyo, and Restrepo- FSU had to replace their top skill guys in RB Trey Benson and WR Keon Coleman and failed to do so.
The Wrap
The true recipe seems to be a lightning in a bottle situation. Mixing a strong O-Line with a core group of skills, an OC that knows how to use the QB’s skillset and the QB himself playing high quality football.
Where experienced QB’s like Tyler Van Dyke and Preston Stone failed, guys like Ward and Dillon Gabriel have found success at new locations. The right QB needs the right scheme and the right situation to find success while the younger QB’s are waiting their turn in an ever more complicated brand of college football.
Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola has shown his upside but the Huskers are 4-2 against FBS teams and he’s thrown zero TD’s with four INT’s the past two games. The experienced gunslingers are the way to go in ‘24- but not all of them; just the ones in the right place to get it done.