SEC Football: Quarterback a strength of the conference in 2017
By Matt Green
For the first time in years, the quarterback position will be a strength of the conference in 2017.
Must Read: SEC Coaching Hot Seat Index
SEC Football is known for being a smash mouth conference that plays great defense. But the conference is often criticized for having overrated defenses because the league is filled with below-average offenses, and more specifically quarterback-play, and that’s not necessarily false.
But that won’t be the case in 2017.
This will likely be the best SEC quarterback class since 2013, when Johnny Manziel, A.J. McCarron, Aaron Murray, and Zach Mettenburger were leading the SEC signal-callers. And there were also guys like Connor Shaw, Nick Marshall, Bo Wallace, and a guy named Dak Prescott, who turned out to be pretty good too.
We did a story about a month ago ranking every projected starting quarterback in the conference. Among the 14 teams in the SEC, nine teams will likely have a returning starter from a year ago.
Only Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Tennessee are guaranteed to have a new starting quarterback in 2017 after Chad Kelly, Trevor Knight, and Joshua Dobbs all graduated. And Auburn and Florida are two other teams that will likely have new signal-caller in 2017.
Sophomore, Jarrett Stidham is already being viewed as the savior at Auburn, while many Gator fans are hoping that redshirt freshman Feleipe Franks will be the man in Gainesville.
By the time the 2017 season kicks off, it won’t take long for the Shea Patterson – Johnny Football comparisons to begin. Despite being unproven, Patterson could be the best quarterback in the SEC by the end of the 2017 season.
Returning Starters
Jalen Hurts returns in Tuscaloosa, making it almost unfair for the Crimson Tide. In a year where they lose 7 starters from one of the best defenses they’ve ever had, they return that SEC offensive player of the year at quarterback.
Austin Allen (Arkansas) is the probably the most consistent, proven quarterback, while guys like Jacob Eason (Georgia) and Drew Lock have NFL-type arms, if they can both become more accurate in 2017.
Nick Fitzgerald (Mississippi State), the SEC’s second-leading rusher in 2016, is by far the most underrated of this crop of quarterbacks. And South Carolina’s Jake Bentley, who should still be in high school, could be one of the biggest sleepers in the conference.
The SEC is a conference that has so much talent in the trenches and on the defensive side of the ball, that they often don’t even need playmakers at the quarterback position to be successful. But in 2017, they’re going to have those as well.