OT Greatest college QB of all time

[nosellout]

A lot of the great NFL QB's didn't put up the best numbers at the collegiate level. Tom Brady arguably the greatest human to ever play football might not make a top 50 all time college QB list. Google search gives you names like Colt Brennan, Cam Newton and Doug Flutie constantly listed in the top 10.

I would think Trevor Lawrence deserves to be in the conversation.

 

[cashisking884]

Cam would have to be up there. That Auburn team had some pretty good recruiting classes during that window. But they weren’t a “stacked top 5 recruiting classes” type team, at a time where that’s almost a requirement.

Cam basically canceled out any difference between very good recruiting and elite recruiting. Which doesn’t seem like a big deal. But nobody else has done it.

 

[steelcurtain55.]

One's that won't get mentioned but we're simply excellent -

Keenan Reynolds
Tommie Frazier
Tracy Ham
Jamelle Holloway
Eric Crouch

 

[Ronnyp91]

Vince Young has to be up there.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

That I can remember: Tim Tebow, Vince Young, Danny Wuerffel, Steve McNair, Joe Burrow.

Won't comment on earlier generations.

 

[Pitt79]

A lot of the great NFL QB's didn't put up the best numbers at the collegiate level. Tom Brady arguably the greatest human to ever play football might not make a top 50 all time college QB list. Google search gives you names like Colt Brennan, Cam Newton and Doug Flutie constantly listed in the top 10.

I would think Trevor Lawrence deserves to be in the conversation.

Because one thing has nothing to do with the other, Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel had hall of fame college football careers, the fact that they where NFL busts shouldn't lower their rankings for what they did in college. I hate when people rank Heisman winners based on how they did later as pros, in COLLEGE football Tebow>Brady, what Brady did in the NFL doesn't change that, nor should it.

 

[RaleighPittFan]

College only? Ryan Leaf

 

[RaleighPittFan]

Major Harris has to be in the conversation, too.

 

[cashisking884]

Vick would be up there too.

VT had some high end talent. Suggs at RB. The WR whose name escapes me. Some really good dudes on defense.

But their offense was pretty vanilla even for that time, and it’s not like they were dripping with talent. Vick carried them to borderline elite status.

Only reason I’d put Cam above Vick is because Cam did it going against recruiting heavyweights every week. Whereas even Miami was still in the wake of probation in the Big East when Vick was there.

 

[cashisking884]

One's that won't get mentioned but we're simply excellent -

Keenan Reynolds
Tommie Frazier
Tracy Ham
Jamelle Holloway
Eric Crouch

I don’t know about Crouch. Grossman should have won the Heisman that year over him.

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Doug Flutie has to be in the top 5. I mean he WAS Boston College those 4 years. He was an absolute handful. He just would make play after play......

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Morelli, Hackenberg, Clifford, etc.

 

[LeftCoastPanther]

He only played two years, but since he's from my high school I'm throwing out Bernie Kosar.

He had two years of eligibility left at Miami and the day after the Canes lost to PSU, Kosar threw for 489 yards versus the Jets when he could have been carving up the Lions' defense.

 

[steelcurtain55.]

Drew Brees

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Most of the guys who immediately popped into my mind (Vick, Frasier, Tebow, Young, Wuerffel) have already been mentioned. I would have thought Tee Martin and Jake Plummer to have better stats than they apparently did, after looking them up (didn't think they were in the conversation for greatest of all time or anything). Andre Ware had a pretty stellar final season at Houston. Manning and Luck were both really good in college. Winston was a beast as a true freshman, albeit older than your typical true freshman, at FSU. Just so many directions you could go with this. It's impossible to pick only one.

 

[wbrpanther]

Morelli, Hackenberg, Clifford, etc.

The thread is best QBs. Not worst!

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

He only played two years, but since he's from my high school I'm throwing out Bernie Kosar.

He had two years of eligibility left at Miami and the day after the Canes lost to PSU, Kosar threw for 489 yards versus the Jets when he could have been carving up the Lions' defense.

The most irritating thing about that, he should have been Pitt's QB to succeed Marino. He wanted to be.

 

[steelcurtain55.]

Only reason I’d put Cam above Vick is because Cam did it going against recruiting heavyweights every week. Whereas even Miami was still in the wake of probation in the Big East when Vick was there.

Miami might have assembled the greatest collection of talent ever seen '99 and '00 season. Those were the Vick years.

Whether or not the rest of the Big East was up to snuff to the SEC that Cam saw is a different matter.

However, the collection of talent that was at Miami will go toe to toe with anything Cam played against.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

Vick would be up there too.

VT had some high end talent. Suggs at RB. The WR whose name escapes me. Some really good dudes on defense.

But their offense was pretty vanilla even for that time, and it’s not like they were dripping with talent. Vick carried them to borderline elite status.

Only reason I’d put Cam above Vick is because Cam did it going against recruiting heavyweights every week. Whereas even Miami was still in the wake of probation in the Big East when Vick was there.

Vick is my #1 "imagine him in today's college offenses" guy.

The biggest mystery one is Andre Ware. He set 26 NCAA records in Houston's run and shoot in one year -- but almost no one saw him play because of the TV ban on their games from a cheating scandal. He threw for 4700 yards in a year only seven players threw for 3000. He threw 46 touch downs where #2 Ty Detmer had 32 and the #4 in the country guys tied with 22. He more than doubled them! He also did that in 11 games because they were banned from bowl play and mostly sat out 4th quarters because of blow outs. Was he actually better than David Klingler or just a system guy? IDK since there is basically no film of him playing at Houston except one foggy YouTube video.

 

[Pitt79]

The most irritating thing about that, he should have been Pitt's QB to succeed Marino. He wanted to be.

Really? I don't remember this story? What happened? He was from Youngstown I think? So why didn't he go to tOSU maybe? Or Pitt?

 

[CJsE]

I mean, I'm not a fan of the guy but any list that doesn't have Tebow at #1 or at worst #2 is just wrong.

Alos of guys had great seasons, but Tebow was elite at the position for 3 straight years. How many QBs have finished top 5 Heisman voting 3 years in a row?

 

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Really? I don't remember this story? What happened? He was from Youngstown I think? So why didn't he go to tOSU maybe? Or Pitt?

Well for one, Boardman is on the border of Pa/Oh, essentially a suburb of New Castle. LOL. Back then? Pitt > Ohio State. Pitt was better. Pitt was the U before the U. National power.

Kosar wanted to commit to Pitt, but Pitt already had two QB's committed in that class.

 

[CaptainMurphy]

Vick is my #1 "imagine him in today's college offenses" guy.

The biggest mystery one is Andre Ware. He set 26 NCAA records in Houston's run and shoot in one year -- but almost no one saw him play because of the TV ban on their games from a cheating scandal. He threw for 4700 yards in a year only seven players threw for 3000. He threw 46 touch downs where #2 Ty Detmer had 32 and the #4 in the country guys tied with 22. He more than doubled them! He also did that in 11 games because they were banned from bowl play and mostly sat out 4th quarters because of blow outs. Was he actually better than David Klingler or just a system guy? IDK since there is basically no film of him playing at Houston except one foggy YouTube video.

Thought of Ware as well. Another guy who had a phenomenal season and gets overlooked in the discussion is Chris Weinke (won the NC as well).

Also Steve McNair.

 

[pittmeister]

I’d have to go with Tebow. Three time Heisman Trophy finalist (top 5) and winning it in 2007. Not sure a QB has ever done that….

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

Tebow was Charlie Ward with an extra 60 pounds of power, just incredible. Never liked those teams or Urban Meyer but hard to deny he had an incredible run in the conference that had the best defenses in the country and still scored all those touchdowns.

 

[PITT PRIDE]

I am a die hard Pitt guy and have no connection whatsoever to the SEC but for my money the best I ever saw , most impactful, simply electric was Manning-----I'm talking ARCHIE Manning---for you younger guys go watch his Ole Miss highlights , just unreal. Archie was a 3 yr starter for Ole Miss and basically carried them to new heights essentially on his own like Flutie did for BC
.Also, in the first ever prime time (i.e. evening) national telecast of a college football game , Alabama v Ole Miss , 1969, Archie threw for 436 yds and ran for like another 130!!. To this day, it is the greatest single performance I have ever seen by a football player, college or pro. Better than Gayle Sayers 6 TD's in the mud against the 49'ers

 

[CJsE]

I am a die hard Pitt guy and have no connection whatsoever to the SEC but for my money the best I ever saw , most impactful, simply electric was Manning-----I'm talking ARCHIE Manning---for you younger guys go watch his Ole Miss highlights , just unreal. Archie was a 3 yr starter for Ole Miss and basically carried them to new heights essentially on his own like Flutie did for BC
.Also, in the first ever prime time (i.e. evening) national telecast of a college football game , Alabama v Ole Miss , 1969, Archie threw for 436 yds and ran for like another 130!!. To this day, it is the greatest single performance I have ever seen by a football player, college or pro. Better than Gayle Sayers 6 TD's in the mud against the 49'ers

I mean, sure great game performance, but it was also like 1/4 of his total yards for the season against an Alabama team that won the game and went on to finish 8th in the SEC.

He was so impactful that Ole Miss won only 1 more game in the 3 years he was QB as they did in the 3 seasons before he was QB and the 3 seasons after he left. His teams never finished higher than 4th (once, twice in 5th) in the SEC. By comparison, Ole Miss finished in 4th twice and 3rd once before he arrived.

It's a pretty bold statement to say his 4th place finish was "new heights" when they had multiple claimed national championships in the decade before he arrived.

 

[cashisking884]

Miami might have assembled the greatest collection of talent ever seen '99 and '00 season. Those were the Vick years.

Whether or not the rest of the Big East was up to snuff to the SEC that Cam saw is a different matter.

However, the collection of talent that was at Miami will go toe to toe with anything Cam played against.

But it was young in 99. Dorsey was a true freshman. Ed Reed was making that mistake against Penn State that cost them the game that you’d never see him make the rest of his career, either college or NFL.

They also added some JUCO guys the next season that would all be first rounders, that weren’t on the team in ‘99.

99 was a team that had a lot of talent, but because of probation, was playing too early.

 

[TheSeldomSeenKid]

A few Named not mentioned:

Carson Palmer-USC
Matt Leinart-USC
Marcus Mariota-Oregon
Kyler Murray-Oklahoma
Sam Bradford-Oklahoma

 

[HailtoPitt]

Jason White, obviously.

 

[steelcurtain55.]

Who did more with less? --- Drew Brees???

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Who did more with less? --- Drew Brees???

Doug Flutie

 

[steelcurtain55.]

Doug Flutie

can't argue with that..

 

[PITT PRIDE]

Archie Manning took Ole Miss to "new heights" in terms of national visibility . before Archie , nobody outside of Miss and th eSEC knew who they were or where they were. Archie single handedly changed that. Note: where is the "multiple national champinbships " coming from?

 

[cashisking884]

Most of the guys who immediately popped into my mind (Vick, Frasier, Tebow, Young, Wuerffel) have already been mentioned. I would have thought Tee Martin and Jake Plummer to have better stats than they apparently did, after looking them up (didn't think they were in the conversation for greatest of all time or anything). Andre Ware had a pretty stellar final season at Houston. Manning and Luck were both really good in college. Winston was a beast as a true freshman, albeit older than your typical true freshman, at FSU. Just so many directions you could go with this. It's impossible to pick only one.

Winston would be a good one.

Jimbo has produced some good QBs. But his offense is so slow and deliberate and mechanical. And you see how tightly he has had his QBs wound up before or since Winston, that it usually costs him.

It says something that Winston was just oblivious to it. Maybe it says something about how dizzy he was in the head. Some of the things he did at FSU and in the NFL would kind of speak to that.

But in the end he did what even some really good QBs couldn’t do.

 

[cashisking884]

Marques Tuiasosopo was damn good for Washington and would kill it in today’s offenses.

Washington had no defense. Every week was a shootout. And their offensive talent wasn’t loaded either. He carried that team to the Rose Bowl and beat the Drew Brees team.

 

[upj87]

A lot of the great NFL QB's didn't put up the best numbers at the collegiate level. Tom Brady arguably the greatest human to ever play football might not make a top 50 all time college QB list. Google search gives you names like Colt Brennan, Cam Newton and Doug Flutie constantly listed in the top 10.

I would think Trevor Lawrence deserves to be in the conversation.

still working on this. However, I was able to eliminate the kid who came in for Sean Clifford for Penn State against Iowa last year from my list of potential candidates...

 

[steelcurtain55.]

The highest graded QB's for the draft (not in any order) accorder to Kiper

John Elway
Peyton Manning
Matthew "I watch her break her back" Stafford
Trevor Lawrence

 

[Pitt79]

Archie Manning took Ole Miss to "new heights" in terms of national visibility . before Archie , nobody outside of Miss and th eSEC knew who they were or where they were. Archie single handedly changed that. Note: where is the "multiple national champinbships " coming from?

I don't know? Archie Manning was kind of overrated IMO? His college stats weren't that great, His best team was like 8-3 and he was mostly a big loser in the NFL, almost double INTs to TDs. 35-101-3 W/L record.

 

[upj87]

The highest graded QB's for the draft (not in any order) accorder to Kiper

John Elway
Peyton Manning
Matthew "I watch her break her back" Stafford
Trevor Lawrence

that's Mathew "I was too drunk to help the clumsy broad out" Stafford to you mister!