By Chris Marler
It’s time for another fun edition of my weekly quarterback rankings. Critics are calling it “One of the dumbest weekly commitments people have made since watching Big Bang Theory.” Last week I was pretty adamant about my absolute lack of confidence in accurately ranking the SEC quarterbacks.
This week? Not so much. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that two quarterbacks have clearly separated themselves and Jalen Milroe is not one of them. Sheesh. Here’s this week’s rankings.
1. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU
Nuss failed to throw a touchdown against Arkansas, which was the first time in 21 games that an LSU signal caller hasn’t thrown at least one score. However, he also failed to throw an interception or come close to losing a game that many picked as an upset. LSU went to Fayetteville to face a rival that was coming off a bye and beat them by 24.
2. Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt struggled against Ball State, but they got the win and inched closer to bowl eligibility. Pavia had a season high 275 passing yards and nearly a season low in completion percentage at just 54.8 percent. He’s still the second highest graded SEC quarterback by Pro Football Focus, third in the SEC in passer rating, and his one interception is the fewest in the league.
3. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss
He didn’t play and still rose three spots this week. That’s how bad Beck, Ewers, and Milroe were in week eight. Dart ranks first in the conference in passer rating, passing yards per game and completion percentage. The Rebs had a bye week this week which should set Dart up for a big week. In two games a year ago with extra rest, Dart had over 630 yards of offense and seven touchdowns.
4. Carson Beck, Georgia
Listen, Beck was awful this weekend with three interceptions against Texas. Some of those were inexcusable. And, there should be genuine questions about his performance against elite competition with how he’s played against Alabama and Texas. But, he’s still top five in the league in QBR and has 15 passing touchdowns on the season.
5. Brady Cook, Missouri
Numbers are still not gonna blow you away for Brady Cook. But, here’s something that should.
On Saturday he left the game after the second series with an ankle injury. He was taken to the hospital for further evaluation. He was driven back to campus, loosened up in the indoor track facility, and then came back in the game late in the third quarter.
Cook hit Mookie Cooper for 78 yards on his third play back and led two touchdown scoring drives to finish the comeback win. He became only the second quarterback in the last 20 years to beat Auburn when the orange and blue Tigers had a lead of 14 points or more in the second half. Bravo, Brady.
6. Quinn Ewers & Arch Manning, Texas
Both quarterbacks were bad this weekend. So bad in fact that they became a viral meme from their bewildered looks on the sidelines halfway through the game. But it was Georgia’s defense, which is the main reason they didn’t slip further than six.
7. Taylen Green, Arkansas
Green got bottled up against LSU, ending the game with minus-ten yards rushing after being sacked three times. He also threw another interception, but he ended the game with almost 240 yards passing and 67 percent of his passes completed.
8. Jalen Milroe, Alabama
Threw a career high 20 incompletions, missed ten open receivers, and threw one of the most inexcusable interceptions we’ve seen all season. I’m not sure why the game plan was ever to have Milroe throw the ball 45 times in a game, but to literally no one’s surprise, that plan didn’t go well.
9. LaNorris Sellers
Sellers is turning a corner in front of our eyes right now. He completed over 66 percent of his passes for the second straight week and had over 200 yards of total offense. Most importantly, Sellers didn’t have a turnover for the first time all season.
10. Conner Weigman, Texas A&M
It’s not that he threw two interceptions. A lot of SEC quarterbacks did that over the weekend. It’s that he did it against one of the worst defenses in the conference and he did it after coming off a bye week.
The Bottom Six
11. Nico Iamaleava, Tennessee
12. Michael Van Buren, Mississippi State
13. DJ Lagway, Florida
14. Payton Thorne, Auburn
15. Michael Hawkins Jr, Oklahoma
16. Brock Vandagriff, Kentucky
