2011 NCAA Football Preview - Quarterbacks

Today we will begin a 4-part series leading us in to our predictions for the 2011 NCAA Football season. There is no doubt that every position on the football field is important. All pieces of the puzzle must come together to form a championship ball club. But at the collegiate level it appears that having playmakers at certain positions is more essential.

The offensive backfield is of utmost importance. There is a reason that the last 12 Heisman winners and 17 of the last 18 have been a QB or RB. If you have talent at these positions you have a chance to win every week.

Teams with championship aspirations must also have a stout defense. Auburn gave up its share of points last year, but came up big at the biggest moments (like holding on to beat Alabama by 1 in the Iron Bowl and holding the potent Oregon offense to 19 points in the BCS National Championship).

Last but not least is the glue that holds it all together. You must have an elite Head Coach. There are plenty of coaches who can recruit, but if you can't coach them up you can't win it all. Football is a game of inches and so many times in college football a great coach can make a difference.

We will break down these positions/units by conference over the next 4 days, beginning with the QBs.

Here is a conference by conference look at how the QBs rank (The projected starter in parenthesis):

ACC
1. Florida St. (EJ Manuel)
2. Maryland (Danny O'Brien)
3. NC State (Mike Glennon)
4. Miami (Jacory Harris)
5. Virginia Tech (Logan Thomas)
6. Duke (Sean Renfree)
7. North Carolina (Bryn Renner)
8. Clemson (Tajh Boyd)
9. Georgia Tech (Tevin Washington)
10. Boston College (Chase Rettig)
11. Wake Forest (Tanner Price)
12. Virginia (Ross Metheny)

Big East
1. West Virginia (Geno Smith)
2. Cincinnati (Zach Callaros)
3. South Florida (BJ Daniels)
4. Syracuse (Ryan Nassib)
5. Pittsburgh (Tino Sunseri)
6. Rutgers (Chas Dodd)
7. Louisville (Will Stein)
8. UConn (Mike Box)

Big 10
1. Michigan (Denard Robinson)
2. Wisconsin (Russell Wilson)
3. Northwestern (Dan Persa)
4. Michigan St. (Kirk Cosuins)
5. Nebraska (Taylor Martinez)
6. Illinois (Nathan Scheelhaase)
7. Penn St. (Matt McGloin)
8. Minnesota (MarQueis Gray)
9. Purdue (Rob Henry)
10. Ohio St. (Joe Bauserman)
11. Iowa (James Vandenberg)
12. Indiana (Dusty Kiel)

Big 12
1. Oklahoma (Landry Jones)
2. Baylor (Robert Griffin)
3. Oklahoma St. (Brandon Weeden)
4. Texas A&M (Ryan Tannehill)
5. Texas (Garrett Gilbert)
6. Texas Tech (Seth Doege)
7. Missouri (James Franklin)
8. Kansas St. (Collin Klein)
9. Iowa St. (Jerome Tiller)
10. Kansas (Jordan Webb)

Pac-12
1. Stanford (Andrew Luck)
2. Oregon (Darron Thomas)
3. USC (Matt Barkley)
4. Arizona (Nick Foles)
5. Utah (Jordan Wynn)
6. Arizona St. (Brock Osweiler)
7. Washington St. (Jeff Tuel)
8. Oregon St. (Ryan Katz)
9. Colorado (Tyler Hansen)
10. Washington (Keith Price)
11. UCLA (Richard Brehaut)
12. Cal (Brock Mansion)

SEC
1. Georgia (Aaron Murray)
2. South Carolina (Stephen Garcia)
3. Mississippi St. (Chris Relf)
4. Florida (John Brantley)
5. Arkansas (Tyler Wilson)
6. Tennessee (Tyler Bray)
7. LSU (Jordan Jefferson)
8. Alabama (AJ McCarron)
9. Kentucky (Morgan Newton)
10. Auburn (Barrett Trotter)
11. Ole Miss (Randall Mackley)
12. Vanderbilt (Larry Smith)

C-USA
1. Houston (Case Keenum)
2. Tulsa (GJ Kinne)
3. Southen Miss (Austin Davis)
4. Central Florida (Jeff Godfrey)
5. SMU (Kyle Padron)
6. Eat Carolina (Dominique Davis)
7. UAB (Bryan Ellis)
8. Rice (Taylor McHargue)
9. Marshall (AJ Graham)
10. Tulane (Taylor Griffin)
11. UTEP (Tate Smith)
12. Memphis (Andy Summerlin)

MAC
1. Northern Illinois (Chandler Harnish)
2. Western Michigan (Alex Carder)
3. Miami (OH) (Zac Dysert)
4. Toledo (Austin Dantin)
5. Central Michigan (Ryan Radcliff)
6. Bowling Green (Matt Schilz)
7. Kent St. (Spencer Keith)
8. Ball St. (Keith Wenning)
9. Eastern Michigan (Alex Gillett)
10. Ohio (Phil Bates)
11. Akron (Patrick Nicely)
12. Temple (Clinton Granger)
13. Buffalo (Alex Zordich)

MWC
1. Boise St. (Kellen Moore)
2. San Diego St. (Ryan Lindley)
3. Air Force (Tim Jefferson)
4. TCU (Casey Pachall)
5. Colorado St. (Pete Thomas)
6. New Mexico (Stump Godfrey)
7. Wyoming (Emory Miller)
8. UNLV (Caleb Herring)

Sun Belt
1. Arkansas St. (Ryan Aplin)
2. Troy (Corey Robinson)
3. UL-Monroe (Kenton Browning)
4. Florida International (Wesley Carroll)
5. UL-Lafayette (Chris Masson)
6. Middle Tennessee (Logan Kilgore)
7. Western Kentucky (Kewaun Jakes)
8. North Texas (Derek Thompson)
9. Florida Atlantic (David Kooi)

WAC
1. Hawaii (Bryant Moniz)
2. Fresno St. (Derek Carr)
3. Nevada (Tyler Lantrip)
4. Idaho (Brian Reader)
5. Louisiana Tech (Colby Cameron)
6. Utah St. (Diondre Borel)
7. New Mexico St. (Matt Christian)
8. San Jose St. (Joe Gray)

Independents
1. Notre Dame (Dayne Crist)
2. BYU (Jake Heaps)
3. Army (Trent Steelman)
4. Navy (Kriss Proctor)