The Big Ten features a number of talented quarterbacks in 2022, with one of the biggest names in the nation serving as the conference’s headliner and plenty of dark horse potential behind him.
It’s also worth noting that three of the projected starting signal-callers in the conference are transfers preparing to play their first season in the Big Ten, so how they adjust and if any of them can break out with a change of scenery will be something to watch.
With the season just around the corner, here’s how each of the conference’s projected starting quarterbacks rank:
1. CJ Stroud, Ohio State.
With Stroud in the discussion for best quarterback in the nation, there’s no debating that he’s the best quarterback in the conference. He finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting last season and it’s looking like the race for the honors will come down to Stroud and Bryce Young (Alabama). Stroud has been a steady contributor both through the air and on the ground, impressing with his elite accuracy and anticipation early on as a first-year starter.
He’s shown the ability to handle a lot of responsibility at the line of scrimmage and reads defenses well, checking a lot of boxes as a player with just one season under his belt.
Stroud finished out the 2021 season with a 71.9% completion rate, passing for 4,435 yards with 44 touchdowns and six interceptions. Between what Stroud brings to the table in his own right and who he’s got in his supporting cast, Ohio State is a very real contender to win the national championship this season.
2. Aidan O’Connell, Purdue.
O’Connell enters the 2022 season as a dark horse to become one of the best quarterbacks in the nation and a big rise could be in store for him this fall. O’Connell’s arm talent and accuracy at all levels of the field are what got him noticed after he was given the starting nod in Week 5 last season.
O’Connell finished last season with a 71.6% completion rate, 3,712 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He will be with an entirely new group of receivers this year, so how he builds chemistry with them and how things click on the field in the passing game will be something to keep an eye on.
The former walk-on’s pure abilities as a passer should help the offense overcome this transition though with O’Connell’s nearly perfect ball placement and timing on his throws. O’Connell relies more on his arm and is very much a pass-first quarterback, but he has shown the ability to evade pressure and make plays with his legs when needed.
3. Taulia Tagovailoa, Maryland.
Tagovailoa hasn’t gotten nearly as much hype as his brother did at Alabama, but has the chance to become more noticed in 2022. At 5'11 and 200 pounds, he’s not the prototypical size for a quarterback, but history has shown that quarterbacks who don’t impress in that area can still have a lot of success at the highest level.
He’s been highly praised for what he brings from an intangibles perspective and has the level of arm strength to put the ball anywhere on the field to pair with his strong running ability. Tagovailoa needs to find a sense of consistency and improve his decision-making this fall, but is very much an intriguing and draftable prospect.
Tagovailoa completed 69.2% of his passes for 3,860 passing yards with 26 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2021.
4. Payton Thorne, Michigan State.
Thorne is still on the outside looking in as far as the 2023 NFL Draft goes, but that could change if he expounds upon what he did on the field last year. Thorne won the starting job last offseason and completed 60.4% of his passes for 3,240 yards with 27 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
He possesses a satisfactory amount of arm strength and has shown some potential in his mobility with a foundation to build upon that the Spartans can be excited about. There’s a chance Thorne could gain more recognition and really shine after he was somewhat overshadowed by star running back Kenneth Walker III.
While having Walker within the offense obviously provided some benefit to the quarterback, Thorne showed he could still take care of business when Walker opted out of the bowl game, throwing for 354 yards and three touchdowns in the 31-21 win over Pitt.
5. Sean Clifford, Penn State.
Clifford hasn’t been the flashiest quarterback for the better part of his career, but he seemed comfortable and in rhythm in the current offense he’s in and appeared poised to take a step and garner more attention before he was hampered by injury throughout the year. He heads into 2022 as a sixth-year quarterback with plenty of experience under his belt.
He does a good job of making things happen with his legs whenever he’s fully healthy and plays with a gritty mentality, putting his body on the line on several occasions to put his team in the best position possible. Clifford excited in 2019, but hasn’t built upon it since, largely projecting as a quarterback who is average in every aspect unless he can surprise in 2022.
Clifford ended 2021 with a stat line that included a 61% completion rate, 3,107 passing yards, 21 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
6. Tanner Morgan, Minnesota.
Morgan caught a good bit of attention in his breakout season of 2019 when he threw for 3,253 yards with 30 touchdowns and just seven interceptions, but he hasn’t consistently repeated that level of performance since. Heading into his sixth season of college football, Morgan has a chance for a resurgence but has an equal amount to prove after ending 2021 with a 59.8% completion rate, 2,044 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
He’s shown the ability to operate an RPO-based offense efficiently and is mostly accurate, though he has shown some proneness to overthrow the ball and needs to do a better job of manipulating defenders with his eyes -- something that has cost him in the past.
7. Cade McNamara, Michigan.
McNamara has managed up well for the Wolverines in several games, with some analysts passing him of as a quarterback who falls under the “game manager” category. He’s a consistent player who doesn’t often put the ball in harm’s way, but there have been some questions surrounding whether or not he truly has the “it” factor to elevate Michigan to the next level. As he enters a quarterback competition with JJ McCarthy, this could be something of a prove-it year for McNamara in some respects.
Michigan lacks explosiveness in the passing game, and that is what this will ultimately come down to. McNamara finished last year with a 64.2% completion rate, 2,576 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and six interceptions.
8. Casey Thompson, Nebraska.
With Adrian Martinez having moved on from the program, Thompson looks to make a splash in the Big Ten after seeing some time alongside Hudson Card at Texas last season. There were high points and low points in Thompson’s 2021 season, and while it’s clear that he needs to improve as a passer with his decision-making, he’s still at an early place in his development where that isn’t a major concern.Thompson completed 63.2% of his passes for 2,113 yards with 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions last season.
If he can progress as a passer, he could develop into something special between his arm strength and his athletic abilities. It just still remains to be seen both if he can do that and if he can handle the level of competition in the Big Ten -- this is a player who got a lot of hype as a recruit and could quickly rise up the rankings.
9. Connor Bazelak, Indiana.
Bazelak enters the 2022 season with a change of scenery, moving on from Missouri to Indiana. Bazelak showed flashes as a younger quarterback in the SEC, one of college football’s most difficult conferences to play in, and will look to build upon that with his new surroundings. Where Bazelak lacks in arm strength, he makes up for mentally, in his timing on throws and with sound mechanics. There’s some uncertainty as to just where his ceiling lies, but he came close to being in the national spotlight at one time and has a chance get back to that in a new environment.
Bazelak finished out 2021 with a 65.3% completion rate, 2,548 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
10. Spencer Petras, Iowa.
Petras is another quarterback who falls into the conversation about where the ceiling stands for him.
He’s indicated that he’s put in offseason work on the fundamentals, working on things like his throwing sequence, footwork and balance in the pocket. His arm strength is something that’s become more apparent as well after a video of him throwing a 70-plus yard pass at the Manning Passing Academy earlier this year made its rounds on social media. Improving mechanically should help Petras take another step in what some anticipate could be a big season for him in his own right -- it’s just a matter of if he rises to the occasion.
Petras completed 57.3% of his passes for 1,880 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2021.
11. Graham Mertz, Wisconsin.
Mertz got off to a poor start to the 2021 season, throwing just one touchdown to six interceptions in the first three games of the year. He did manage to clean that up to an extent, throwing five more interceptions that season, but still finished with a dismal ratio that had more interceptions than touchdowns.
He brings NFL-level arm talent to the table, but is going to have to find consistency after the struggles he’s had since he initially caught a lot of attention for his five-touchdown debut against Illinois in 2020. He’s since been tabbed as more of a game-manager, like some of the other quarterbacks on this list, with how often Wisconsin utilizes the run game heavily, though there’s still the potential for him to become something more.
Mertz completed 59.5% of his passes for 1,958 passing yards with 10 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2021.
12. Tommy DeVito, Illinois.
DeVito is one of the conference’s most inexperienced quarterbacks, with 2019 marking the only season of his career as the starter. This marks his first season with a new team after he was with the Syracuse Orange for four years and on opportunity to see more time on the field after he was named a potential breakout candidate, even drawing some comparisons to Joe Burrow back in 2020.
This is a player with a lot of arm talent and big-play ability, but he’ll need to work on his ball placement and clean up some of his decision-making issues moving forward. DeVito ended out 2021 with a 61.5% completion rate, 388 passing yards, one touchdown and two interceptions over three games after suffering an injury.
13. Ryan Hilinski, Northwestern.
Hilinski got a good bit of buzz as a recruit, but things have dwindled for him since then. He transferred from South Carolina to Northwestern in 2020 after some struggles and injury setbacks with the Gamecocks. He has yet to take the starting job by full force after not opening the season as Northwestern’s starter last year.
Hilinski completed 54% of his passes for 978 passing yards with 11 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2021. Having one year under his belt and a full offseason with his second college team should serve him well, but he’ll have to beat out Brendan Sullivan for the starting job and show he’s worthy of holding onto it.
14. Noah Vedral, Rutgers.
Vedral doesn’t project as a player with NFL potential, but it didn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the Rutgers coaching staff and receive positive feedback after he originally entered the transfer portal in 2020. Rutgers marks Vedral’s third college football destination after he started his career at UCF.
Vedral finished out the 2021 season with a 59.4% completion rate, 1,813 passing yards, seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. He hasn’t eclipsed the 2,000-yard passing mark in a single season and isn’t in a solid position to do so with a changed receiving corps in 2022.
