Look around the Southeastern Conference’s media days — which is to say look around a tasting menu of the college football season to come and focus on the quarterbacks.
Eleven of the SEC’s 16 teams are bringing their quarterbacks to Atlanta for this week’s media event, making the signal-callers the most represented position among player attendees.
The SEC QB contingent includes five of the top nine Heisman Trophy candidates in terms of preseason betting odds. Six media days representatives are returning starters.
Are those the kind of quarterback stats that will matter once games kick off in six-ish weeks? Not at all. But the SEC’s quarterback dynamics — and how Missouri’s QB battle fits into them — are a compelling canvas for what’s to come in 2025.
Does SEC experience matter? Do transitions to new starters progress better with a transfer or a successor who’s waited his turn? The multiplicity of paths to starting jobs in this conference is what will be fruitful to follow.
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Grabbing, by far, the most media attention this week has been Texas quarterback Arch Manning. No surprise there. He wasn’t the starter for his first two seasons with the Longhorns, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t tailed by the spotlight.
With 95 passing attempts in 12 career appearances, he’s not quite an unknown, but Manning is hardly an experienced college quarterback either. Yet that’s done little to slow the hype train that has him as the betting favorite for the Heisman.
Arguably the main basis for why Louisiana State quarterback Garrett Nussmeier is second in the odds, however, is that he’s experienced. Like Manning, he waited his turn. And after 2023 Heisman winner Jayden Daniels moved on to the NFL, Nussmeier took over in the Bayou.
His debut season as a starter was uneven. Nussmeier led the SEC in completions but also interceptions. He posted 4,052 passing yards for 29 touchdowns and 12 picks. LSU coach Brian Kelly was adamant Tuesday that it’s that kind of season that sets up Nussmeier to be one of the best in the nation this year.
“I can’t underestimate how important the development was,†Kelly said. “I think we all, you all saw it. Jayden Daniels’ development in Year 1 to Year 2 was astronomical — if that word even suits it. It was incredible. Garrett Nussmeier will have a similar jump. It’s because you go on the ground and it’s sold out, you play teams that are so well-coached and so balanced and have great players that you have no choice but to learn, develop and get better or you’re going to be left by the side.
“So that’s why I’m confident that experience, in this league, at the quarterback position is the most important thing. Could you come in and play as a freshman? Absolutely. But there will be those moments where you look like a freshman. You look like a first-year player. Garrett will tell you that, and he wasn’t a true freshman.â€
Kelly’s philosophy ought to mean good tidings for the likes of South Carolina and Florida, which will start redshirt sophomore LaNorris Sellers and true sophomore D.J. Lagway, respectively. Maybe even Auburn quarterback Jackson Arnold, who transferred from the Plains after a disappointing season at Oklahoma.
He’s a unique intra-SEC quarterback transfer. Arnold played a bit in 2023, the Sooners’ last season in the Big 12. Then he struggled in 2024 behind the conference’s worst offensive line, taking a beating and at one point getting benched for a true freshman.
“Now it was just a matter of, man, let’s give this guy a restart and let him regain his swagger and confidence,†Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said.
Does SEC experience count as helpful when it’s requiring a quarterback to undergo a mental reset?
Some coaches would seemingly like to have more experience at quarterback than they do. Take Georgia’s Kirby Smart, for example. He’s been one of the best coaches in college football, but his Bulldogs will look quite a bit different in 2025: 54% of the roster is made up of first- and second-year players, comprising the youngest UGA team of his career.
“There is a youthful exuberance,†Smart said. “That can be both positive and negative. ... It’s their first time getting a chance to start. It’s their first time being a major player in the rotation. There’s good and bad about both. We’ve got to manage that. We’ve got to be patient with them, and we’ve got to get them better.â€
The almost-wishful nature of those words go for his entire team but fits quarterback Gunner Stockton, who’s entering his fourth season overall but first as a starter. Can Georgia afford to be patient with a starting QB?
Then there’s the matter of the five programs that didn’t bring any quarterbacks to Atlanta: Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Missouri. Are they just less confident in the position?
Kentucky’s Zach Calzada transferred in from Incarnate Word but via Texas A&M and Auburn, so he has SEC experience. Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed was their signal-caller of choice at times last season. There’s some upside to both.
The other three programs that left their quarterbacks at home have ongoing battles at the position. Mizzou is down to Beau Pribula and Sam Horn, neither of whom have all that much experience. Alabama is down to Ty Simpson, Austin Mack and Keelon Russell.
And all of them are probably feeling better than Tennessee right about now, which is moving on from Nico Iamaleava’s messy spring exit with the kind of spin from coach Josh Heupel that just can’t come off as confident.
“It’s never about who’s not in your building but about who is in your building,†Heupel said.
In 2025, the SEC will show whether it’s about the experience in your building, too.
Mizzou football offensive coordinator Kirby Moore speaks with the media on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, as the team goes through spring practices. (Video by Mizzou Network, used with permission of Mizzou Athletics)
