Well, if you can believe it, the curtain has come down on the 2023 college football regular season. We have just the conference championship games and bowl season, including the College Football Playoff.
A total of 13 weeks have flown by and and we have a almost a whole season’s worth of data points and performances on Big Ten quarterbacks to see who did the best at the position. That includes Ohio State football’s starter under center, Kyle McCord, who threw for a decent number of yards, but had two costly interceptions that went a long way toward the Buckeyes falling to Michigan for the third straight year.
Just like every other week, there were Big Ten quarterback performances besides what we saw from McCord, and we like to keep track of how they are all doing when stacking them up against one another. In fact, we’ve done it every week so far this year.
The metric we like to use more than any other is ESPN’s Total QBR rating. We find it to be a better indicator of performance because it takes into account many aspects others don’t, including the level of competition.
So what is Total QBR exactly? According to ESPN, Adjusted Total Quarterback Rating “values the quarterback on all play types on a 0-100 scale adjusted for the strength of opposing defenses faced.”
OK, we’re game.
So where are McCord and Big Ten gunslingers such as J.J. McCarthy of Michigan, Drew Allar of Penn State, Taulia Tagovailoa of Maryland and Gavin Wimsatt of Rutgers at the conclusion of the college football regular season? Believe it or not, McCord closed the gap on McCarthy as the season wore on, but how close did he come to taking that top spot?
Here’s how the order stacks up with Big Ten Total QBR as we head into conference championship week across this great nation of ours.
14
Deacon Hill, Iowa
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 22.4
Total Before Last Week: 20.3
Ranking Last Week: 14 (⇔ no change)
13
Heinrich Haarberg, Nebraska
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 38.8
Total Before Last Week: 39.5
Ranking Last Week: 13 (⇔ no change)
12
Katin Houser, Michigan State
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 44.8
Total Before Last Week: 47.0
Ranking Last Week: 11 (⇓ one spot)
11
Hudson Card, Purdue
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 50.6
Total Before Last Week: 46.6
Ranking Last Week: 12 (⇑ one spot)
10
Ben Bryant, Northwestern
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 53.6
Total Before Last Week: 48.8
Ranking Last Week: 10 (⇔ no change)
9
Gavin Wimsatt, Rutgers
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 54.4
Total Before Last Week: 56.9
Ranking Last Week: 7 (⇓ two spots)
8
Athan Kaliakmanis, Minnesota
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 55.0
Total Before Last Week: 55.2
Ranking Last Week: 9 (⇑ one spot)
7
Luke Altmyer, Illinois
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 56.5
Total Before Last Week: 56.6
Ranking Last Week: 8 (⇑ one spot)
6
Brendan Sorsby, Indiana
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 57.7
Total Before Last Week: 58.2
Ranking Last Week: 6 (⇔ no change)
5
Tanner Mordecai, Wisconsin Badgers
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 61.9
Total Before Last Week: 58.2
Ranking Last Week: 6 (⇑ one spot)
4
Drew Allar, Penn State
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 72.6
Total Before Last Week: 73.0
Ranking Last Week: 3 (⇓ one spot)
3
Taulia Tagovailoa, Maryland
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 73.0
Total Before Last Week: 70.3
Ranking Last Week: 4 (⇑ one spot)
2
Kyle McCord, Ohio State
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 84.1
Total Before Last Week: 83.8
Ranking Last Week: 2 (⇔ no change)
1
J.J. McCarthy, Michigan
Inside the Numbers
Total QBR: 90.8
Total Before Last Week: 90.6
Ranking Last Week: 1 (⇔ no change)
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.
