College football is a quarterback-driven game and has been for a long time now. Gone are the days of being a game manager with handoffs and short passes when needed. It hasn’t been that way for a long, long time now.
You simply can’t go special places anymore without having a dynamic player under center and Ohio State has a good one in C.J. Stroud.
However, he’s not the only good quarterback in the Big Ten. Though Stroud is one of the frontrunners for the Heisman Trophy, there are still other signal-callers in the league that can spin it when called upon.
One of the best metrics we like to look at when it comes to a quarterback’s performance is Total QBR, and we’re going to take a look at it each week upon the completion of games. Where is Stroud after this week? What about other quarterbacks in the league? You might be surprised, especially after OSU had some perceived struggles against Notre Dame.
Here’s a ranking of the top 12 Big Ten quarterbacks based on total QBR ranking this early in the season. Stats are courtesy of ESPN.
12
Spencer Petras, Iowa
Total QBR
1.1
11
Casey Thompson, Nebraska
Total QBR
50.9
10
Graham Mertz, Wisconsin
Total QBR
53.2
9
Taulia Tagovailoa, Maryland
Total QBR
55.7
8
Tommy DeVito, Illinois
Total QBR
56.9
7
Conner Bazelak, Indiana
Total QBR
63.6
6
Payton Thorne, Michigan State
Total QBR
68.2
5
Aidan O'Connell, Purdue
Total QBR
69.4
4
Tanner Morgan, Minnesota
Total QBR
74.2
3
Sean Clifford, Penn State
Total QBR
75.4
2
Ryan Hillinski, Northwestern
Total QBR
85.7
1
C.J. Stroud, Ohio State
Total QBR
89.5
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