All seven starting quarterbacks in the ACC’s Atlantic Division return this college football season, making it one of the deepest QB pools the league has seen.
“I think you’re going to see a slugfest,” N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren said. “If you are playing a team whose quarterback is not savvy and doesn’t have experience and yours is, you have a great advantage. We don’t have that in any game as far as playing against a non-starter.”
Doeren’s quarterback, Devin Leary, was recently named the ACC preseason Player of the Year. He was one of three Atlantic Division quarterbacks to receive POY votes. Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman (30 votes), who led the Demon Deacons to the division title a year ago, and Louisville’s Malik Cunningham (12) were the other two. The ACC hasn’t seen this kind of quarterback depth across the board since the 2016 season. That group featured four first-round draft picks (UNC’s Mitch Trubisky, Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, Duke’s Daniel Jones, Clemson’s Deshaun Watson) and two Heisman finalists. Jackson came away with the award.
QB depth
The seven returning quarterbacks in the Atlantic combined for 16,747 yards and 133 touchdowns last season.
Leary, Hartman, Cunningham and Clemson junior D.J. Uiagalelei were starters last season. Jordan Travis (Florida State), Phil Jurkovec (Boston College) and Garrett Shrader (Syracuse) weren’t in their respective lineups full time and their teams struggled. That could allow that trio to fly under the radar in 2022.
“It’s a really good year for quarterbacks in the ACC, and we have a lot of teams that we play against that have great quarterbacks coming back,” Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson said. “We feel we’re in as good a position as anybody in the conference or the country at that position.”
While Clawson has faith in Hartman, he feels that his quarterback has gotten overlooked or even disrespected in the offseason.
When he sees and hears people talking about preseason player of the year Leary and Tyler Van Dyke and Cunningham, instead of Hartman, Clawson starts to wonder what exactly he’s missing.
“Last year we won 11 games and he was the second-team all-ACC quarterback,” Clawson told the News & Observer. “With all these preseason publications, suddenly he must have gotten a lot worse. He was second-team ACC and MVP of the Gator Bowl and now he’s gotten worse somehow. Maybe a lot of people watched our spring practice and saw different things. I think Sam’s better.”
Florida State’s Travis started the opener, but was in and out of the lineup, splitting time with McKenzie Milton the first four games. Travis missed the Louisville game with a shoulder injury and FSU started 0-4. With Travis back in the lineup, the Noles finished 5-7. At BC, Jurkovec broke his wrist after the first two games, but returned later in the year. Shrader was much more of a running threat last season for Syracuse, but that’s expected to change under new offensive coordinator Robert Anae. The Orange returns nine starters on offense, which should make life easier for Shrader, who has played under four different offensive coordinators.
“This is the most excited I’ve been since I have been in college for a football season,” Shrader said. “Part of that is just because I feel like it’s my offense, my team that I can kind of go wherever I decide to take it.”
Top quarterbacks
At the end of the year Leary, Hartman and Cunningham could be competing for ACC Player of the Year honors.
Leary had a record-setting year with N.C. State a year ago, passing for 35 touchdowns against just five interceptions.
“Devin (Leary) is a great player, can make all the throws, plays a lot faster than you want him to be,” Clemson defensive end K.J. Henry said. “He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, doesn’t beat himself up, has great control of the offense.”
Hartman and Cunningham did it with their arms and legs. Wake Forest made it to the ACC title game thanks to 39 passing touchdowns from Hartman and 11 more on the ground, one total touchdown away from a league record. Cunningham led Louisville in rushing and finished the year with 3,972 yards of total offense.
“Considering the style of play that I have, passing the ball has been very — I’ve tried to pattern my game around that because I’ve been running for a long time and just building the passing game and just being consistent for the most part and just trusting my receivers,” Cunningham said at ACC Kickoff. “When it’s not there, of course, I’m going to take off and run. That’s just the ability that God gave me.”
Challenges ahead
If Hartman and Leary are the top guys, what challenges will they face in 2022?
N.C. State is replacing its top receiver, Emeka Emezie, and both running backs, perhaps putting even more on Leary’s shoulders. Sometimes labeled as a game manager, the junior will need to show he’s capable of making more explosive, highlight throws, in the Pack offense.
His longest touchdown pass a year ago was a 79-yarder to Thayer Thomas against Boston College. Thomas caught the ball on the right sideline and ran the final 40 yards or so to the end zone.
The question for Hartman is, can he have big time games against ranked opponents? Hartman had two 400-yard games last season, but they came against Army and Duke. He threw four interceptions in the ACC title game loss to Pitt, and three against N.C. State, both ranked teams. Against Clemson he threw just one touchdown.
