Fall is in full swing and the 2026 college football season is racing toward November, rivalry week, bowl season and the College Football Playoff. Before we move forward, it’s important to look back at where we’ve been and what better way to do that than to reevaluate what we thought about this season’s quarterbacks before the first snap. Welcome back to Sports Illustrated’s Power 4 QB rankings.
Projection is an inexact science and SI’s rankings are the embodiment of that. Mississippi State’s Kamario Taylor, Wake Forest’s Gio Lopez and Northwestern’s Aidan Chiles all ranked outside of the top 50 in the preseason. All three are now in the top 20. Conversely, Marcel Reed and Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele were put in the top 16 and now have both fallen outside of the top 50.
