College football QB battles 2024: Ohio State, Duke give nod to star transfers; USC goes with bowl game hero
Quarterback battles are often the most fascinating part of the college football offseason. Especially in an era where the transfer portal and the promise of immediate playtime elsewhere has made it extremely difficult to have a solid succession plan in place.
Though coaches would love to have things settled well before the actual season starts, quarterback competitions often stretch deep into the fall. Some are still ongoing when the actual games kick off as teams will use early season tune-up contests to see if one signal caller can pull ahead of the other in a live setting.
Now, entering the last week of fall camp for a majority of schools around the nation, plenty of prominent programs have decided on a quarterback. Ohio State and Wisconsin have identified their offensive leaders as each tries to make a big impact in the Big Ten.
Elsewhere, College Football Playoff competitor Boise State went with a rather surprising decision for its quarterback. The Broncos were one of many Group of Five schools that decided to go with a more experienced option over exciting new transfer portal additions.
There’s still a lot to be settled, but here’s a rundown of the quarterback battles that have been decided as the 2024 season nears.
Ohio State
It wasn’t necessarily a surprise, but Ohio State officially turned to Kansas State transfer Will Howard to guide its offense. Howard did have to surpass some stiff competition, primarily from returning backup Devin Brown and fellow transfer addition Julian Sayin (Alabama), but it’s been rather apparent from Day 1 that Ohio State brought Howard in to win the quarterback job.
Now that it’s official, Howard brings an interesting dimension to Ohio State’s offense. He may not be the prolific passer that we’ve grown used to donning the scarlet and grey, but he does bring the physicality that Ryan Day has desired from his team in recent years.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pound Howard is a hard-nosed runner that’s difficult to tackle when he gets a head of steam. He rushed for 921 yards and 19 touchdowns with the Wildcats and should fit what new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly wants to do offensively very well.
USC
USC named Miller Moss its starting quarterback following a lengthy battle that bled into preseason camp. Moss served as Caleb Williams’ backup during the last two seasons and made his lone start in the 2023 Holiday Bowl against Louisville, where he set a bowl record with six touchdown passes as part of a 372-yard day in the 42-28 victory.
Moss was viewed as the heavy favorite to succeed the former Heisman Trophy winner and beat out UNLV transfer Jayden Maiava, who joined the Trojans after originally committing to Georgia out of the portal. Maiava passed for 3,085 yards with 17 touchdowns during his true freshmen campaign for the Rebels..
Former Texas quarterback Maalik Murphy was named Duke’s starting quarterback on Monday. Murphy will replace Riley Leonard, who transferred this offseason to Notre Dame. Murphy made two starts last season for the Longhorns in Quinn Ewers’ absence and threw for 477 yards and three touchdowns.
Murphy was viewed as a high-upside addition for first-year coach Manny Diaz because of his prolific arm strength. The Southern California native was a top-200 player coming out of high school in the 247Sports rankings and was the 40th-ranked transfer available.
Wisconsin
Tyler Van Dyke once looked like the next big thing in college football before injuries and inconsistency set him back a bit at Miami. So he decided to enter the NCAA transfer portal and take his talents to Wisconsin where the hope is that offensive coordinator Phil Longo — prolific for his high-flying offenses — can revitalize Van Dyke’s career a bit.
Van Dyke will have the chance to make a splash in the Big Ten after beating Braedyn Locke, who started three games for the Badgers last season, for the starting quarterback job. Some stability could benefit Van Dyke after he played for three different offensive coordinators in three years at Miami.
Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt will enter the 2024 season as Arizona State’s starting quarterback, according to ESPN. Leavitt won out against fellow transfer Jeff Sims, who had starting experience from Nebraska and Georgia Tech, and Trenton Bourguet, a five-game starter for the Sun Devils last season.
Leavitt brings the most upside among ASU’s options. The former four-star prospect out of West Linn, Oregon, played sparingly as a true freshman at Michigan State but completed a respectable 15 of his 23 pass attempts for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
Baylor’s offense has a chance to be really exciting again. The Bears are expected to name Toledo transfer DeQuan Finn as their starting quarterback, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz, giving new offensive coordinator Jake Spavital one of the Big 12’s most exciting options at the position.
Finn, who has been competing with junior Sawyer Robertson, was the 2023 MAC MVP at Toledo after amassing 3,220 total yards and 29 touchdowns, seven of which came on the ground. He’s a threat to hurt defenses through multiple areas of the game and should be a fun watch as he makes the jump in competition.
Boise State
One of the first genuine surprises of the offseason, Maddux Madsen was named Boise State’s starting quarterback over former five-star prospect Malachi Nelson. Most assumed that the job was Nelson’s when he committed to the Broncos after leaving USC, but Madsen had a strong spring and fall entering his third year in Boise.
Madsen did play plenty as a redshirt freshman last season, completing 81 passes for 1,191 yards and nine touchdowns. In his first (and only, so far) career start against New Mexico, he logged 202 yards and two touchdowns passing with no turnovers.
Still, Nelson is at least one of the nation’s most intriguing backups. He was the No. 13 overall prospect and No. 5 quarterback in the class of 2023. Not a bad hand to turn to in a pinch.
San Diego State enters the Sean Lewis era with a true freshman behind center, as the Aztecs are turning to 2024 signee Danny O’Neil to orchestrate the offense. O’Neil outlasted Florida State transfer AJ Duffy, a former four-star prospect in the Class of 2022, to earn the honor.
O’Neil is at least familiar with Lewis. The 6-foot signal caller out of Indianapolis, Indiana, was once committed to Colorado, where Lewis was the offensive coordinator on Deion Sanders’ inaugural staff in 2023.
In a battle of the transfers, former Miami and Missouri quarterback Jake Garcia beat former Michigan State quarterback Katin Houser to earn the starting job at East Carolina. Got to love the situations that arise in modern college football.
Garcia didn’t play at Missouri last year but he does bring some starting experience from two seasons at Miami. He threw for 859 yards and seven touchdowns from 2021-22, with most of his work coming in 2022 as Van Dyke dealt with injuries.
There seems to be a trend among Mountain West schools where incumbents are beating the flashy new Power Four quarterback transfers. Brendon Lewis, a former Colorado transfer in his own right who started 10 games for the Wolfpack in 2023, held off Nebraska transfer Chubba Purdy to retain his spot atop the depth chart.
Lewis isn’t the best passer — he had just 1,313 yards and two touchdowns to six interceptions last season — but he is a dynamic threat that can impact the game with his legs. He finished second among Nevada’s rushers last season with 495 yards and four touchdowns.
Kent State had a rotating door at quarterback last season as it went 1-11, so the hope is that new starter Devin Kargman can at least provide some stability. He edged out Tommy Ulatowski, who had three starts and finished second on the team in passing in 2023.
Kargman was first off the bench in Kent State’s season finale against Northern Illinois and had arguably the best performance among Kent State’s quarterbacks all year, completing 16 of his 28 passes for 245 yards and two touchdowns.
