B10 quarterback rankings: How does Penn State Football stack up?
Winter workouts are underway and spring practice is just about a month away now, so let’s take this time to rank the position groups around the Big Ten.
The Big Ten did not feature the best quarterback play in last year’s wonky 2020 COVID-season, and with Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields primed to be a top-10 pick in April’s NFL Draft, the deck is going to be shuffled at the top of our quarterback rankings, so too with Penn State Football.
Only Penn State Football and Rutgers played all nine games last season, so offensive and quarterback stats are all over the place within the conference when teams like Michigan only played six games due to Covid-19 issues.
Most of the teams in the conference will be returning their signal caller from last fall, only Ohio State’s Justin Fields and Northwestern’s Peyton Ramsey will be off to the NFL. There figures to be a few quarterback battles across the conference as well, and one even in Happy Valley between Sean Clifford and Ta’Quan Roberson.
Let’s rank the top 10 quarterback rooms around the Big Ten:
10. Nebraska Cornhuskers
When former four-star recruit Adrian Martinez arrived on campus in Lincoln, Nebraska thought they had the guy who was going to return the Huskers to glory, especially so when Scott Frost took over as head coach.
Martinez was promising as a freshman but has never taken the next step and last season was even replaced with Luke McCaffrey who started against Penn State Football. McCaffrey has since entered the transfer portal, leaving only freshman Logan Smothers as the other scholarship quarterback on the roster.
Last season in seven games Martinez threw for 1,055 yards and only four touchdowns to three interceptions, completing over 71% of his passes. He did rush for an additional 521 yards and seven touchdowns as well.
