Published Aug 15, 2017
Rivals.com QB Week: Where the Power Five starters come from
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Adam Gorney  •  Rivals.com
National Recruiting Director
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The Big Four recruiting states of Florida, California, Georgia and Texas have produced between 55-60 percent of the Rivals100 in recent years, but only three of those states are producing starting quarterbacks in Power Five conferences.

After studying the 64 teams located in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC, 27 of the quarterbacks are from either Texas (13), California (8) or Florida (6). Georgia, on the other hand, has just one — Mississippi State’s Nick Fitzgerald.

That will change soon, as Georgia produced five five-star QBs between the 2017 and 2018 classes. But as of now, the Peach State has a QB void on the starting quarterback front.

One other item of note — just 17 of the 64 quarterbacks played high school ball in the same state as their current college. Over 73 percent of the projected starting QBs are from out of state.

Here is a look at the projected starting quarterbacks across the country and the high schools they attended.

RELATED: Where NFL QBs come from | Polarizing QBs | Top Big Ten QBs

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ACC

OVERVIEW: Transfers is the name of the game in the ACC this season with at least four schools expected to start players from elsewhere. Pitt has former USC quarterback Max Browne, North Carolina could go with Brandon Harris of LSU, NC State is expected to start Ryan Finley, who came from Boise State, and former East Carolina QB Kurt Benkert should get the nod at Virginia. As expected, there are a bunch of Southeast-based quarterbacks in this league. The outlier is Syracuse’s Eric Dungey, who traveled to upstate New York from the Pacific Northwest to play his college ball.

BOSTON COLLEGE

Anthony Brown, Holmdel (N.J.) St. John Vianney

CLEMSON

Kelly Bryant, Piedmont (S.C.) Wren

DUKE

Daniel Jones, Charlotte (N.C.) Latin

FLORIDA STATE

Deondre Francois, Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy

GEORGIA TECH

Matthew Jordan, Jackson, Ala.

LOUISVILLE

Lamar Jackson, Boynton Beach, Fla.

MIAMI

Malik Rosier, Mobile (Ala.) Faith Academy

NORTH CAROLINA

Brandon Harris, Bossier City (La.) Parkway

NC STATE

Ryan Finley, Phoenix (Ariz.) Paradise Valley

PITTSBURGH

Max Browne, Sammamish (Wash.) Skyline

SYRACUSE

Eric Dungey, Lake Oswego (Ore.) Lakeridge

VIRGINIA

Kurt Benkert, Cape Coral (Fla.) Island Coast

VIRGINIA TECH

Joshua Jackson, Ann Arbor (Mich.) Saline

WAKE FOREST

Kendall Hinton, Durham (N.C.) Southern Durham

BIG TEN

OVERVIEW: Only two projected starting quarterbacks in the Big Ten are from their home states and that’s Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson and Minnesota’s Conor Rhoda. There are more quarterbacks from Texas – JT Barrett at Ohio State, Indiana’s Richard Lagow and Purdue’s David Blough – than home-state QBs in the conference. The state of Virginia is also well-represented across the Big Ten with three quarterbacks playing high school ball there led by Heisman hopeful Trace McSorley of Penn State. Transfers Lagow (Indiana) and Nebraska’s Tanner Lee, formerly of Tulane, are poised for big seasons.

ILLINOIS

Chayce Crouch, Newark (Ohio) Newark Catholic

INDIANA

Richard Lagow, Plano, Texas

IOWA

Nathan Stanley, Menomonie, Wisc.

MARYLAND

Caleb Henderson, Burke (Va.) Lake Braddock

MICHIGAN

Wilton Speight, Richmond (Va.) The Collegiate School

MICHIGAN STATE

Brian Lewerke, Phoenix (Ariz.) Pinnacle

MINNESOTA

Conor Rhoda, Saint Paul (Minn.) Cretin-Derham Hall

NEBRASKA

Tanner Lee, New Orleans (La.) Jesuit

NORTHWESTERN

Clayton Thorson, Wheaton (Ill.) Wheaton North

OHIO STATE

J.T. Barrett, Wichita Falls (Texas) Rider

PENN STATE

Trace McSorley, Ashburn (Va.) Briar Woods

PURDUE

David Blough, Carrollton (Texas) Creekview

RUTGERS

Giovanni Rescigno, Warren (Mich.) De La Salle

WISCONSIN

Alex Hornibrook, Malvern (Pa.) Malvern Prep

BIG 12

OVERVIEW: Transfers are also the name of the game in the Big 12, even more than any other Power Five conference. There is a good possibility more than half of the starters in the league this year will have started at another school. Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, West Virginia’s Will Grier, TCU’s Kenny Hill, Iowa State’s Jacob Park, Texas Tech’s Nic Shimonek and Kansas’ Payton Bender, if he wins the job, are all transfer quarterbacks. Texas high school quarterbacks are also well-represented as half the league’s projected starters are from that state.

BAYLOR

Zach Smith, Grandview, Texas

IOWA STATE

Jacob Park, Goose Creek (S.C.) Stratford

KANSAS

Peyton Bender, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons

KANSAS STATE

Jesse Ertz, Mediapolis, Iowa

OKLAHOMA

Baker Mayfield, Austin (Texas) Lake Travis

OKLAHOMA STATE

Mason Rudolph, Rock Hill (S.C.) Northwestern

TEXAS

Shane Buechele, Arlington (Texas) Lamar

TCU

Kenny Hill, Southlake (Texas) Carroll

TEXAS TECH

Nic Shimonek, Corsicana (Texas) Mildred Independent School

WEST VIRGINIA

Will Grier, Davidson (N.C.) Davidson Day

PAC-12

OVERVIEW: Unsurprisingly, more than half of the Pac-12’s starting quarterbacks played high school ball in California. Three of them – Washington’s Jake Browning, Stanford’s Keller Chryst and Arizona State’s Manny Wilkins – are from the northern part of the state. Two top Heisman Trophy contenders – USC’s Sam Darnold and UCLA’s Josh Rosen – played high school football about an hour from each other in Southern California. Colorado’s Steven Montez, from Texas, is the only quarterback in the conference from outside the West region.

ARIZONA

Brandon Dawkins, Westlake Village (Calif.) Oaks Christian

ARIZONA STATE

Manny Wilkins, Novato (Calif.) San Marin

CAL

Ross Bowers, Bothell, Wash.

COLORADO

Steven Montez, El Paso (Texas) Del Valle

OREGON

Justin Herbert, Eugene (Ore.) Sheldon

OREGON STATE

Jake Luton, Marysville (Wash.) Marysville-Pilchuck

STANFORD

Keller Chryst, Palo Alto, Calif.

UCLA

Josh Rosen, Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco

USC

Sam Darnold, San Clemente, Calif.

UTAH

Troy Williams, Harbor City (Calif.) Narbonne

WASHINGTON

Jake Browning, Folsom, Calif.

WASHINGTON STATE

Luke Falk, Logan, Utah

SEC

OVERVIEW: There is a significant Texas feel to the starting quarterbacks in the SEC with four projected starters in the conference coming from that state, led by Alabama’s Jalen Hurts. Transfers also play a role in this conference like many others although to a less significant factor. Some JUCO transfers will be starters in the SEC but everybody is excited to see if former Baylor QB Jarrett Stidham can turn around the offense at Auburn.

ALABAMA

Jalen Hurts, Channelview, Texas

ARKANSAS

Austin Allen, Fayetteville, Ark.

AUBURN

Jarrett Stidham, Stephenville, Texas

FLORIDA

Feleipe Franks, Crawfordville (Fla.) Wakulla

GEORGIA

Jacob Eason, Lake Stevens, Wash.

KENTUCKY

Stephen Johnson, Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Los Osos

LSU

Danny Etling, Terre Haute (Ind.) South Vigo

OLE MISS

Shea Patterson, Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy

MISSISSIPPI STATE

Nick Fitzgerald, Richmond Hill, Ga.

MISSOURI

Drew Lock, Lee’s Summit, Mo.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Jake Bentley, Opelika, Ala.

TENNESSEE

Quinton Dormady, Boerne, Texas

TEXAS A&M

Jake Hubenak, Georgetow, Texas

VANDERBILT

Kyle Shurmur, Wyndmoor (Pa.) LaSalle