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.
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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