2025 - The Year in Quarterbacks
As the coaching carousel continues to spin, we look what QBs stood out before the bowl games and the opening of the transfer portal
This is special collaboration of So, About that Stat... on Y-Option: College Football with Yogi Roth. Be sure to follow Y-Option for more.
From the coaching carousel that still hasn’t stopped to the endless debates on the College Football Playoff, the 2025 season has been one we won’t forget for a while. And as we start bowl season this weekend and then the playoffs next week, let’s take a look at the quarterback position for this year. After last year not having a QB in the top 2 of the Heisman voting, it appears the focus has returned to the signal callers…
THE HEISMAN GUYS
Transferring from Cal to Indiana could not have worked out any better for Fernando Mendoza. Not only does Mendoza lead FBS with a school-record 33 pass TD but its more than his previous 2 seasons at Cal combined (30). The redshirt junior needs 20 yards to reach 3,000 in back-to-back seasons and so far doing it with 70 fewer attempts than last year. He is the only FBS QB this season to have 5 games with 4+ pass TD and 0 INT and first to do it since 2023 when the 3 Heisman finalists (Jayden Daniels, Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr.) all did it. All the while leading the Hoosiers to a 13-0 regular season, their first outright Big Ten title since 1945 and the #1 seed in the College Football Playoff. Mendoza is the 2nd Heisman finalist in Indiana history after RB Anthony Thompson finished 2nd in 1989. Not bad for the #140 QB prospect in the Class of 2022.
Julian Sayin was probably a win away from claiming the Heisman but unfortunately for him, Ohio State fell 13-10 to Indiana in the Big Ten title game. Sayin is on pace for the most accurate season in college football history with a 78.4 completion percentage which would surpass the record 77.4 set by Bo Nix at Oregon in 2023. The Alabama transfer had 31 pass TD, tied for 2nd most in the country, and his 3,329 pass yards are the 6th most in school history. The redshirt freshman had 5 games this season with 300+ pass yards and 3+ pass TD, tied for the most in FBS this season with UConn’s Joe Fagnano. Sayin has also been excellent on the deep ball, completing 65.1% of his passes 20+ yards downfield with 13 TD and 0 INT. This is the Buckeyes 7th Heisman finalist since 2018.
The SEC seemed destined to have a QB make the trip to the Big Apple this year and as the other contenders faltered down the stretch, Diego Pavia surged and became the first Commodore ever invited to the Heisman ceremony. The 2025 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award winner led Vanderbilt to its first ever 10-win season (10-2) while setting the school single-season records for pass yards, pass TD and total offense. Pavia is the 5th SEC QB in the last 30 years to have 3,000+ pass yards and 800+ rush yards in the same season and 1 of just 2 to also complete 70% of their passes. 3 of the previous 4 SEC QBs to reach 3,000/800 won the Heisman that season: 2023 Jayden Daniels (LSU), 2012 Johnny Manziel (Texas A&M) and 2007 Tim Tebow (2007).
THE GROUP OF GREAT
While much has been made about the Group of 5 teams (Tulane and James Madison) making the playoffs, not enough has been made about a pair of QBs from the “lower level” tearing it up.
North Texas’ Drew Mestemaker leads FBS with a school record 4,129 pass yards and becomes just the 5th freshman to surpass 4,000 yards and needs 306 yards to tie C.J. Stroud’s freshman record with 2021 Ohio State. The former walk-on won this year’s Burlsworth Trophy after not making a single varsity start in high school. The redshirt freshman is also tied for 2nd in FBS in pass TD (31), 3rd in pass efficiency (174.8) and 10th in completion percentage (70.2%) while also leading the country in 50+ yard completions (11) & 70+ yard completions (5).
And as far as true dual threats go, it’s tough to do better than what South Florida’s Byrum Brown did this season. Just the 13th player in the last 30 years to have at least 3,000 pass yards (3,158) and 1,000 rush yards (1,008) in the same season with 4 of the previous 12 winning the Heisman that year. The senior was 1 of 3 FBS QBs this season to have a game with 300+ pass yds, 100+ rush yds, 2+ pass TD and 2+ rush TD all in the same game. Brown led his team to a 9-3 season (their most wins since 2017) while his 42 touchdowns (28 pass, 14 rush) have tied the school record.
Others of note include BYU transfer Jake Retzlaff found a new home at Tulane with 16 rush TD (school record for a Green Wave QB and 3rd most ever by any Tulane player) but must perform better in their rematch with Ole Miss (5-17, 56 pass yds) if they hope to advance in the CFP. The other G5 QB to take their team to the College Football Playoff, James Madison’s Alonza Barnett III, was this year’s Sun Belt Player of the Year after putting up 35 touchdowns (21 pass, 14 rush). Coming off a torn ACL from November 2024, Barnett has led the Dukes to a 12-1 record in just their 4th year at the FBS level.
SEC SUCCESS
While Pavia was the star of the show down South this season, there are plenty of others who could see themselves as Top 10 finishers in this year’s Heisman voting. Alabama’s Ty Simpson and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton both led their teams to the SEC title game in their first full season as starters. Simpson has 3,268 pass yards, 6th most in Tide history, along with 26 pass TD and started the season with 8 straight games with 2+ pass TD but had only 6 scores in the last 5 games with 3 of those against Auburn. Stockton, the MVP of the SEC Championship with 3 TD who finished 7th in the Heisman voting, was at his best in big games this season with 18 total TD (15 pass, 3 rush) and just 2 INT in 6 games against AP Top 25 opponents.
Preseason Heisman favorite, Texas’ Arch Manning, struggled under the microscope early in what was also his first full season as the starter. But Manning finished strong with 4 games of 300+ pass yards and 3+ pass TD, including 3 of those in the final 5 games. Marcel Reed seemed on his way to the Big Apple until Texas A&M dropped their final game of the regular season to rival Texas. Reed has led the Aggies to 11 wins, their most since 1992, including road victories at Notre Dame, LSU and Missouri. The redshirt sophomore excelled in play action according to PFF with a 16/1 TD/INT ratio in play action while throwing just 9 touchdowns and 9 interceptions with no play action.
Trinidad Chambliss wasn’t even supposed to be the starter at Ole Miss this year after leading Ferris State to the D II national title the year before. After an injury to Austin Simmons, Chambliss got his 1st start against Arkansas in Week 3 where he threw for 353 yards and ran for 62 more with 3 scores (1 pass, 2 rush). Finishing 8th in this year’s Heisman voting, the senior had 5 games this season with 300+ pass yards and 50+ rush yards, the 2nd most by an SEC QB since 1994 and the only 1 in that span to do it in 3 straight games. Joey Aguilar thought he would be spending 2025 at UCLA after transferring to the Bruins last December. But after Nico Iamaleava left Knoxville for Westwood, Aguilar exchanged zip codes with Iamaleava and became the Vols new starting QB. The senior from Antioch, California leads the SEC with 3,444 pass yards which is the most by a Tennessee QB since Tyler Bray in 2012.
B1G OUT WEST
The Big Ten has a pair of Heisman finalists for the first time since 2021 when Ohio State QB CJ Stroud and Michigan DL Aidan Hutchinson both made the cut and the first time 2 Big Ten QBs will be in New York since they started announcing the finalists in 1982. But there’s more than just Mendoza and Sayin to this year’s B1G QB Class, especially among the new West Coast schools.
In his first full season as the Trojans’ starter, USC’s Jayden Maiava was named 3rd team All-Big Ten as the conference’s leading passer with 3,431 yards. 16 of Maiava’s 23 pass TD this season came at home and his 13.89 yards per completion is the 2nd best by a Trojan in the last 30 years, trailing only 2003 Matt Leinart (13.95). The UNLV transfer has 10 completions of 50+ yards this season (T-2nd most in FBS) but has only 6 TD this season where the ball was thrown 20+ yards down the field meaning a lot of YAC for his receivers like Biletnikoff finalist Makai Lemon.
Dante Moore’s 1st season at Oregon is highlighted by a return trip to the College Football Playoff after backing up last year’s Heisman finalist Dillon Gabriel. The UCLA transfer has been extremely efficient with a 72.5 completion percentage, good for 3rd in the country. Moore set the school single-game record for completion percentage going 27-30 (90%) while collecting 306 pass yards and 2 pass TD to become first FBS QB to do that against a Power 5 school since Ohio State’s CJ Stroud in 2021 against Michigan State.
Demond Williams Jr. also excelled in his 1st full season as Washington’s starter. Williams has 2,850 pass yards (11th most in school history) and 595 rush yards (3rd most ever by a UW QB) to become the first Husky to have 2500+ pass yds and 500+ rush yds in the same season. The Arizona transfer had a monster game in Week 6 against Rutgers with 402 pass yds, 136 rush yards and 4 total TD to become just the 19th player in FBS history to have 400+ pass yards and 100+ rush yards in the same game (with a 20th player doing it later this same season, more on that later….)
12’s ANGRY MEN
With the amount of returning starters in the Big 12, it’s no surprise that the conference had strong QB play. Starting at the top with 2 quarterbacks who faced off in the title game, you’ve got 5th year senior Behren Morton at Texas Tech and true freshman Bear Bachmeier at BYU. Morton was a major factor for a team that won 12 games, all by at least 20 points, with their lone loss coming when he was injured. The Red Raiders QB has 22 pass TD and just 4 INT this season and now sits 4th on the school’s career list for both pass yards and pass TD. Bachmeier meanwhile started 2025 as an early signee with Stanford but then transferred to Provo after Retzlaff left the school. The Southern California native has 14 pass TD and 11 rush TD this season to become just the 14th freshman in the last 30 years to reach double figures in both categories which also includes Texas State’s Brad Jackson from this year.
Another SoCal kid had a bounce back season in the desert as Arizona’s Noah Fifita has set career highs this season, his first since middle school without Tetairoa McMillan, with 2,963 pass yards and 26 pass TD to be named 1st team All-Big 12. Fifita broke the school’s career record for touchdown passes as well as becoming the only player in program history to serve as primary QB for 2 different 9-win teams. Fellow Pac-12 refugee Utah meanwhile got great contributions from 2 quarterbacks. New Mexico transfer Devon Dampier was named Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year with 22 pass TD and 7 rush TD. Dampier had 6 games this season with 200+ pass yards and 50+ rush yards, tied with 2004 Alex Smith for the most by a Utah QB in the last 30 years. True freshman Byrd Ficklin meanwhile has been electric as a 2nd option for the Utes at QB with 503 rush yards and 10 rush TD on 9.0 yards per carry. In his lone start of the season against Colorado, Ficklin set the school’s freshman record for a game with 151 rush yards, a record he would break again 2 games later at Baylor with 166 yards.
DOWN WITH THE KING
In a league that was dominated by new transfer QBs, one of their more veteran transfers, Georgia Tech’s Haynes King, was named the ACC Offensive Player of the Year and finished 10th in the Heisman voting. In his 3rd year with the Yellow Jackets since transferring from Texas A&M, King put career-highs on the ground with 922 yards and 15 rush TD on top of his 2,697 pass yards and 12 pass TD. The redshirt senior is just the 3rd ACC player, joining Louisville’s Malik Cunningham and Lamar Jackson, as the only ACC players in the last 30 years to have 2600+ pass yds, 900+ rush yds and 15+ rush TD. He also joined Demond Williams Jr. as one of 20 FBS players all-time to have 400+ pass yards and 100+ rush yards in the same game as he set the school record with 511 total yards against NC State.
In his first season at Miami, Georgia transfer Carson Beck is sitting on a career-high 74.7 completion% and is 3 TD short of tying his career-high 28 while also hauling in his 1st career receiving TD. Beck joins Joey Aguilar (Tennessee, App State) as the only FBS QBs to top 3,000 yards passing in each of the last 3 seasons. From Tulane to Duke, Darian Mensah led the Blue Devils to an unlikely victory in the ACC title game and was named by the AP as the conference’s Transfer Newcomer of the Year. Mensah has 30 pass TD to break the school’s single-season record, set last year by Maalik Murphy, and a league-leading 3,646 pass yards that’s just 178 yards short of tying the school’s single-season record. Syracuse was 3-1 with Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli under center with his 10 pass TD, but he suffered a season-ending injury and the Orange dropped their final 8 games in which they averaged 11.1 PPG.
FRESH FACES
The ACC was also home to perhaps the best freshman QB in the country in Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. JKS had been committed to Cal entering last December’s Signing Day but then flipped to Oregon. But his time as a Duck was short lived and then transferred BACK to the Bears in January. Sagapolutele joined Jared Goff (2013) as the only Cal true freshmen to start the season opener at QB and became the 2nd player in FBS history to start their career with 12 straight games with 200+ pass yards while his 3,117 pass yards are the 6th most in Cal single-season history.
The #1 recruit in the country, Bryce Underwood, was the 4th true freshman ever to start the season opener at Michigan. Underwood is the 3rd Michigan freshman in the last 30 years to throw for 2,000 yards and enters the bowl game with 14 total TD (9 pass, 5 rush). Meanwhile, Maryland’s Malik Washington tied Sagapolutele for most pass TD by a freshman this season (17) while having the 2nd most pass yards (behind JKS) with 2,963 (the school’s freshman record). Washington saved the best for last with 459 yards in the season finale against Michigan State, the most ever by a Terps freshman and 2nd most by any Maryland QB ever. Auburn’s Deuce Knight only got 1 start this season but made the most of it in the win over Mercer, tying the school record with 6 total TD (2 pass, 4 rush). Knight had 239 pass yards and 162 rush yards in that game, making him just the 2nd FBS player in the last 30 years to have 200+ pass yds, 150+ rush yds, 2 pass TD and 4 rush TD in the same game (JMU’s Alonza Barnett was the other, also this year!!).
Notre Dame redshirt freshman CJ Carr is one of the 10 finalists for the Manning Award as the nation’s top QB. Carr has 12 straight games with a TD pass, the longest streak by an Irish QB in over a decade, and his 24 pass TD are tied with Sam Hartman and DeShone Kizer for most in their first 12 career Notre Dame starts since 1966. Another redshirt, Pitt’s Mason Heinstchel, did not become their team’s starter until Week 6 but topped 300 yards in 4 of the last 8 games.
WHAT HAPPENED?
And it wasn’t all great news for many QBs that entered the season with high expectations. While these talented signal callers did not have the individual years they wanted, their stories are far from finished.
John Mateer’s numbers are way down from last year after the transfer from Washington State to Oklahoma in part thanks to a hand injury that kept him out a week and limited him the rest of the season. Despite a 12/10 TD/INT ratio, the Sooners are in the CFP so he’s still winning where it matters.
Clemson’s Cade Klubnik went from 36 pass TD last year to 16 this season as the Tigers finished 4-4 in ACC play
After a 4-0 start, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier was benched during the Alabama game and then missed the rest of the season with an abdominal injury with just 12 pass TD in 9 games.
Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola had a career-high 18 pass TD in 9 games before breaking his leg and missing the rest of the season.
Florida’s DJ Lagway had 14 interceptions, 2nd most in the country, as the Gators struggled to a 4-8 season- their most losses since a 4-8 season in 2013.
Likewise, South Carolina went from a CFP contender to a 4-8 season with LaNorris Sellers touchdowns going down (25 total TD to 18) and his rushing yards down 40% (674 yards to 270).
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Nice breakdown of the highs and lows for many of the “big names - high expectations” players in college football.
My Heisman pick is Mendoza.