Hello, friends. I wrote some form of SEC Power Rankings across various now-defunct websites for the last 15 or so seasons, but last year’s expansion to 16 teams felt like a breaking point for me. This new format – rather than ranking teams into a nice, tidy list – will split the schools into four sections of varying size and quality. Sometimes that will be actual team ability, most of the time it will be something adjacent. Our second topic wants to find out a little bit more about each of the signal callers in the conference.

In a sport where rosters are (almost, until we finally get rid of the COVID super-super seniors, more on that later) entirely comprised of young men whose frontal lobes aren’t completely developed, the best programs are the ones that can build widespread consistency and structure on both sides of the ball.

Entire books have been written about the leadership philosophies of Nick Saban and how he accomplished exactly that throughout his career. Despite massive rosters and millions of dollars spent on development, there’s still one thing even Saban couldn’t fully account for – an outstanding quarterback performance.

In a game with 22 players on the field at any given time – sometimes more, if Derek Dooley is coaching – only one has the ability to truly shift the dynamic of a matchup every time the ball is snapped. And the fortunes of each team in the conference will, more than any other variable, likely depend on who is taking those snaps.

Like all of our quads, this isn’t an exact ranking 1-16 of how good each quarterback in the league is, but it is a helpful guide on what to expect (and maybe more importantly, what not to expect) from each of the signal callers in the SEC.

These are the guys who, as much as 18- to 22-year-olds can be, are known commodities in a good way. Each of them has the traits and talent ceiling to start games in the NFL, even if they have some flaws. It would be a genuine surprise if any of these quarterbacks aren’t drafted this year or next.

Not the name you expected to see first on this list, is it? Well, get used to hearing about South Carolina’s formerly bespectacled leader because he could very well be the first name called in wherever the NFL Draft is held next April. Listed at almost the same size as Cam Newton, Sellers is going to invite that exact comparison with his athleticism and general ability to make you get out of your seat whenever he takes off.

I mean, god DAMN.

He also has the ability to rip off 353 yards and five touchdown passes in a game as though Steve Spurrier is still calling plays in Columbia, which gives him a ceiling no other quarterback in the league can touch.

Whether Sellers has enough weapons around him to get the Gamecocks to the playoffs is an entirely different question for another column, but for now we’re just going to bask in how much fun it is watching him play.

The last two LSU quarterbacks who had pretty decent debut seasons each went on to win the Heisman and become gamebreaking NFL starters, so the path is pretty clear for the Nuss Bus (we need a better nickname).

With all the cliche intangibles you can fit into a Mel Kiper Jr. soundboard – coach’s son, gamer, leader of men, take your choice – the biggest thing holding Nussmeier back so far has been himself. A proclivity to bet on himself resulted in some sloppy turnovers and worse losses last season, but some minor cleanups will likely have the Tigers back in the mix of true title contenders.

Look, we think he’s going to be good. Everyone thinks he’s going to be good. But with just three starts (and whatever the heck Steve Sarkisian was thinking in the middle of the first Georgia game) under his belt, we don’t actually know much about the youngest Manning.

Expect the yelling to commence by about 4pm Saturday, following the Longhorns’ matchup with Ohio State. We’ll pretty definitely know by then whether Manning is the next greatest quarterback of all time, or an overhyped bust.

This isn’t a consensus opinion, but go back and watch Green last season. In his first year with (sigh) Bobby Petrino calling plays, the Texas native put up over 3,000 yards in the air and 600 on the ground. He’s really good!

Green wasn’t surrounded by a ton of talent last year, and the bets are still out on whether that’s any better this time around, but he’s going to show up on highlight reels every Sunday morning either way.

There is a ton of hype around Lagway heading into his sophomore season, but it still feels a bit flat? Injuries have done the biggest job in derailing what looks like a really promising career – Lagway didn’t throw at all during spring practice – and he might have a few more mystery ailments heading into the season opener.

I’m not quite as sold as some draft experts, but it wouldn’t at all surprise me if he is in the conversation as the best quarterback in the league by midseason.

Call this the “guys who would give prime Nick Saban nightmares” tier – think Bo Wallace, Johnny Manziel, Nick Marshall – because the highs are incredibly high, but the downside to their game is equally significant. Ironically, the one active quarterback in the SEC who has beaten Saban under these circumstances is not in this tier. More on that later.

Reader, I’m going to give you a peek behind the curtain of my writing process. Mostly I start a Google doc and type until I hit publish without a second thought. Mateer is a guy who I immediately slotted into the top tier, but by the time I got to writing each of these blurbs realized just how aggressive that decision was.

Not to make too obvious of a comparison, given that they each transferred from Washington State to a perplexingly erratic blue blood program, but Mateer profiles as someone who could absolutely do the Cam Ward thing this year and end up as a Heisman finalist. Getting OC Ben Arbuckle to join the journey from Pullman is a huge win in keeping continuity in the playbook to build on Mateer’s strengths.

There’s the slight problem that Mateer plays a lot like Baker Mayfield. That can be really good! That can also be really spooky! A brutal stretch of five ranked opponents in the back half of the season will dictate whether this is another fairytale season, or if the Sooners are already looking for a new coach by November.

The guy who Mateer replaces in Norman stays in the conference, where he becomes the latest contender to give Hugh Freeze his first actually good quarterback at Auburn. Arnold is a former five-star recruit, and Freeze has a reputation for getting the most out of his passers, but neither of those things is a guarantee that this is going to work out. It is Auburn, though, so there is a guarantee that there will be fireworks.

If self-belief could be measured, Pavia would be a combine standout. Lots of quarterbacks say things like “our goal is to win a national championship this year” and kind of mean it. When Pavia says that, about Vanderbilt no less, it’s clear that he absolutely, unabashedly holds himself to it. Building on last season’s surprise bowl appearance and even more surprising upset of Alabama is going to require a healthy amount of that Marshall Henderson-esque energy.

Expectations matter in these tiers, as you’ll soon see. A chaos emerald of a quarterback like Shapen is extremely fun and welcome at places like Mississippi State, less so at your Alabamas and Georgias. Shapen had a wild start to his 2024 season before a season-ending shoulder injury derailed things, and a loaded schedule (including the for-some-reason now annual game against Arizona State) gives him every opportunity to break hearts this year.

Playing football is hard, especially at this level. All of these young men are objectively pretty good at it! But circumstances dictate that it’s just not going to work out for some of them – especially at schools with playoff aspirations and nearly unlimited budgets to try again next year with another highly-rated prospect.

No offense to the young man, but you can pretty much draw a Lane Kiffin quarterback with your eyes closed at this point. Simmons will put up numbers in this offense, the only question is if he can be more consistent than his predecessors.

Could very easily be in quad two based on Stockton’s up-and-down performances once thrust into the starting role last year, but Kirby Smart’s pursuit of Fernando Mendoza in the transfer portal (objectively a good decision by Kirby, Mendoza absolutely rocks) makes us a little nervous that the shot callers in Athens aren’t totally sold on their new snap taker. The good news for Bulldog fans is that the last time that happened with a mercurial Georgia native, he won two titles.

On his third try, Simpson has finally won the Alabama starting job. Ten years ago, that would’ve been a portent of high expectations – someone who worked their way up and now, knowing the ins and outs of the offense, is poised to restore the Tide to their former glory. That’s not really how it works anymore, though, and we’re all kind of wondering why he didn’t transfer somewhere where he could start sooner.

Decidedly less talented than Nico Iamaleava, who now occupies Aguilar’s former (for like two months) spot in Westwood, but that might be a good thing? Tennessee’s offense isn’t going to look like it did with Hendon Hooker at the helm a few years ago, but the pieces are there for someone like Aguilar to put together a really nice season.

Formerly used in the freshman Tim Tebow battering ram role for James Franklin, we now get to find out if Pribula can play actual quarterback as well. Fun!

Looked great against LSU and Auburn after taking over the starting job last season. Also looked completely lost against South Carolina and Texas. Reed is an excellent runner, but just how much he developed as a passer over the offseason – and how much confidence OC Collin Klein has in him after those reps – will determine how this year goes in College Station.

An uncomfortable amount of transfers.

First, the good. This moment, in 2021 (his third year at A&M, lol) was legitimately awesome:

Then, it gets kind of bleak. Losing that job in College Station, transferring to Auburn and not throwing a single pass, transferring again to Incarnate Word and staying for a second year. At any of those points, someone less resilient might’ve given up the dream and joined the workforce.

And look, this is a decidedly pro-labor blog, but it kind of feels like that’s what should have happened here. It’s a neat story that Calzada worked his way back to the SEC, but he’s also keeping a genuinely promising freshman from taking snaps in Lexington, pretty much just because he’s six years older than him and already knows how to slide protections. For all the joy that the weirdness of college football brings us, the seventh-year quarterback on his fourth school is a weird reminder that the system isn’t always broken in a fun way.