SEC QB tiers: Ranking the top units across the conference

There is no doubt that quarterback is the most important position on the field. Just a year ago, the two teams playing for a national championship both sent their starting quarterbacks to the NFL. 

Plenty of SEC teams expect to be competing for a national championship this year. To do that, they’re going to need some excellent quarterback play. Of course, that shouldn’t be a problem to find in such a talented league overall. 

With that in mind, here’s a breakdown of the quarterback tiers within the SEC. Each tier had four out of the sixteen SEC teams assigned to it, starting with those at the top.

The Top-Tier Teams

Texas Longhorns, LSU Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels, Texas A&M Aggies

At the top of the SEC for quarterback play are the Texas Longhorns. That’s for good reason, as Arch Manning remains the top individual quarterback in the conference and a favorite to be the future first overall draft pick.

Behind Texas on the top-tier of teams here are the LSU Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels, and Texas A&M Aggies. They all have one thing in common, an experienced quarterback who took their team to the College Football Playoff. In LSU’s case, Sam Leavitt did that while he was at Arizona State. Trinidad Chambliss and Marcel Reed, meanwhile, did it just last year at Ole Miss and Texas A&M, respectively.

The Upper Middle-Tier Teams

Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, South Carolina Gamecocks, Auburn Tigers

The Alabama Crimson Tide are going into the 2026 season with some questions at quarterback. In particular, a quarterback battle between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell, which most expect Russell to win. Regardless, there is excellent upside in the QB room at Alabama.

Georgia, like three of those top-tier teams, has a starting quarterback in Gunner Stockton who took them to the CFP before. Now, he just needs to take the next step. As for South Carolina and Auburn, they’re both very high upside situations, though questions remain. LaNorris Sellers should be an NFL talent for South Carolina, but he didn’t play like it a season ago. For Auburn, Byrum Brown is making the jump to the SEC as a transfer (South Florida), but already knows head coach Alex Golesh’s offense. 

The Lower Middle-Tier Teams

Oklahoma Sooners, Missouri Tigers, Kentucky Wildcats, Tennessee Volunteers

A season ago, John Mateer flashed his talent but suffered an injury, and also flashed how much he can struggle at times. Still, there’s a lot to like with Mateer, and he did take the Oklahoma Sooners to the CFP. It’s just hard to ignore the 14 touchdowns to 11 interceptions he posted in 2025 after tossing 29 touchdowns to just seven interceptions at Washington State in 2024.

As for Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, they’ll all have new starting quarterbacks in 2026. Missouri has transfer Austin Simmons (Ole Miss), while Kentucky has transfer Kenny Minchey (Notre Dame). Both are high-upside guys, but both also didn’t win quarterback battles at their old schools. Meanwhile, Tennessee is choosing between high-upside youngsters with little to no experience, Faizon Brandon and George MacIntyre. Upside is great, but there’s very little proof of concept.

The Lower-Tier Teams

Vanderbilt Commodores, Florida Gators, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Arkansas Razorbacks

A season ago, Vanderbilt had its best quarterback in program history under center in Diego Pavia. Now, it’s into the unknown. Luckily, that unknown includes top-QB prospect Jared Curtis. He’s young, and you can expect growing pains, but the talent is certainly there. It’s probably just a year or so early.

Florida and Kentucky both have new coaching staffs. With them come new quarterbacks. There are going to be quarterback battles there, certainly, but it’s clear there are more questions than answers. Florida is deciding between Aaron Philo and Tramell Jones Jr. Meanwhile, Arkansas is deciding between KJ Jackson and AJ Hill. Mississippi State is likely to go with Kamario Taylor. He has some limited experience from last season (43-of-77 for 629 yards, five touchdowns and one interception), but will need to take a major step forward.