As part of Cats Illustrated's early preview of the 2019 college football season, Cats Illustrated's Justin Rowland, Jeff Drummond and Travis Graf are each ranking the Wildcats' position units and where they believe they rank against each of their SEC peer units.
With returning starter Terry Wilson, incoming transfer Sawyer Smith and several younger players behind them, where do the Cats' quarterbacks rank in the SEC?
The Rankings Explained...
Drummond: It feels like the league's top three are a fairly consensus choice entering this season. Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa and Georgia's Jake Fromm are likely going to battle for the top spot, and Kellen Mond may have something to say about that down in College Station, but the picture gets fairly muddled after those three. I'm a bit higher on Missouri's Kelly Bryant than some others are. The Clemson transfer will have a decent O-Line and some good playmakers around him. He's my big sleeper pick to watch this season. I think this will also be a strong year for UK's Terry Wilson after the improvements he displayed in the spring and being more comfortable in Year 2. The Cats face depth questions at the position but should be solid if Wilson can stay healthy.
Graf: Tua Tagovailoa and Jake Fromm have separated themselves as the class of the SEC at the quarterback position. There’s a drop off before listing the next grouping, Kellen Mond and Joe Burrow, then another drop off before things become jumbled from 5 to 11. I’m not high on Kelly Bryant and will remain skeptical of how he’ll do under center for Missouri until the season begins. Terry Wilson’s play in 2018 left a lot to be desired, but he did lead the Cats to 10 wins. If the coaches unleash him and tweak the offense as they’ve hinted towards, Wilson could play himself anywhere from the 5 to 8 spot on this list. I currently don’t feel comfortable ranking him any higher than 9th just based on what-ifs.
Rowland: I certainly don't agree with the one or two pundits I've seen this offseason who rank Kentucky's quarterbacks last in the conference. Terry Wilson's experience and winning track record from 2018 counts for something and until/unless he starts losing more games we have to go with the most important stat, the win/loss column, as a real factor. Sawyer Smith has to make you feel a lot better about the depth situation. Our rankings are fairly similar here. The biggest difference in my rankings is Ole Miss, because I think in spite of his youth Matt Carrol (one of the nation's top recruits in his class) is going to be very good especially under Rich Rodriguez.
