Two years ago, we added SEC unit rankings to our annual college football preseason magazine for the first time. It was such a hit that we made it a regular feature. Unfortunately, back then it was a bit of a downer for Vols fans, as Tennessee was generally relegated to the “others” list at the bottom.
Not this year. Heading into this fall, the Power T shows up in the Top 4 in five of the eight rankings. Some of those rankings are probably going to come as a bit of a surprise, including the quarterback rankings, for which Tennessee ranks No. 4.
Here’s our complete list of quarterback rankings for the SEC this year, right out of the magazine. We’ll be publishing these over the course of the next couple of weeks, but each post will be live only for a day or few before it’s removed or moved to an in-process VIP area. If you want to see all of them all of the unit rankings at once and at your convenience, you’ll need to order the Gameday on Rocky Top magazine, which, by the way, arrived here yesterday and will ship the day after you place an order. It won’t hit the newsstands until sometime mid- to late-next week.
2020 SEC Quarterback Rankings
 | With LSU and Alabama both having to replace once-in-a-lifetimers in Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa, the contest for best group of signal-callers in the league gets much more interesting. We’re giving the nod to the Aggies on the strength of returning quarterback Kellen Mond. Mond returns after rolling up 2,897 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air and adding another 500 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground last season. Texas A&M also returns both backups in Zach Calzada and James Foster. | With LSU and Alabama both having to replace once-in-a-lifetimers in Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa, the contest for best group of signal-callers in the league gets much more interesting. We’re giving the nod to the Aggies on the strength of returning quarterback Kellen Mond. Mond returns after rolling up 2,897 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air and adding another 500 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground last season. Texas A&M also returns both backups in Zach Calzada and James Foster. | With LSU and Alabama both having to replace once-in-a-lifetimers in Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa, the contest for best group of signal-callers in the league gets much more interesting. We’re giving the nod to the Aggies on the strength of returning quarterback Kellen Mond. Mond returns after rolling up 2,897 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air and adding another 500 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground last season. Texas A&M also returns both backups in Zach Calzada and James Foster. | With LSU and Alabama both having to replace once-in-a-lifetimers in Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa, the contest for best group of signal-callers in the league gets much more interesting. We’re giving the nod to the Aggies on the strength of returning quarterback Kellen Mond. Mond returns after rolling up 2,897 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air and adding another 500 yards and 8 touchdowns on the ground last season. Texas A&M also returns both backups in Zach Calzada and James Foster. |
| Returning Production (in yards) | Unit Recruiting Ranking | |||
| 1 | Passing | Rushing | Overall | |
| 3060 | 516 | 3576 | 8 |
 | Returning Production | Unit Recruiting Ranking | Kyle Trask, who not only filled in for the injured Feleipe Franks last fall but proved he deserved the job while doing it, returns for the Gators in 2020. | ||
| Passing | Rushing | Overall | |||
| 2 | 3160 | 189 | 3349 | 7 | |
 | Returning Production | Unit Recruiting Ranking | The Rebels return both Matt Corral, who accounted for 57% of the team’s passing yards, and dual-threat John Rhys Plumlee. | ||
| Passing | Rushing | Overall | |||
| 3 | 2237 | 1155 | 3392 | 13 | |
 | Returning Production | Unit Recruiting Ranking | Jarrett Guarantano couldn’t hold on to the starting position last season, but he accounted for nearly 75% of the team’s 2,878 passing yards and all but three of Tennessee’s passing TDs. | ||
| Passing | Rushing | Overall | Jarrett Guarantano couldn’t hold on to the starting position last season, but he accounted for nearly 75% of the team’s 2,878 passing yards and all but three of Tennessee’s passing TDs. | ||
| 4 | 2878 | 110 | 2988 | 4 | Jarrett Guarantano couldn’t hold on to the starting position last season, but he accounted for nearly 75% of the team’s 2,878 passing yards and all but three of Tennessee’s passing TDs. |
| Returning Production | |||||
| Rank | Team | Passing | Rushing | Overall | Unit Recruiting Ranking |
| 5 | Auburn | 2626 | 344 | 2970 | 12 |
| 6 | Alabama | 1503 | 36 | 1539 | 1 |
| 7 | South Carolina | 2525 | -24 | 2501 | 10 |
| 8 | Mississippi State | 1170 | 588 | 1758 | 6 |
| 9 | Kentucky | 1041 | 31 | 1072 | 2 |
| 10 | LSU | 344 | 30 | 374 | 5 |
| 11 | Arkansas | 227 | 102 | 329 | 2 |
| 12 | Georgia | 260 | 12 | 272 | 9 |
| 13 | Missouri | 441 | -2 | 439 | 14 |
| 14 | Vanderbilt | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
Additional comments
As the blurb up there says, with both Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa gone, I really like Kellen Mond among this batch of signal-callers. Kyle Trask in the hands of Dan Mullen is also pretty clearly in the upper tier with Mond.
Then there’s a bunch of experienced guys behind those two, including the Corral/Rhys Plumlee combo at Ole Miss now under the direction of Lane Kiffin and the Tennessee quarterback room, led by Jarrett Guarantano and assisted by a strong recruiting bump in the form of Harrison Bailey. Auburn’s Bo Nix, Alabama’s Mac Jones, and South Carolina’s Ryan Hilinski are all right there as well.
Seven SEC teams basically have unknowns at quarterback this fall. This is especially true for Vanderbilt, who will be back in just a minute. They had to run to Dollar General unexpectedly to get a QB off the shelf because they just ran out.
Your thoughts
What do y’all think? Where did we get it right? Where are we wrong?
Gotta say that I hope JG and co. can earn that 4 spot. But I’m still wary of the everything, including JG. Even more so since the off-season has been and will continue to be so different than a normal one. Hopefully, JG getting his first ever 2nd straight season with the same OC will make a difference for him. And maybe Bailey is everything he’s been touted as, making a real competition out of it can drive JG too. I’d be ok if Bailey wins it outright, but I think long term it’s almost always better for players to… Read more »
Agreed on all of that. I’m very bullish on the effect of having the same coordinator for the second year in a row for the first time, especially when that guy is Chaney.
I think the quarterback rankings are pretty fair. your site is good I am a Kentucky fan and understand why we are low our QB Terry Wilson (Terry Touchdown) is coming off an injury and we played a WR at QB last year Bowden who won the Paul Hornung Award most versatile player in college football and went 6-2 with losses to Georgia and Tennessee Georgia in a monsoon in Athens and Tennessee at Lexington at the goal line. I think Kentucky can contend with one of best offensive lines in America not sixth ranked on your list. they have… Read more »
Welcome! Thanks for reading and commenting.
I think that’s all fair. Much respect for Stoops and Kentucky. I just think that both they and the Vols are getting better and have closed the gap between them and Florida/Georgia but aren’t quite there yet. And Tennessee’s improving as much as Kentucky, so I’m thinking the gap there remains as well.