With Oregon and Ohio State getting set to do battle on Monday night. Thoughts of next year have already gone through fans minds and my mind. The Pac-12 is losing some pretty good quarterback talent. Sean Mannion, the all-time Pac-12 passing leader is gone, Brett Hundley is leaving UCLA early, Marcus Mariota is probably leaving Oregon after his Heisman Trophy season. He may also leave with a National Championship ring as well. That is a lot of talent leaving the conference, but if you look around the Pac-12, there is plenty of talent returning.
First of all, lets look down in the desert. At Arizona State, the Sun Devils will have Mike Bercovici at quarterback. He will be a senior and comes with experience. That experience he received came in 2014 because the Sun Devil starter, Taylor Kelly, went down with an injury. Bercovici came in and the offense didn't really miss a beat. Even in a humiliating loss to UCLA Bercovici came in a threw for 488 yards. Being in attendance at that game I did come away impressed with his skills. He's a more complete quarterback than Taylor Kelly. His footwork is better, better arm strength, and his football IQ is high. He will be the unquestioned leader of the team coming into next year. With Berco coming back along with DJ Foster and other leaders, ASU will be a force to reckon with in the Pac-12 South and for the whole conference.
Heading down the highway to Tucson, Wildcat fans have a lot to be happy with. They have some great young talent on the offensive side of the ball, and one of those talents is their quarterback Anu Solomon. Coming into 2014, the Wildcats didn't know who was going to be their quarterback. Through spring and summer ball, Coach Rodriguez settled on Solomon. He did not disappoint at all. He guided the Cats to the Pac-12 South title. He was very good in a win at Oregon which was probably the signature win for the program this year. He had a Hail Mary pass against California that secured another win, and finally he overcame some rough play in the Territorial Cup to lead the team to a win over their hated rival Arizona State. He was a red shirt freshman this year and that came with some growing pains. Anybody that watched the ASU game, Pac-12 Championship, and the Fiesta Bowl will tell you that he struggled. The last play in the Fiesta Bowl will tell all you need about having a young quarterback. Solomon needed to throw the ball away if the play wasn't there, he took a sack, and without any timeouts that was the ballgame for the Wildcats. I am confident that he will take all he learned from 2014 and get better in 2015. Things are looking up for Arizona.
Heading west on I-10 you come to the University of Southern California. The Trojans will have all of their scholarships available to them and now they will have their quarterback as well. This is a quarterback that threw for 3,800 yards, had a completion percentage just under 70%, and had a quarterback rating of 169. Those are stats that will make any USC fan happy and make Head Coach Steve Sarkisian smile from ear to ear. Kessler is not your spread type of quarterback, he is mobile, but he is not a Marcus Mariota running He's more pro-style than spread. He's got good footwork, good arm, and he can read defenses. He's not the biggest of quarterbacks standing 6'1", 210 pounds, so with him, timing with his receivers is critical. Another year with Coach Sarkisian will further hone his quarterbacking skills.
Let's head north to Washington State. Out in Pullman, Washington Head Coach Mike Leach has a freshman quarterback that provided hope for the future when Connor Halliday went down with a season ending injury. He came in and threw for 471 yards against Oregon State and got a one of the few wins for the Cougars this year. He's big, 6'4", 208 pounds. So he is a little slight in terms of weight, but being a freshman he certainly has time to put that weight on. With the offense that Leach has Falk will put up the numbers, the question I have is will he have the weapons to have sustained success. Seeing this guy in action as well this past year, Falk has all the tangible things you want. He has size, arm strength, he can move around. Leach will get him more focused on reading the defense, progressions, etc. The only thing Falk lacked this past year was experience. He became the starter the last four games of the year. Once this young quarterback gets some more experience under his belt, he will be a force in the Pac-12 North division.
Lastly, down in the Bay area, we have California who will be returning their two quarterbacks in Jared Goff and Luke Rubenzer. It's a two headed monster. Goff is the more polished quarterback who has size, arm strength, and is your more pro-style type of quarterback. On the other hand, you have Luke Rubenzer who is the spread offense type of quarterback. Head Coach Sonny Dykes uses this two quarterback system to keep the other team off balance and force their opponent to game plan for the two quarterback threat. Goff is the quarterback that I would tend to go with. Goff has the threat of throwing the ball deep down field, Rubenzer, who was a true freshman is not there just yet. Luke comes in to run the spread and give the opponent a different look. Going into 2015, Coach Dykes will have to decide between the two quarterbacks and go with one. I'm not a big fan of the two quarterback offense and for California to take that "next step" they need one leader in the huddle. Not two.
Contrary to public rumor, Kevin Hogan should return to help the Cardinal get back to what college football fans have been accustomed to. A hard, smash mouth, play action team that wins. Hogan is a leader who has done quite a bit for Stanford. He's won a Pac-12 championship, won a Rose Bowl, and has been a thorn in sides of the Ducks. I see him coming back because why would he go somewhere else and try to learn a whole different offense? Why would he try and get used to a different coaching staff? I don't see that happening. He comes back and will lead a young Stanford team to better things in 2015.
All in all, the Pac-12 will have plenty of quarterback talent to watch and the conference will continue to rival any Power 5 conference with their quarterback play.
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