2020 Recruiting Class Overview: Quarterbacks

With the 2020 college football season on the horizon and incoming freshman already working to carve out a role, it’s important to bring up some names to add to your devy watch list.

Out of the top ten quarterback recruits, these are the players that I’ll be closely watching as they battle for a starting spot in training camp.

Please note that I am not saying you should forget about great recruits in this class like DJ Uiagalelei at Clemson, CJ Stroud at Ohio State, Hudson Card and Ja’Quinden Jackson at Texas, and Luke Doty at South Carolina. The goal here is to give you early eyes at players that have a good chance to produce right away. Getting that advantage over your leaguemates makes for great trading chips.

Additionally, I would try to stay away from the Card and Jackson mess, as Texas is the only team to recruit two top ten quarterbacks in the same class in quite some time. Early reports have Card being a step ahead and Jackson possibly playing different positions at Texas.

Let’s take a look at some players that have a great chance to see the field starting in late August.

Bryce Young, QB Alabama

Young has an instant opportunity to start as a freshman at Alabama. Not only is he the number one dual threat quarterback, but he is the number two overall recruit in the country.

As expected with a dual-threat quarterback, he has the ability to escape pressure and extend plays with his legs. He does not run as often as people might think, but he uses his athleticism to set up passing lanes to get the ball to his receivers.

The most important thing for a quarterback of this age is a high football IQ. It has been noted by 247 sports that he will have no issue understanding and running a college system.

Throughout his time as a four year starter, he amassed over 13,000 yards, 152 touchdowns and just 21 interceptions. In his last year alone, he had a crazy four-and-a-half touchdowns per game while boasting a 56-to-6 (9.3) touchdown to interception ratio. Add in his mobility of over 1,000 rushing yards in high school, and you are left with an incredible athlete that will do anything to win.

Jay Butterfield, QB Oregon

Butterfield has a chance to start instantly as he tries to fill the gap left by Justin Herbert.

He will be competing against Tyler Shough who was the number seven pro-style quarterback recruit last year. The most impressive trait with this player is his ability to make every throw on the field. Not only can he throw the go routes and deep posts, but he can also make all the throws outside the numbers without it changing his mechanics.

His high football IQ gives him good pocket awareness as well as great anticipation of the breaks of his receivers. Oregon is in for a QB battle in training camp between Butterfield and Shough. Throughout his two-and-a-half years as a starter, Butterfield has thrown for over 7,000 yards with just under 60% completion percentage.

Harrison Bailey, QB Tennessee

Looking at the Tennessee offense, there are two ways they could go: continue with the safe passing game from Jarrett Guarantano while focusing on the run game, or turn the keys of the offense over to Bailey and see what the offense looks like with a true passing attack.

Bailey is a very polished passer and never changes his mechanics under pressure. He has a great ability to drive the ball deep down the field, which is something that Tennessee is missing today.

The biggest knock on him is that he needs to improve his footwork and mobility in the pocket in order to keep plays alive. Overall, he has the chance to open up the offense using play action while driving the ball deep.

This switch could be a huge improvement for the Volunteers. He didn’t fully start every game until his senior year, but when the time came, he burst onto the scene with over 4500 yards, a 69.8% completion percentage, and 50 touchdowns. He is the one guy on this list that is the easiest to overshadow and not think about as a devy asset, but he will be one player that will take huge steps forward in the Tennessee program.

Ethan Garbers, QB Washington

Garbers is in a very interesting spot with Jacob Eason entering the NFL draft. There have been rumors of KJ Costello transferring to Washington, which shows that the coaching staff is not happy with their current quarterback room. If Costello does not transfer to the Huskies, Garbers is in a great spot to start.

Author’s update: Costello recently decided to transfer to Mississippi State, so the door is open for Garbers to compete for the starting role. Thank you to @mastapj for bringing this to my attention.

He stands at 6’3” and has the prototypical size you look for in a quarterback. As a two-year starter in high school, he threw for over 9,000 yards and 128 touchdowns. Throughout his 947 passes, he only had 15 interceptions. He is very much a pro-style pocket passer, but he was able to show his legs his senior year with over 550 rushing yards.

He has the speed to be able to get out of the pocket and pick up first downs if he needs to. He would prefer to hang in the pocket and sling the rock, but he is very able. The one issue with him running a bit more in high school is that he fumbled nine times his senior year. This is one of the issues he will have to fix to be named the starter for the Washington Huskies as a freshman.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments – I will gladly answer them. If you want to hear more from me, head over to Twitter and follow me at @Devy_Kane.