Is it just me, or are there an incredible number of exciting quarterbacks in Division I-A this year? It almost seems like every team has one now. If you wanted to honor all of the good ones, you'd have to pick a fourth and fifth and tenth and eleventh team all-America.
Take the Pac-10, a conference that was considered to be the quarterback conference last year, when Ryan Leaf headed Washington State and Chad Hutchinson was at Stanford. Those QBs are gone now (one to pro football, the other to pro baseball), but the conference is still loaded. There's Cade McNown of UCLA and Brock Huard at Washington (who looked like the man last week), either one of whom could fit in on the first or second team all America. Then there's Akili Smith, the Oregon quarterback who shredded Michigan State last week, and ASU phenom Ryan Kealy, who looked awfully qood in the 42-38 loss to Washington last week. Ortege Jenkins is just one of the two great quarterbacks lurking at Arizona; Keith Smith was 17 of 22 for 218 yards against Hawaii. And when you get tired of them, here comes Southern Cal with freshman sensation Carson Palmer. As good as he looked against Purdue in the opener, I'm waiting for Beano Cook to precict him as the next 3 time Heisman winner.
But there really isn't a quarterback conference, it's a quarterback nation. You've even got tremendous talents on terrible teams. There's Chad Pennington at Marshall, who has broken several team records and was a big part of Randy Moss's records there. Look at Tim Rattay at Lousiana Tech. By the time his Bulldogs are 0-3, he'll have 1500 yards passing (I'm not using hyperbole here, he will). Then there's Daunte Culpepper at Central Florida. His team lit up Rattay's team for 60 last week, with Culpepper doing it every way possible. Graham Leigh at New Mexico already has his first 200 yard performance of the season; if he can continue to play the kind of gritty, clutch football he showcased at last year's WAC championship, his mediocre Lobos could win a surprising number of games. And then there's Tim Couch. Kentucky will be lucky to win 6 games this year, but Couch has already been mentioned as the "early Heisman frontrunner".
(Which brings me to one of my famous asides. I heard that expression bandied about due to Couch's fantastic opening game performance, a 400+ yard effort at the expense of Lousiville. But it seems like every Heisman-potential player steeped up and hit a home run in the opener; there was Donovan McNabb of Syracuse throwing for 300 against Tennessee, Ricky Williams scoring 6 TDs in his opener, Michael Bishop's Wildcats winning 66-0, Tim Rattay lighting up Nebraska and UCF, Joe Germaine, Andy Katzenmoyer, and David Boston all tying one of West Virginia, Brock Huard pulling off an upset at Arizona State, and Troy Edwards setting an NCAA record for receiving yards against the defending national champions. Only a sportscaster could be dumb enough to utter the words "early Heisman frontrunner" against that backdrop.)
Then you've got Michael Bishop at Kansas State and Donovan McNabb at Syracuse, two veterans who, like Dante Culpepper, can hurt you both running and passing. Neither one is prone to making mistakes, and both can single handedly win a game for you. Herb Tyler at Louisiana State, while not as steady as those other guys, is another exciting player that can run and pass and, with LSU's backfield, could have a lot of success this year. Anthony Wright, a similar kind of player, may finally avoid injuries and live up to his billing at South Carolina.
Don't forget about Joe Germaine at Ohio State. Here's a guy that won the Rose Bowl for the Buckeyes in his freshman season, and has continued to play great off the bench. Now John Cooper has finally handed the reins to him, and Germaine has a great team to work with.
What about the new guys? Tee Martin at Tennessee, Jarious Jackson at Notre Dame, and Bobby Newcombe at Nebraska all look like exciting players, and none of them have lost yet. Tee Martin in particular made some great plays in the Vols opener in a close game, under pressure, at one of the tougher stadiums to play in (Syracuse's Carrier Dome). Quincy Carter at Georgia has the early lead in passing efficiency. Jesse Palmer had a 300 yard game in 2.5 quarters of work in Florida's opener, and while looking unsteady at times, the Seminoles' Chris Weinke (pronounced, I think, wanky-- let's agree to call him that--) put up some impressive numbers against a good Texas A&M team.
Aaron Brooks at Virginia, Oscar Davenport at North Carolina, record setting Joe Hamilton at Georgia Tech, Marc Bulger at West Virginia, the gutsy and amazing Corby Jones at Missouri; I mean, where are these guys coming from? It truly is a Quarterback Nation.