Backup Quarterbacks Could Be in the Spotlight for College Football Playoff

Penn State’s Beau Pribula entered the transfer portal and won’t participate in the playoff, while Georgia’s Gunner Stockton is likely to take the reins for the Bulldogs.

Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula announced he will enter the portal and forgo the Nittany Lions’ playoff schedule. / Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

Contrary to the widely held football belief, the most popular player on a team is not the backup quarterback. Nor is it necessarily a sign that you don’t have a signal-caller if you end up playing a pair of them with any regularity.

Such adages about the most important position on the field are far more applicable during the regular season, however, especially in the early days of fall camp when there is no starter named and coaches are desperately trying to keep their depth chart intact. 

In contrast, with the arrival of the College Football Playoff this week, backups are in vogue. 

They’re everywhere. They’re impactful. They’re interesting. They may well determine who wins the national title this season as much as they could also decide who will slip up on a golden opportunity to win the golden trophy.

It would all be a novel concept if it wasn’t college football doing what it does best and making a nodding reference to its past. 

Just a decade ago, the biggest story line surrounding the inaugural playoff was the inclusion of the Ohio State Buckeyes—who had just lost starting quarterback J.T. Barrett in the fourth quarter of the regular-season finale—over the TCU Horned Frogs and Baylor Bears. The Big 12 programs each had a good case to get in as the first four-seed, but were controversially dropped in the final set of rankings from the selection committee.

The committee wound up vindicated as backup Cardale Jones, originally the team’s preseason third-stringer behind Barrett and Braxton Miller, led the Buckeyes to the national title. It was a fairy-tale story even Hollywood scriptwriters would have rejected. Jones’s legendary run included an MVP performance in thumping the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big Ten title game to make the field. Then, he helped slay the dynastic Alabama Crimson Tide in the Sugar Bowl, and capped it off with a blowout of the Oregon Ducks in the championship game.

Now, it may be the Buckeyes who don’t wish that bit of history to repeat itself. That’s not just because Will Howard is the team’s established starter—despite his struggles in the disappointing loss to the Michigan Wolverines last month—but because his primary backup, Devin Brown, is already in the transfer portal despite opting to remain in Columbus until the team’s playoff run has wrapped.

Brown’s decision to stick around and take reps just in case Howard goes down Saturday night against the Tennessee Volunteers (or beyond) goes against the grain.

Last year, Texas Longhorns backup Maalik Murphy left his team before their playoff run was underway. It underscored the current football calendar’s conflicts with players taking advantage of far more lax restrictions around their freedom of movement. 

That point was hammered home again Sunday as Penn State Nittany Lions backup Beau Pribula specifically called out the “impossible decision” to enter the portal that was a direct result of the overlapping playoff schedule and the need to “depart from the team to explore opportunities elsewhere.”

pic.twitter.com/3BYi7jtG2m

— Beau Pribula (@beauprib) December 16, 2024

It’s a Catch-22 situation that impacts both the player and team. Penn State has the fifth-best odds to win the national title, according to FanDuel, and maybe the most favorable path to make the championship game.  

Pribula was a key part of the team’s run this season, using his dual-threat abilities to serve as a change of pace to starter Drew Allar and provide significant expertise in coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s offense. The redshirt sophomore accounted for nine total touchdowns and notably helped lead the team to a win over Wisconsin when Allar exited at halftime with an injury.

Pribula’s departure means certain packages PSU uses offensively will have to be chucked out of the game plan for its first-round game against the SMU Mustangs on Saturday. More concerning if you’re Kotelnicki or head coach James Franklin is the loss of a safety net with true freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer likely tabbed as the backup despite not seeing any action this season. 

The Nittany Lions are far from the only ones dealing with such issues. 

Georgia Bulldogs veteran quarterback Carson Beck suffered an injury to his throwing arm on the final play of the first half of the SEC championship game, and his status for the CFP remains murky (at best). The school issued a statement last week saying he and his family were weighing treatment options for his elbow and there was no timetable on his return.

The Bulldogs get the added benefit of a bye from the first round and won’t play until the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. All signs are still pointing toward backup Gunner Stockton reprising his role against Texas where he completed 75% of his passes and used his legs effectively to spark a second-half comeback victory.

“The players believe in him. They love Gunner. The juice that he brought, the passionate energy … it was like it gave us an added boost of energy,” coach Kirby Smart said after the SEC title game. “I thought the offensive staff did a good job helping Gunner out with the way they called the game, and he did a good job executing.”

Stockton seems likely to start for Georgia in the playoff. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

Perhaps the prospect of having a backup quarterback thrust into the starting role in the SEC championship game and subsequently having to lead a playoff run is a tad less daunting for Smart considering he won two national titles with Stetson Bennett at quarterback—a former walk-on who started that run in 2021 as the backup to JT Daniels.

Even in this season’s playoff, it doesn’t make Georgia special should it need to rely on their second-stringer for some key snaps either. 

One of the fourth-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils’ losses this season came in the absence of starter Sam Leavitt, with well-traveled backup QB Jeff Sims seeing action in three other games. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s Riley Leonard injured his labrum when the team was upset by the Northern Illinois Huskies. His hard-nosed running style (124 attempts, 14 rushing touchdowns) makes backup Steve Angeli always on call.

Down the road in Bloomington, Ind., the Indiana Hoosiers may benefit from perhaps the most trusted backup in redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson. He won his only start this season in place of Kurtis Rourke and has seen action in 13 games the past two seasons. 

At SMU, the Mustangs also have an experienced backup, should the need arise, in original starter Preston Stone. Stone is already in the transfer portal, but will make the trip to Happy Valley just in case anything happens to Kevin Jennings.

The most unusual quarterback room in the country—and most interesting situation for the title chase—is in Austin. Starter Quinn Ewers is set to play his last home game, but it will be interesting if the Longhorns struggle offensively, like they have for much of the last two months of the season, against the Clemson Tigers

Ewers failed to crack 200 passing yards in sloppy, lackluster wins over the Arkansas Razorbacks and Kentucky Wildcats and largely took a back seat to the running game to beat the rival Texas A&M Aggies. He threw for 358 yards against Georgia in the recent overtime loss, but never was able to deliver a knockout blow in a winnable game, struggling in the red zone before tossing one of his two costly interceptions in the fourth quarter. 

It doesn’t help alleviate any pressure that Arch Manning is waiting in the wings, the lone backup who does not lack for name recognition. 

Manning has seen playing time this season behind Ewers. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Despite Ewers suffering an oblique injury earlier this season and managing an ankle sprain for the past six weeks, coach Steve Sarkisian has insisted Ewers is the best option under center. Fully healthy or not, it’ll largely be on him whether Texas is capable of challenging for a championship or exiting earlier than expected. 

Will Sarkisian opt to go to Manning if the Tigers are winning and the pressure is mounting? He benched Ewers in the first meeting against Georgia late in the first half and then utilized Manning’s legs to throw off Texas A&M’s defense.

If Sarkisian needs any inspiration for how things could work, he should look at how the Florida Gators successfully interchanged a pocket passer (Chris Leak) with a phenom backup in Tim Tebow on their way to the 2006 title.

Winning a national championship with a backup quarterback leading the way has been done before. It’s not that crazy to think it could happen again this year, for anyone in the College Football Playoff.