Top 10 college football QBs in 2025: Cade Klubnik, Arch Manning battle for No. 1

The college football calendar might be in its down period, but we keep moving along in previewing the 2025 college football season. A couple of weeks ago, I shared my post-spring top 25 rankings. Now, I want to share my top 10 quarterbacks for the upcoming season.

When I did this exercise last year, I actually only ranked the five best quarterbacks in the sport entering the season. This isn't a list of guys who I necessarily think will have the 10 best statistical seasons in 2025. Rather, these are the 10 quarterbacks who I think will have the best seasons between individual performance and leading their teams to a successful season.

So, here are the 10 quarterbacks who I think will have the best seasons in 2025.

10. Carson Beck, Miami (Fla.)

I actually had Beck at No. 1 when I did this list last offseason, and I feel like this ranking is giving him the benefit of the doubt. There are a lot of things that crept up during the 2024 season and now in the offseason that give me a little bit of pause.

In terms of on-field matters, Beck turned the ball over a little too much. Yes, Georgia wasn’t that talented on the outside, and it had more drops than any wide receiver corps in the country. That was clearly a problem and wasn’t necessarily his fault. But he still turned the ball over too much and you can’t expect your team to perform at its highest capabilities when you do that.

Off the field, Beck is returning from the UCL injury he suffered in the SEC Championship Game. We really haven’t seen him throw in the spring and he hasn’t been able to form any rapport with his new team and receivers. He was only cleared to throw recently. I think that injury is a bigger deal than people realize.

Still, I think Beck is a really good player. There’s a reason why I had him as my No. 1 quarterback entering 2024.

9. Luke Altmyer, Illinois

This one might surprise some and there were a few other names I debated putting at No. 9 and 10 (such as Baylor's Sawyer Robertson and Iowa State's Rocco Becht) before settling with Altmyer and Beck. I picked those two to round out my top 10 because of experience. This will be Altmyer’s third season starting. We’ve seen that the quarterbacks who play best in this NIL, transfer portal era are guys with a lot of experience.

Altmyer isn’t the flashiest guy in my top 10. He also doesn’t play in an offense that will allow him to post big-time stats. But he’s on a team that won 10 games last season and Illinois has a schedule that could allow it to reach the College Football Playoff. His touchdown-to-interception ratio a year ago was 22-6. I really like that. He can also run when he needs to.

Sellers took off in the second half of last season and if he can sustain that in 2025, then we’ve got a star on our hands.

Sellers is huge at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, so he’s really tough to bring down. He’s also athletic and can get out on the edge. That was apparent in the Clemson game when Sellers rushed for 160 yards. He still has some room to grow as a passer, but I’m going to bet on the potential and I think he can be an All-SEC guy.

Similar to Sellers, Lagway also took off late last season. I think SEC fans are going to be a bit nervous about their teams facing Lagway. He’s a star and could be a superstar by the end of the year. He came in at halftime of that Tennessee game and nearly pulled off the upset. I know Volunteers fans don’t like the matchup against the Gators as much this year compared to recent years because of Lagway. That’s how good Lagway already is.

After departing the Georgia game early due to injury and missing the Texas game, Lagway returned and helped Florida win its final four games. Those wins included victories over LSU and Ole Miss, outplaying Jaxson Dart in the latter. He still had some interceptions, turnovers and completed just 60% of his passes, so he’s got to clean that up. But you can expect some of those mistakes from a freshman.

6. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU

Nussmeier might not be the most athletic guy out there, but he’s huge and threw for over 4,000 yards last year. He’s an absolute gunslinger - good and bad, he can take some chances - but he’s going to put up numbers and I think LSU will be a really good team this season. In fact, I think this should be Brian Kelly’s best LSU team yet, partly because of Nussmeier.

Like a few other quarterbacks on this list, Nussmeier needs to cut down on the turnovers. He had 15 last season. He’s a traditional pocket passer who won’t bail you out with his legs, so minimizing turnovers is a must. Those players aren’t the erasers that athletic quarterbacks are.

LSU really improved its wide receiver corps, potentially allowing Nussmeier to improve his turnover problem. He should be really terrific, though, in 2025.

5. Drew Allar, Penn State

I tried to pace myself with this ranking because I’m also really high on Penn State, who I ranked No. 1 in my post-spring top 25. I've loved Allar since I watched him warm up for his first game as a true freshman in 2022, but he's got to take the next step in 2025.

I've seen the growth with Allar to this point. He played some excellent football in 2024. Some might point at the stats and disagree. However, when you look at how he played the position, his accuracy, decision-making, development and much more, he showed some good stuff. There's no doubt there are things he can get better at, but his wide receivers were below average. That isn't unreasonable shade. That group of players didn't record a reception in a CFP game last season.

Allar has gotten a bad rap, even from some Penn State fans. But he's got incredible skill levels and has shown the ability to run, even if he might not use his legs to tear up opposing defenses. He took a step forward with offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki last season and was better at pushing the ball down the field.

The next step for Allar, and his team, is that he has to beat a program that Penn State is either equal to or lesser than from a talent standpoint. I think Allar can play higher than this ranking and I wouldn't be shocked if his name entered the Heisman conversation at some point next season.

Leavitt had a great 2024 season and could have a tremendous year in 2025. The Sun Devils have to find a way, though, to make up for the loss of running back Cam Skattebo. He was so important to them just from a numbers standpoint.

Leavitt will get wide receiver Jordyn Tyson back, at least. As some other quarterbacks on this list have questions at receiver or lost their top target from last season, Leavitt will continue to throw balls to a guy who had 1,101 receiving yards last season. Leavitt is also a threat to make plays with his legs, rushing for 60 yards in the CFP loss to Texas this past season.

This offense under third-year coach Kenny Dillingham should put up points and have a chance to repeat as Big 12 champs. It'll be difficult due to the depth of the league, but Leavitt should help give them a chance.

3. John Mateer, Oklahoma

Based on what I've seen from other quarterback rankings, I'm very high on the Washington State transfer compared to others. When I prepared to call the Holiday Bowl between Washington State and Syracuse, I came away so impressed with Mateer after watching every single one of his plays on film. He's really talented as a thrower and athletic. He quietly put up one of the best seasons for a quarterback in the nation last year as he was the only player to average at least 250 passing yards and 50 rushing yards. If you took out sack yardage, Mateer would've had over 1,000 rushing yards.

Now, Mateer will be in the spotlight. There will obviously be a jump in competition for Mateer. However, he followed his Washington State offensive coordinator, Ben Arbuckle, to Norman. So, he won't have to learn a new system like some other quarterbacks who were on the move this offseason.

The No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft, Cam Ward, played at the same level he was at with Washington State when he transferred to Miami. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw something similar with Mateer. Oklahoma and Mateer will have a much tougher schedule than what Miami and Ward had last season, but the new Sooners quarterback will get a chance to show his mettle when they host Michigan in Week 2.

2. Arch Manning, Texas

I've got to rank Manning this high because I believe in him, his coach and the program around him. Yes, I know I'm big on experience, but did you see him play in those two games last year? Steve Sarkisian has always done a strong job of building around the tools he has. He has a big quarterback in Manning, who is 6-4, 225 pounds, can move and has a strong arm.

In fact, I think Manning's got a stronger arm than Quinn Ewers. There was a difference to the offense when Manning was playing last season compared to when Ewers was under center. That's not a knock on Ewers, but Manning made Texas' offense more dynamic. He was able to put more defensive players in conflict than Ewers. Manning can put edge rushers in conflict, which I don't think some people knew he could do because of his athleticism. He can also put safeties in conflict because of his ability to threaten the entire field with his arm and legs.

Manning is going to be really good. It might be a projection and the last name might be causing some bias, but it feels like this is just going to work out. If there were a quarterback with the exact same build and traits, but with a different last name while playing under Sarkisian and that Texas offense, I'd feel just as strong about that player, too.

While Manning doesn't have experience, sitting and learning the last two seasons should be valuable and will allow him to hit the ground running. He reminds me a lot of Trevor Lawrence when you see him get moving with the ball in his hands – we saw that on a couple of TD runs last year. I think that's a very appropriate comparison, and we saw what Lawrence was able to do right away for Clemson.

1. Cade Klubnik, Clemson

I'm a big believer in Clemson for the 2025 season, mainly because I think Klubnik will be the best quarterback in the nation. There were some questions surrounding Klubnik at this time last year, with some of us wondering if he could lead Clemson back to title contention.

But Klubnik began to quell those concerns last season and showed why he was the No. 1-ranked quarterback in his recruiting class. He was able to successfully push the ball down the field more, completing the third-most passes with an air yardage of at least 20 yards. He's really athletic as well.

On top of all of that, Klubnik has some really talented receivers around him and will have offensive coordinator Garrett Riley back. So, it's a perfect storm for him. He fits the prototype of the quarterback likely to have the most success entering 2025. It'll be really difficult for me to pick anyone other than Klubnik as my preseason Heisman favorite. We should expect a great season out of him.

Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast "The Joel Klatt Show." Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube.

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