Big 12 quarterback power rankings: Where does Arizona's Noah Fifita fall in the hierarchy?

In a rough spot:

These guys all leave a lot to be desired for their respective programs, but they're apparently the best options right now. Aside from Oklahoma State's Alan Bowman, who has a great surrounding cast, none of these signal callers will be leading their teams to Big 12 Championships — and likely not even a winning season.

Bowman was extremely productive and had a career-year in 2023 with just short of 3,500 passing yards. However, he's entering Year 7 in the college ranks and has only thrown for 15 or more touchdowns twice: last year and his freshman season with Texas Tech in 2018.

There's no guarantee that Bowman won't be a one-year-wonder for the Cowboys. Rolling him out as the starter would be sapping valuable reps with a championship-caliber team from incoming freshman Maealiuaki Smith or any other passer who will be in Stillwater past the 2024 season.

Cincinnati's quarterback room was atrocious in the Bearcats' first season at the power conference-level. Desmond Ridder's departure following the 2022 season left Emory Jones as Cincinnati's signal-caller, but it wasn't great. He would have improved in a second year with the Bearcats, but he took his talents to the NFL and former Indiana starter Brendan Sorsby is the next man up.

In his first season as a starter, Sorsby looked relatively pedestrian. He didn't even complete 60% of his passes, and he still has a lot of room to improve. He does have rushing upside but is far from a complete prospect, and he alone won't be enough to lift Cincinnati out of the rut it was in last season.

ASU's quarterback situation got worse as the offseason went on. Though the Sun Devils finally rolled out highly-touted prospect Jaden Rashada late last season, the weight of a team at the worst of a rebuild was too much for the young gun to take on all alone. Now, he's out in Athens with Georgia while ASU will have to choose between two incoming transfers and an underwhelming veteran.

Incoming Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt seems most likely to take up the starting job. The former four-star prospect has youth that Nebraska transfer Jeff Sims doesn't and the recruiting pedigree that 2023 starter Trenton Bouguet doesn't. However, with only four games played out in East Lansing, the jury is still out on Leavitt.

Whether the Cougars roll out Retzlaff for his first season as a starter or incoming veteran transfer Gerry Bohanon remains to be seen. Either way, it doesn't seem like it'll end in a Big 12 title for the Cougars. Bohanon is entering his seventh season of college ball and may not have much left in the tank — besides, his resume isn't the most impressive anyway.

This leaves former JuCo star Retzlaff as the presumed starter for the Cougars in 2024. As a junior in his first season of Division I football last year, he appeared in four games and lost them all while never throwing for more than 210 yards in a game. He still has a lot of developing to do, and BYU likely won't be in a good spot for quarterbacks for a few years.

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