Greg Ostendorf makes the case that there never were that many, that there aren’t really any right now and that the future doesn’t exactly look promising, either.
Some of his argument boils down to semantics. If you want to define elite as quarterbacks who go on to a solid NFL career, then, yeah, you’ve got a pretty short list over the last decade.
But look back at the 2012 national leaders in passer rating. There were three SEC quarterbacks in the top ten, which strikes me as a pretty good showing. Aaron Murray set and still holds all kinds of conference records, AJ McCarron has himself back-to-back national titles and Connor Shaw was easily the best South Carolina quarterback of the Spurrier era. None of that is too shabby.
But I’ll be the first one to admit we’re a long way from 2012 this season, and, perhaps, for the next couple of seasons. Why? Well, Ostendorf speculates it’s for several reasons, some of which I find more convincing than others. You can read his points and decide for yourself.
One thing worth noting is that if he’s right about this…
The conference’s best hope might be in the form of two freshmen – Eason at Georgia and Shea Patterson at Ole Miss. Both were highly sought after coming out of high school, and both have shown abilities that could translate to the NFL. It’s still way too early to say for sure, but there’s potential there. And maybe that means there’s potential for the SEC.
… Georgia may have a little advantage for itself in a year or two. Maybe.