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The 10 Best College QB's

By Paragon SC

CFN's Tuesday Question is a fun one. They have listed the 10 best college QB's, as CFN sees it, of all time.

Here are the criteria

Here's my criteria for putting together a top ten quarterback list. 1) Production. I don't care about what these guys did or didn't do in the NFL. All that matters is what they accomplished in college. 2) Championships. John Elway and Peyton Manning were among the greatest pro prospects of all-time, and you'd take either of them in a heartbeat to play on your college team, but they each won a fat load of jack squat. I know, I know, Manning won one, one SEC title and technically played in a national title game in the 1998 Orange Bowl, but going 0-4 against Florida and not playing in a true title game like we have now knocks him out compared to the others on my list. Elway never played in a bowl. 3) Legendary status. I'll overlook the national title thing if a player is a true legend. You'll see what I mean. A Heisman helps. Georgia's David Greene might be the biggest winner and Hawaii's Timmy Chang might have the best numbers, but they don't exactly get the heart racing.

 The criteria are little bit like some of HP's Heismandments. The trouble is whether or not this is an effective way to rate them. Until the BCS there really wasn't a true NC game so it was tough to see the best match up.

Anyway, there are a number of opinions from different columnists in this piece. And as expected there are a few consensus picks but generally the columnists throw in their own criteria and they go all over the place. From what I am able to get from the article only a few names continuously show up on the lists.

They are:

Tommie Frazier He was at he helm when the Nebraska team of 1995 was nailing down the top spot as possibly the greatest college football team of all time. FWIW it think his style of play was the template of what would come in the years to follow with Michael Vick and Vince Young.

Vince Young His performance in last two Rose Bowls coupled with his stellar 2005 season will set the standard for true running QB's for years to come. His highlights will always be a road map, if you will, to use as a guide to be a successful running QB.

Matt Leinart The true passer. He has shown time and again how a kid with an ok arm can be a successful QB. His play calling on the final drive of the ND game was practically flawless. We will all remember the 4th and 9 to Jarrett.  His gutsy performance in the NC game will always be overshadowed by VY's performance that night. But it will clearly show as time goes on just how good Leinart was.

I think that Tommie Frazier takes the top prize as the best ever.  His body of work is similar to Leinart's in the sense that they both went to the NC game three times only to win 2. But Frazier didn't have the supporting cast that Leinart had in Bush, White and Jarrett.  VY accomplishments are still fresh in our minds and of course are very impressive but his body of work is really over two years and only one NC game, which he won and is perhaps the greatest CFB game of all time. I do agree with one of the commenters on this though, if VY stays another year and UT goes to the NC game he goes to the top of the list without question.

It's good read. There are some interesting opinions and some that just boggle the mind.

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