On Monday, ESPN published a story by David Hale ranking by tier the quarterback situations of all 138 FBS teams in the country heading into the 2026 season.
Hale put each team into one of 25 tiers (26 if you count Ohio State’s Julian Sayin being in a 1b tier by himself). Utah’s Devon Dampier is in Tier 3, BYU’s Bear Bachmeier is in Tier 5 and Utah State’s McCae Hillstead is in Tier 21.
Hale titled Tier 3 “The Sean Clifford Zone” referring to the former Penn State quarterback, and described it thusly: “Sean Clifford won 32 games as Penn State’s starter. He was nearly always somewhere between solid and quite good.
“Against teams that finished the year ranked, however, he was a woeful 4-11. This, of course, was the story for nearly every quarterback under James Franklin at Penn State, but it’s also true for a lot of others and this presents a delicate situation for schools like those Nittany Lions teams. They have legitimate national championship hopes. They have QBs good enough to get them close — but maybe not close enough.”
Of Dampier, Hale wrote, “Dampier faced just three teams that finished better than 7-6 last year. In those three games, he threw two TDs, three INTs and averaged just 5.6 yards per dropback.”
On a more positive note, Hale added, “Three quarterbacks finished last year with 34 or more touchdowns, 3,300 or more yards and six or fewer turnovers: Heisman Trophy winner (Fernando) Mendoza, top transfer target (Brendan) Sorsby and ... Dampier.”
Dampier is joined in Tier 3 by Georgia’s Gunner Stockton, Indiana’s Josh Hoover, Oklahoma’s John Mateer, Penn State’s Rocco Becht and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed behind eight others in higher tiers.
Hale used another former Penn State quarterback to title Tier 5, where he placed Bachmeier, calling it “The Christian Hackenburg Paradox.” Hale described how Hackenburg had a great freshman season but then largely fizzled out after that.
“The point is, true freshmen putting up impressive seasons is a rarity and it often portends greatness,” Hale wrote. “But not always. ... And so Tier 5: Three highly regarded QBs who looked, at times, like elite players as true freshmen in 2025 but whose miscues left at least a little room for concern over their future development.
“At least one — and maybe all three — of these QBs will be a first-round draft pick in 2028. But, it’s also possible there’s a Hackenberg in here, too.”
Of Bachmeier, Hale wrote, “In the past 20 years, just 19 Power 4/Power 5 QBs had 3,000 pass yards, 500 rush yards, 25 TDs and 10 or fewer turnovers in a season. Four won the Heisman. Three were runners-up and six became first-round draft picks. Another is Bachmeier, who did it as a true freshman.”
Bachmeier is in Tier 5 with Cal’s Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and Michigan’s Bryce Underwood (five quarterbacks are in Tier 4 separating Dampier and Bachmeier).
Hale titled Tier 21 “You could do a lot worse” and Hillstead is joined by 14 other quarterbacks.
At the top, Tier 1a consists of Miami’s Darian Mensah, Notre Dame’s CJ Carr, Ole Miss’ Trinidad Chambliss and Texas’ Arch Manning.
