Fresno State Football: Ranking 2023’s Opposing Quarterbacks
The defending Mountain West champions will have to contend with a number of talented quarterbacks to tally another ten-win season.
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A good Bulldogs secondary will be tested this fall.
12. Kent State — Jaren Lewis, Tommy Ulatowski, or Devin Kargman
The Golden Flashes were gutted by the transfer portal this off-season, an exodus that included Collin Schlee’s departure for UCLA. It’s a significant loss since he completed 59% of his 266 pass attempts a year ago with 13 touchdowns and a 1.8% interception rate, but Ulatowski and Kargman both played sparingly in 2022, combining for 81 attempts.
Purdue transfer Michael Alaimo could also factor in here, but it remains a big mystery in an offense suddenly chock full of them.
11. Eastern Washington — Kekoa Visperas
The Eagles fell on hard times in 2022, suffering their first losing campaign in 16 years, but you can’t put too much blame on a passing offense that remained pretty good, if not as prolific as it had been. Last year’s starter, Gunner Talkington, tossed 22 touchdowns with a 2.3% interception rate, while Visperas completed 65.9% of his throws with three touchdowns and one INT in five games as a backup.
The job seems likely to fall to Visperas now, so the task of boosting an attack that averaged a respectable 7.1 yards per attempt but managed only 253.6 yards per game is going to be at the top of his to-do list.
10. Wyoming — Andrew Peasley
For a brief moment late last September, it looked like the Cowboys passing game had turned a corner: Peasley completed at least 60% of his throws in three straight games, culminating in the team’s home upset of Air Force, but he got banged up struggled badly the rest of the way, reaching 60% just once in his last eight games.
Peasley also had what was arguably his worst performance of 2022 against Fresno State, in particular, completing 12-of-29 passes for 104 yards and two interceptions in the season finale.
9. Nevada — Shane Illingworth or Brendon Lewis
The Wolf Pack never really figured out their quarterback situation last year, which explains why Illingworth went 13-30-123-0-0 in a 38-point November loss to Boise State and Nate Cox took over to go 16-38-243-2-2 in a 27-point loss to Fresno State the following week. The former is back for another round and might have been a little better than the surface numbers would suggest — Pro Football Focus tabbed him with a 71.2% adjusted completion rate that was fifth in the Mountain West because he was saddled with a 9.6% drop rate which was fourth — but he’ll have to win another competition against Lewis, the former starter at Colorado.
8. Utah State — Cooper Legas
Legas has moxie and the ability to extend a play, but his first extended audition as the Aggies’ starter had some holes in it. After taking over for an injured Logan Bonner, he completed 61.1% of his passes and threw 11 touchdowns, but he also finished 2022 with a 4.5% interception rate that was far too high.
7. San Diego State — Jalen Mayden
It took Mayden little more than a half-season to cement himself as the Aztecs’ quarterback of the present and near future, finishing last season with a Mountain West-best 8.6 yards per attempt. Avoiding turnovers will be crucial to taking the next developmental step, though, because he threw at least one interception in each of his last six starts (a streak that, coincidentally, began in a loss to Fresno State).
6. Arizona State — Trenton Bourguet, Drew Pyne, or Jaden Rashada
This trio is an educated guess at the likeliest QB1 candidates at the roster, but as many as five players could be in the mix to replace Emory Jones in the first year of the Kenny Dillingham era. Bourguet started five games for the Sun Devils last year, completing 71.1% of his throws, while Pyne started ten games at Notre Dame last year and Rashada signed with Arizona State after a prolonged NIL ordeal with Miami (FL).
