If I hear on radio, podcast, or TV another NFL draft "analyst" mention in his mock draft position of Justin Fields based on Ohio State QBs' success, or lack thereof, in the NFL, I may crash my car, destroy my iPhone, or throw a brick at my TV.  Only one word describes such "analysis," and it's not analysis.  It's laziness.  

Now, we all know that Buckeye fans do live in a glass house when it comes to OSU QBs playing in the NFL, but not many of us, if any, have ever described our Buckeye football program as QBU.  Especially, when it comes to Buckeye QBs in the NFL.  The other day I even heard an alleged "analyst" on a NY Jets SB Nation blog, "Gang Green Nation," bring this up.  He then proceeded to talk about Steve Young being a Hall of Famer, BYU once being called "QBU," and his comp for Justin Fields was some Rutgers QB from the mid-1990s who I guess started some games for the Jets.  When he brought up Robbie (no NFL games, no NFL stats) Bosco, I had heard enough and turned off the podcast eight painful, wasted minutes into that 30 minutes of nonsense.  But this drove me to compare Ohio State QBs in the NFL to other college programs who never get the same treatment only, as far as I can tell, because one, maybe two of their QBs were good to Hall of Fame prior to the 20th Century. 

I only compared Ohio State to Alabama, USC ("QBU"), and BYU (used to be "QBU"?).  Looked at career games started and rating and noted some other interesting tidbits.  I only ranked those QBs that started at least 10 games in the NFL.  I looked only since 1970, as that's around the time the southern teams finally started to racially integrate their rosters, but I went back to Joe Namath for Alabama.  Why?  Well, you'll see that I had to if I wanted to get a top 3 for Alabama.  

Suffice to say, it ain't a pretty history for Ohio State, but it ain't much prettier for the other three schools.  I wanted to do this for Florida, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, ND, but that would take up too much of my day.  Let's get the ugliness out of the way first.

OHIO STATE - TOP 3 PRO QBs

STARTS:  (1) Mike Tomczak (73), (2) Kent Graham (38), (T3) Dwayne Haskins (13) and Bobby Hoying (13)

RATING:  (1) Dwayne Haskins (74.4), (2) Terrell Pryor (69.3), (3) Kent Graham (69.0)

BYU - TOP 3 PRO QBs

(1) Steve Young (starts 143; rating 96.8)

(2) Jim McMahon (starts 97; rating 78.2)

(3) Marc Wilson (60 starts) or Ty Detmer (74.7 rating)

I really wanted to get Virgil Carter in there (30 career starts (more than Detmer) and 69.9 rating).  Since Steve Young threw his last pass in 1999 (or maybe since Ty Detmer as a back-up in early 2000s), only two BYU QBs threw an NFL pass (Mike Hall played one year and started 3 games for Arizona in 2010 and John Beck finished his glorious 0-7 career with the Washington Redskins in 2011).  

ALABAMA - TOP 3 PRO QBs

(1)  Ken Stabler (starts 146; rating 75.3)

(2)  Joe Namath (starts 129; rating 65.5)

(3)  Richard Todd (starts 108; rating 67.6)

I think you could put Richard Todd ahead of Joe Willie.  Since Richard Todd in the early 1980s, only one Alabama QB has started at least 10 games in the NFL, Jeff Rutledge (who started exactly 10 games in a 14 year NFL career).  If I was strict about post-1970, then Rutledge is Alabama's third best NFL QB.  Since Rutledge, Alabama QBs have started exactly 14 NFL games (Tua 9, AJ McCarron 4, and Greg McElroy 1).  Did anyone hear about this history prior to Miami taking Tua 5th overall in 2020?  

And now for QBU

USC - TOP 3 PRO QBs

(1)  Carson Palmer (starts 181; rating 87.9)

Tie for second and third between these NFL greats:

Rodney Peete (87 starts; rating 73.3)

Matt Cassel (81 starts; rating 78.5)

Rob Johnson (29 starts; rating 83.6)

Cody Kessler (12 starts; rating 83.7)

Mark Sanchez (73 starts; rating 73.2)

Since 2000, outside of Carson Palmer, these USC greats have graced the sidelines of the NFL (and I didn't hear anything about this recent USC history when Sam Darnold was selected third overall in 2018):  John David Booty, Matt Barkley, Cody Kessler, Matt Leinart, Mark Sanchez, Matt Cassel, Rodney Peete (career ended in 2004, started in 1989), and of course now Sam Darnold.  And there won't be any mention of it in 2022 when Kedon Slovis is being pumped as a first rounder out of QBU.