Where Arch Manning, Dante Moore and CJ Carr Rank Among Top 10 Returning Starters for 2026

Welcome back to the Cover 3 Podcast with your hosts Chip Patterson, Tom Fernelli, Danny Cannell, and Bud Elliott. It's your call for the best college football coverage from National Signing Day to the National Championship and everything in between. CBS Sports presents the Cover 3 Podcast. And welcome back to the Cover 3 Podcast here on CBS Sports. That's Tom Frunelli. That's Danny Cannell. I'm Chip Patterson. Coming to you live at YouTube.com slash Cover 3. And everywhere we get your podcasts on demand, thanks for hanging out. Smash that subscribe. Smash that like and come and join us in the chat, a.k.a. the Cover 3 tailgate, where the debates are already rocking and rolling. Yes, we got a little philosophical, a little introspective on Monday. Super League fan fiction, big heady stuff. Get that out of the way. Back to ball talk, gentlemen. We are just going to be ranking quarterbacks, specifically returning quarterbacks for the 2026 season. It is the beginning of us really getting the conversation started for what we are going to expect on the field in the upcoming season. So tailgate's already running through its top fives, its top tens, players who have to be on there, players who don't deserve to be on there. So we love to see that. The three of us all have our top tens, but we will be debating and discussing sort of the entire quarterback picture as well coming up in just a little bit. Speaking of quarterbacks returning, Chandler Morris is going to try to. Okay? So after we've seen the success of Trinidad Chambliss in Mississippi, we have seen the legal failures or at least the inability to get a favorable ruling in the state of Tennessee for Joey Aguilar. Chandler Morris is heading to court in the state of Virginia seeking a seventh year of eligibility. Now I realize this is going to be a little bit disrespectful to Chandler, Chad, Paula, McKenzie, the whole Morris family, but we need to just cut to it as college football fans between go get them on one side and get a job. Danny, where are you on the Chandler Morris when we put them on the scale here? Get a job. Uh, 35 starts in college football. six years um multiple power conference schools yeah like i just don't feel that bad about this one um if i was him i'd probably try it why not because you can make a lot more money playing and i do wonder if his attorneys are charging a fee like do you give one of those where you only have to pay us if you win like one of those because i hope he's not wasting his money i don't think he has a great chance. I do think, you know, the mental health angle is probably one I would try to push for too. I'll be curious to see if there's any documentation of, because that's one of the main things he's going for at his time at TCU when he did lose the starting job saying that, you know, that really, you know, hurt him a lot, but I don't think he has a great chance. And I, I keep going back to somebody's got to be the bad guy. And actually like over the course of history the ncaa has gotten crushed actually this is one where i'm okay with them being the bad guy saying you know what you've had your chance it's time to move on because i do think this hurts this is one of those ones where we don't talk about the angle enough about high school players younger players waiting their opportunity you would be taking a spot from one of those so i am totally okay if chandler morris gets rejected yeah i'm actively rooting for him to get rejected and it's nothing personal but right i said it it's just there's got to be a cutoff at some point like move on with your life go try to play professionally if you can't make it professionally then you know sorry you have to find something else to do and i know there's the argument that they have the opportunity to make money doing it in college now so that's why they're trying but there's no law that says if you can make money they are required to give it to you like just sorry there are rules in place and it's funny if you look at his college football reference page i think this is an incredible kind of reflection of where we are and that he has three separate freshman seasons he has his 2020 season in oklahoma when he was a freshman an actual freshman but that doesn't that doesn't count eligibility wise anywhere then the next year at tcu he played in four games red shirt season that's a freshman season and then 2022 he's still a red shirt freshman now so he's in his third year as a freshman but he also played four games but you've already used your red shirt, son. Those were the rules. And then you played four more seasons after that, including 26 games last year at Virginia, North Texas. You've been at four schools. If you do get another year of eligibility, you'll probably be at a fifth school because I think Virginia has moved on. He does have a father who's the offensive coordinator before somewhere. So I do wonder, and there are quarterback questions at that school, but I just, yeah, it's, he is how old? He's like 25 at this point. So move on. I hope you lose. Nothing personal. For the sport, I hope you lose. Right, right, right. Which gets us to the kind of fun football-y side of this. Danny, I just heard your yelp because while he does not meet the standards of our exercise today because he is not a returning starter, I did take the preparation as an opportunity to survey the landscape of quarterbacks in college football. and projected starter Chris Vazina at Clemson does not make any of my watch lists right now. No. But Chandler Morris playing for new old Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris would be very interesting. Do you make any connection to the fact that he didn't take this legal action until after Chad Morris is hired? He could have done this exact same thing back in January. And to Tom's point, he's doing it in the state of Virginia, but uh tony elliott and that offensive staff they've got bo probula good player and eli holstein in that quarterback room i definitely don't think he's playing at virginia if he wins this one i think they're they're like good we're moving on we've already and they're you know probably whatever allotment they're paying those two quarterbacks i don't know if they could afford jan lemora's coming back but i do and i was saying about the attorneys if they did it free i wonder if his dad footed the bill hey let's make this try to happen you come and i i guarantee you dabble would be he's going to compete for the job but i think he'd probably have a leg up on all the other quarterbacks at clemson who haven't played half as much football as he has how wild would it be though like given dabbo's history like with the transfer portal and all this like you know just being old school as hell when it comes to roster construction when suddenly he's got like a 35 year old quarterback would it would it be tampering after dabbo sweeney may have sparked do oh do you make it this i didn't have this in the rundown but the the ncaa has sent a sternly worded letter to its enforcement directors to crack down on tampering you think we get any do you think we get any tampering penalties from the ncaa before september no i wish we would but i don't think we will like what confidence can you have that they're going to get this done and quickly none it if there's a whistleblower like if a player like starts showing all the receipts of all the teams that contacted him yeah then maybe you'd get but i just don't see why a player would do that what was the didn't a player do that was it Fresno state who was the player? Cause it was right around the time the Clemson Ole miss was coming. I think there was a player that did have a receipt. Like that would be the one I would think the NCAA would go after where we've already seen some of the proof. Oh yeah. Classic NCAA enforcement playbook is, is you let the media do all the research and hard work for you. And then you just glom onto that and then try to confirm as best or as little as you can, even beyond that. So Chandler Morris, maybe offensive analyst for the Clemson staff. Sure. You know, it's in the, it's in the blood, you know, family, we could see, but yeah, we will, we'll find out again. He is, he is the interesting part of that. He is challenging this in the state of Virginia. And yes, Virginia has pretty good quarterback room as is. So we'll be interesting to see if he does have success. One more. Speaking of coaches' sons, how about a quarterback son? Gunnar Rivers made headlines with the commitment to NC State. Are we paving the way for a Deion-like coach-quarterback combination? My buddy Joe Ovious passed this along from one of his viewers. obvious and julio podcast the og triangle media that uh one of one of their listeners and viewers chimed in with the suggestion that you get gunner and then phil who was interviewing for nfl head coaching jobs could be something special in west raleigh sure yeah it's gonna happen for sure um and then and then phil rivers will take over as head coach after he you know returns from his latest nfl more time yeah i'm sure he's gonna play for somebody in september but then doran's gonna get fired and phil's gonna be like sorry um titans or jets whoever the hell's giving him he's like i've got a football team to go take over and he just rides off in his sunset to take care of his son i thought the bigger controversy and perhaps the reason bud was dodging the show today was that after Gunner committed to NC State, he became a three-star. Yeah, I did see that before. The sites have done it again. Yeah. Big brand bias. For the record, Dave Doran would not get fired in this fan fiction. He goes off to open up the bait shop. The long-rumored, the long-discussed Dave Doran post-coaching life of opening up the bait shop and telling all the journalists what they're getting wrong with their reporting of college football. I like Dave Dorn a lot. I do think this was something I would not be shocked if you saw it happen. If there's another rough season at NC State, I could see them potentially going this direction, kicking the tires on it. I think one of the selling points from Phil Rivers, aside from the fact that he's an NC State great, he's an all-time quarterback, but you have quarterback stability for the next 20 years because he's got 45 sons, so you know who your quarterback is already for the next 20 years. I mean, he's got grandkids already. You got future, I mean, 20 years, why not 30, 40 years? You could probably get him at a discount because their dad's the coach. So that would help you fill out the rest of the roster. This is, I mean, maybe this is what NC State needs to do. I think that given his status and his respect in the game of football at all levels, just cozying up to the Rivers clan is a fantastic branding move for NC State football for the next 20 years. I mean, y'all don't realize we got Shanahan's that are growing up right now. Okay. So it's not going to be the Shanahan's. It's the rivers. Okay. The rivers are going to be all over football. They're going to be quarterbacks. They're going to be coaches. They're going to be at, this is going to be the full takeover of Phillip's dream. You know, yeah. You get started early and you just keep them coming for decades. And then before you know it, you've, you've taken over football. I just, I think it's smart. college football tradition in the chat did have a great suggestion. Dave Dorn goes down the road to coach at ECU where Mr. Beast gives him a hundred million to fund the roster. That is, that is the move right there. I mean, and they've already had this bad blood between these two. Like if you can't beat them, join them. Like, let's just go. By the way, Phillip rivers, everyone's looking for, you know, where can you get money? 245 million career earnings for old Phil rivers. so he could maybe fund a couple years to help it out, get the ball rolling. I'm going to – He's got a lot of kids to feed. It's true. But he has self-insurance for the next five years. Oh, thank you. I was going to say, this is a question that Danny Cannell is uniquely qualified to answer. I thought when he came back and played, does that restart the clock for insurance? Absolutely it does. Another five years. Trust me, when that Cobra copay came in that first year, that was a shock to the system after I got kicked off. I did not make $245 million. I could have used that. You saw that hit and you were like, ooh, actually, the arm does feel okay today. Let's see if we can get back out there. But yeah, again, so on the recruiting services bit, fans go crazy about that. i think another service dropped him and therefore it dropped to the composite rating i think 24 7's grade has not changed but why did he suddenly drop shit why because he didn't go to alabama right all working in concert it's all conspiracy against your team do you man this is this is july this time in july july we're doing win totals this is like june content a recruiting service somebody who works for it may argue we do follow the lead of some coaches because we believe that those coaches are some of the best evaluators in the game otherwise they would not be in that position is that a flaw in the system or would you do the same thing if you were put in the same position i don't i wouldn't call it a flaw i'd call it more of a necessity because you can't scout every single damn high school player in the country so you kind of do have to rely on what the teams and the coaching staffs think of these players like no matter how good your scouts are whether you're 24 7 or one of the other services you can't have eyes everywhere you do rely on the thoughts of others it's it's the consensus for a reason that's the reason why like 24 7 had the consensus rankings to begin with there's more value in them than just the solo ones. And it also I mean it an imperfect system in general I mean look at the NFL draft They can get first picks right and they seen these guys play at college Good luck trying to break down grainy film You haven't seen them in person, and you're watching some huddle film. Like, it's just imperfect. So, to Tom's point, like, you kind of do have to rely on some of these coaches, and I think it's kind of a little bit collaborative where they both kind of fall in line. Go ahead, Tom. I was just going to say, recruiting services are just like the world in general, in which we all believe we're far more competent in what we do than we actually are. Yeah. As I try to cut through, like, allegations of conspiracy to try to come up with what's the most sensible way this happens, I saw it go something like this. Text the coach, hey, it sounds like, you know, Gunnar might be going to NC State. Would you guys think of him last time you saw him? Right. evaluation comes back with not as glowing a review as what you had before so with the rush of news with everyone coming around maybe you go and you update your rating so it's not necessarily as nefarious as as some people believe or it is and everyone's out to get nc state it's either a giant conspiracy conspiracy or humans are stupid i'll let you pick your side wow i can only speak for us the smart what are we the the smartest college according to chat gpt we're the smartest college football podcast we're just i i didn't we didn't say it okay so just somebody else's words okay they're smarter than we are we are putting our names to this next part it's going to be our top 10 returning quarterbacks for 2026 so coming up on the yes real quick real quick before we get to other side. I just want to say real quick, we need more of what we saw on Monday night. We didn't get to talk about it. The award show that took place in Gainesville with Mario Cristobal and Kirby Smart trading barbs. Can we get more of that? That was awesome. I love seeing coaches, and those are two coaches who do not typically give you a lot at the podium. They're so buttoned up, so cliched. For them to go off in front of each other, that was one of the best things I've seen this offseason, and we need more of it. Kirby off season will Kirby's Kirby, you know, in the season definitely sticks to the message, but off season, especially post championships, he's flying loose. Yeah. I feel like, um, you know, our dear friend and also mortal enemy Ralph Russo actually does a hilarious Mario Cristobal walking with his chest out impression, you know, which is like funny given his stature. Yeah. Yeah. Like, and, and just the, the way that Mario's carrying himself. Like, I just, I think that swagger is just going to continue. We'll see more of that from Cristobal. That's my expectation, but let's see what were the greatest hits there. Um, Oh, when he, when he, when, uh, Kirby coaching. Yeah. Well that is, we also said, uh, maybe you should hang around Steve Spurrier more cause he had more championships at Duke than you've had at Miami, more ACC titles. Uh, and apparently, so I talked to Chris Doring this morning who hosted it. He was one of the hosts on the stage. He said, because it's the sixth year they've done it. I was like, is this traditionally a roast? Is this what they do? And he's like, no. He's like, it's like boring, you know, kind of award circuit when you get the coaching awards. He said, and I was like, who started it? And he said, Kirby was the one who kind of took him by surprise. And he said, it wasn't planned. And he said, Mario kind of caught him off guard. Mario came back with some incredible zingers too. I thought it was awesome. I thought it was great. So, um, also there was Kirby telling, saying that Spurrier's daughter who works in real estate has been crushing it because John Summerall will be the fourth Florida head coach. Since he's been at Georgia. He's been at Georgia. And they showed Summerall on screen. Yes. We say in this right in front of John. Yes. um yeah i i think the thing fans should take away from this is that when we make fun of your coach they can take it they're big boys because they can make fun of each other but also the fact that now so many of them are making so much money the tension is kind of dripping it's like if you talk about like professional athletes and how they're all friends now because everybody's so they're all so rich college football coaches are no different they all have the same agents and they're all making a ton of money they're all just as friendly as everybody else yep also So we know that there's the Mario Saban tension that we kind of saw come during some of their interviews together during the playoff run. I don't think that even though he's a former Saban assistant, I don't think Mario's in that group chat, or at least in one. We always heard about the Lane, Kirby, Boom, just the different group chats within the group chats. yeah i don't know if mario is a part of that so he's like in the family ball game like that one like the guys basketball game yeah in in the sexton circle with lane one that you know lane is texting how many of the coaches in there have that group chat muted and then have their own separate side one where they just talk about lane lane has said that that's what i'm saying oh yeah somebody was like tell it tell me about the group chat and he's like well which one Yeah. The big one. And then the side ones that we have that don't include other people. I'd love to know the name of those chats. You know, you can put a little header on them. Yeah. Oh man. Good stuff. All right. Coming up on the other side, our top 10 returning quarterbacks for 2026. We will show you our lists. We will tell you who didn't make the cut, dive into some of the big debates and more nukes. 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I think he's an upgrade from Carson Beck. I'm a big believer in what he's going to do in Miami. Dante Moore, number four at Oregon. Think he needs to take a big step forward, but he was pretty good last season. CJ Carr coming in at number five. Josh Hoover, number six. I thought about putting him even higher, but I do think he is going to flourish there at Indiana with a little better multi-year starter. It kind of fits the bill for what Kirk Cignetti is looking for. Jaden Maiava at USC, another one. And then some of the transfer guys, some of the highest priced quarterbacks in the transfer portal, Brendan Sorsby coming in at eight, Sam Levitt at nine and Trinidad Chambliss checking in at 10. I do have a new appreciation for the AP voters as I may or may not have had to do some, some retooling through this one because sometimes you just admit some guys. So there were some tough ones that I left out that I wanted to be in here, but there is your top 10. love it. Yeah. We, you know, we're, we, the show doesn't start till we say start. Okay. We're making sure we were looking out for everybody here. Tom, why don't you, why don't you run us through your list and then we will, then I'll show ours and we'll, we'll start to dig into this. Sure thing. At number one, I have Notre Dame, CJ car at number two, I have the surprise return to many Oregon quarterback, Dante Moore at three. I have Arch Manning, Arch Manning, Arch Manning, Arch Manning. At four, there's Ohio State's Julian San. Then at five, I have Miami's Darian Mensah. At six, Texas Tech's new starter, Brendan Soresby. Seven, Ole Miss's sleep apnea starter, Trinidad Chambliss. At eight, I have USC's Jade Maiava. Nine, the newest Indiana quarterback, Josh Hoover. And at ten, I have the Gunner, Gunner Stockton. hmm see we're starting to see some of the names at the top we're starting to see some names that are uh getting screamed at by the tailgate so let's keep it going chip number one oregon quarterback dante moore a quarterback who at one time during this season we wondered would even challenge fernando mendoza not necessarily for the heisman trophy but maybe for the top spot in the NFL draft. He's got a coordinator change. He's got a lot of personnel change. But if we're going to war, I like where I'm at with more. Arch Manning at two, as we've discussed often. Arch Manning, Arch Manning. That was his first year as a starter. And by the end of it, I think I feel okay about where he's at. I agree. CJ Carr checking in at number three is going to be a piece of everyone's projection that Notre Dame is going to have. an awesome, awesome season. At number four, I've got Trinidad Chambliss from Ole Miss. So Trinidad Chambliss a little bit higher, it sounds like over in my book. Number five, yes, Darian Mensah. Throughout the Darian Mensah saga, I just continually came back to what an impressive body of work it was. The Illinois game wasn't great. The Tulane game wasn't great. But by the end of the season, oh, UConn was not great. But by the end of the season, And the full body of work speaks for itself. I'm too low on Julian saying, I need to like go ahead and just say that, but I've got Julian saying, checking in at six demand Williams at seven. I think it's fascinating. We can get into that one a little bit as we wonder what the loss of great skill players and the, you know, I'm leaving. I'm not might do to the vibes. Bryce Underwood checking in at eight. That is probably some projection on my part. That is not necessarily going from production. Definitely not going from production. Then I get Sorsby checking in at nine. Sam Levitt checking in at 10. Levitt was not on yours, right, Tom? No. I didn't have much of a problem with that. I'm kind of low. I'm kind of torn on where to put him. I put him towards the back end, but I did feel like he was on there. I think some of that goes with Lane Kiffin's ability to develop him, take him to that next level. for sure. Also the one. So the Bryce Underwood one is one that I think chip has some explaining to do. Demond Williams too. Yeah. Those two ones. Yeah. But I mean, Hey, and we, we don't have to all think the same. This isn't, this is, yeah, we do. This is the board and chip is broken. Contain. Okay. Demond Williams at his best is absolutely electric. Demond Williams against most of the teams that he played this year was a real, real problem, game breaker, game changer. I think that if Bridges can be mended, he's still going to have a good season with Washington this year. I am not going to be diving. I'm not going to get to, I'll tell you enough, a fringe top 10 player for me. Oklahoma State's Drew Mestemaker, right? Doing a lot of copy and paste in like, hey, look how awesome he was as a redshirt freshman, and he's going to keep the same coach. I'm more willing to back DeMond Williams, even with the offseason that he's had, after his first year as a starter. Like, if we're going to apply all of this context to an Arch Manning, for example. So, DeMond Williams went up against a Big Ten schedule, and when he wasn't playing some of the absolute best defenses, not just in the Big Ten, but in the country, he was one of the best players on the field so i feel better about my demond williams than i do about my bryce underwood bryce underwood is the one i will admit was a little bit of the he's got to take a big step forward right that's got to be a big step forward that is factored in by a coaching upgrade on the offensive staff that when you do look at like devin dampier i took my list all the way out to 30. Devin Dampier is on my top 30, right? Devin Dampier has some turnover issues, has some highs and lows that sort of, you know, can Devin giveth and taketh away. Bryce Underwood in Jason Beck's offense could be really, really fun. Obviously he's not the running threat or has not shown to be the running threat that Dampier was, but I, I think the way that that offense is set up Bryce Underwood could be really really good so I will admit that the one that I definitely calling a shot on But he had a full year as a starter And if I show you his 10 best plays you say I see it If I show you every single snap, you're like, wow, that's a freshman. So I took more of an approach where there's some projection in mind, but I was mostly going with of the returning starters, who do I trust the most? Oh, based on what I've seen. And I get what you're saying with Bryce. Like, I think that he could end up being one of the best quarterbacks in the country next year if things click, because he's super talented. He's got a new offense coming in, and hopefully he's got better talent around him. But it's just to this point, based on what he did last year, I couldn't put him in. And you know one name I didn't see on any of our lists that I'm kind of surprised, but also not that surprised? Jaron Chiave Sagapoliteli? Nope, because he was a freshman, had great moments. He also had bad. John Mateer. Uh-huh. Remember how we were talking about him at this time last year? and now it's like he's not on any of our top tens so I don't know um I don't think I like this keep keep going I think the bigger the biggest takeaway from this for me and we don't have buds list but there's a lot of good quarterbacks coming back this year it's kind of it's pretty much the entire opposite of what last year was where we didn't have a ton of returners and it was like we were guessing a lot more because there were going to be a lot of first-time starters and that's part of the reason why material was so hyped as he was because there were so many question marks position. I think my takeaway is going into 2026 while I was doing this. Cause there are a lot of guys who I'd never in my top 10 that I was very strongly considering putting in the top 10. It's like, man, we're in a pretty good spot for quarterbacks next year. Um, ones that I had difficulty with Josh Hoover. So let's see. Josh Hoover was on Tom's. He was on mine. I had him Okay. Yeah, Adam Knight. My thing with Hoover is I was big on him going into last year. I didn't think the personnel around him at TCU was fantastic, and I think that that caused him to dip into some bad habits. I'm still bought into the guy I saw two years ago, and now that I'm transferring him to Indiana and with the coaching staff there and then with the talent that they have brought in through the portal there and what I'm expecting to see as far as available options. I think we're going to see 2024 Josh Hoover with the with the Hoosiers, not the 2025 version. The guy who cut down on the turnovers and just ripped throws down the scene. And I think some of that's going to have to do with better supporting cast, better, you know, winning culture, the team that's hot. Like, I just think he's going to be in a better. I think it is kind of similar to Fernando Mendoza. Now, is he going to be the jump to number one overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner, national champion? It's pretty unfair expectations, but I expect him to play a lot better on the whole than he did at TCU. But he is undoubtedly playing in the shadow of Fernando Mendoza. Oh, without question. That is not a fun place to be in. It was funny because I heard Mel Kuyper was doing a Fernando Mendoza piece, and he's like, oh, he's improved so much. He got sacked 48 times at Cal, and he was only sacked 17 at Indiana. He's like, what a better decision maker. I'm thinking, well, some of it had to do with better offensive line that was in front of him, better options to get out of it. And again, I think that kind of goes back to why I think Josh Hoover will get better as well. Did he have Spav as his OC? Or did he have Brian Harsin at Cal? Oh, Fernando? Oh, he had Spav. I know at one point he had Spav because I saw a film of him talking about how he went in to study film early with Spav. I'm trying to think about not only the difference in the offensive line, but the difference in what he was being asked to do. You know, so much of that RPO Indiana offense that we talked about a lot was like, read, decide, go, read, decide, go. Which is obviously good decision making, so not going to poke holes totally in that one. Do you think Curtis Rourke was a top 10 quarterback in college football? No, no. I think Hoover is going to be somewhere between there. I can't expect him to be Fernando. I think he will be better than Rourke. He's far more talented than Rourke. for the record i've got gunner as my 11 i've got hoover as my 12 i also wrestled with gunner who i think can win a national championship but if we're just sitting here putting together our our board in on february 25th even as a coordinator of vibes i can only let moxie and leadership carry you but so far that was that was my just i had him just outside when i omitted one of mine he was one that got bumped um that i had to uh take out unfortunately because i do think he was under rated but what he finished in the heisman seventh i mean he still was a top around there i mean he still had a really good season yeah i mean he still had a really really good season he was great in most of the big games he's a really good quarterback i want to be clear he is a good quarterback and he is not when i say moxie and vibes i'm i'm not trying to yada yada 380 yards or whatever that he had passing against Ole Miss and a massive fourth quarter comeback like I I absolutely talent is there and I'm putting him at 11 on a list of as Tom mentioned very very good quarterbacks but I think Gunnar's strength is like he's very limited in what he can do and does well as far as passing but he also doesn't turn the ball over very often he doesn't really put the ball in bad positions which when you're Georgia and you have that much talent on your roster that's a key thing like just don't put your defense in bad positions and you should be fine. Let's see, Tom, did you have my Eva? I did not. Yeah, I have my Eva. Okay. All right. Danny, Tom, sell me on Jaden, my Eva. It's a very good quarterback. Yeah. And I think he's going to get better another year in that system. So there is a little bit of projection in there with the job that USC has done recruiting. I know he loses Makai Lemon, but I think he's going to take another step forward. And I don't try to think, did he have like an awful game? I think he was really, really good all season long for the Trojans. Yeah. I have my, you know, the rating that I've been working on starting last year that I've been tinkering with that. I still don't have a name for out of all eligible starters, qualified starters last year. My alpha finished fourth in the nation. Like he's a very productive, very good player. He gets a little turnover prone with interceptions. That is one bugaboo that he needs to fix, but he developed really well into that offense. He understands it. You just got to cut out the mistakes and find replacements for who you lost. But I I'm confident Lincoln Riley and USC will find replacements at wide receiver. And I think he's going to have like, tip when you're hyping up USC to be a playoff team again next year, like you do every single season. Like I'm kind of shocked. You don't have my ABBA on your top 10 list. Cause I figured he'd be your Heisman favorite at this point. No, no, no. Listen, this is, this has really proven to be a podcast of growth. You know, the willingness to change your mind, Tom's thought on the playoff and, and, and my thoughts, thoughts on USC, you know, love, love, love my friends out in Los Angeles. And, and maybe I'm just a sleeper cell agent that will be activated by the time we get to, you know, the first USC appearance on CBS. And I'll all of a sudden tell you how they're about to rip off a Big Ten title run. But for now, I think the absence of Makai Lemon, Jacoby Lane, defensive coordinator, Danton Lynn, some of my favorite players on that defense guys that I really, really liked. I've mentioned that before, but I'm just going to be, I'll be slow. I'll be, I'll be late to the USC train and the USC party on this one. But early to Bryce Underwood, but early on the, yes, yes. I had, you know, I had, it was just on the outside and I wanted to put him in and I bet he didn't make your guys list. Kevin Jennings at SMU. Quiley's had two pretty consistent years. A little more interception last year, but he was banged up. He's tough as nails. There's going to be this void after Miami. Who's going to be the next best team? SMU was in the hunt very late in the ACC. Their defense was more problematic. He did beat Miami on one leg. I thought Kevin Jennings deserved consideration. I just had him on the outside, but he was somebody I thought deserved at least to be in the conversation. 55th in my, not in my rankings, but in my rating stat last year for Kevin Jennings. So the turnovers were bad and that really kind of sunk him. I do like, to me, he's firmly in that 15 to 20 range. Like I had considered him, but I, I, there are a lot of guys I like more. We had, like I mentioned, robust conversation in the tailgate. uh where's where there are a lot of Rocco Beck questions yeah there was a lot of Rocco Beck uh Rocco Beck be considered a returning starter he's playing for the same head coach offensive coordinator QB coach and it's running back and top four pass catchers followed from happy valley where does Rocco Beck fit in your your outlook just on the outside I feel bad because I think Anthony, his dad's going to see this and be like, come on. How did he not? Cause last year I think I had him just on the outside and heard from him. It was like, Oh, he's just out there. I think he has to take a, and I think it's going to be a bump up in competition. He will have better supporting staff. It wouldn't surprise me if he has a really good year again. I do think like if Penn state wants to, you know, make a deep playoff run, I think he's got to get even a little bit better in some of those bigger team, you know, games against the better competition. i i love rocko um the the problem i have with him is his game is mostly based on shots down the field like if you look at his average air yards it was over nine something per attempt last year and because of his size i just don't think he can throw over the middle of the field and short all that effectively so you're kind of limited in what he can do which is kind of the same situation with gunner stockson it's just rocko has more of a turnover issue than goner stockton does so when i look at those two they're very much the same guy to me but one does a better job of taking care of the football so rocco is very much in consideration but he didn't crack my top 10 two quarterbacks that have very little in common are right beside each other on my full top 30 rocco beckton lenora sellers wildly different games yes wildly different you know stories and the way that they've gone through their career um i would have rocco significantly higher on who you trust yeah i've got rocco ahead of lenores for the record there but it's just like it is in that hodgepodge of trust and i don't know it still could be there you know and that's kind of my approach with lenores sellers right now it could be there kendall briles and lenores sellers you could tell me that works lenores had a horrible season awful yeah i mean and my rating system again it includes rushing output lenoris ranked 113th nationally among qualified qbs you know who's 112 jackson arnold i don't think a lot of people fully understand how bad norris's season was so the question for me and again i i was going from the who do i trust the most 2024 to 2025 i i don't know who i'm getting would you take bear Bachmeier ahead of Lenora Sellers? No, I think Lenora's is a higher ceiling. Would you take Connor Wegman over Lenora Sellers? No. Byram Brown. Yes. I think I would. Is that the range that we're talking about here? Like Lenora Sellers falls into a Byram Brown type range? I take Lenora's ahead of Byram A because he's played, what, 20 some odd games in the SEC to this point, whereas Byram's been in the American and he hasn't had to deal with that kind of competition. And also just health wise, I think Lenoris has a better chance of surviving a season than Byram does because Byram is going to get hit a lot. And it's different getting hit by the North Texas mean green defenders than it will be getting hit by Georgia defenders. We opened the show with conversations about Gunnar Rivers and Dave Doran. I think CJ Bailey is a name that I'm not going to say needs to be top 10, but you should not get to 20. I think if we're talking about quarterbacks for 2026, without looking at the Wolfpacks three year starter, right? No, he gets in there as a freshman full season last year, pretty good coming back for his third year. Even though they changed offensive coordinator last year. Kurt Roper has been there as his quarterbacks coach for all three seasons. They lost some, some notable skill players to the transfer portal, certainly, but I don't know, man, Bailey's got the goods and I'm expecting him to have a successful season for the Wolfpack for sure. Who else do you guys have? Where'd you have Marcel Reed? God, man. Cause I think he's somebody, I don't know. Demond Williams has played better over the hole but like when you said flashes like when he's on i thought of the second half versus south carolina i'm like oh you get that version like watch out but you can also get the incredibly erratic version but i would expect you know i would expect him to take a step forward but he is losing colin klein like he is losing uh which one's coming out yeah conception's coming out so like got craver coming back but i'll be very curious to see like i think he could be somebody who plays his way onto this list. Okay, here we go. Go ahead, Tom. I was going to say, Reed was in contention, but I kind of removed him because of the client and the conception questions. And also, he's losing a couple running backs. So it's, I don't know if more of the load is going to be put on his shoulders next year, and I don't know if that's good. Would you rather have Colin Klein's quarterback for 2025 or Colin Klein's quarterback for 2026? See, they look, they're like the same player to me. Well, I probably trust Marcel Reed a little bit more. More than Avery Johnson. but Avery Johnson's competition won't be the same as Marcel Reed's competition level. So, right. I mean, you know what? I'll, I'm going to 10 toes down. Avery Johnson will have a better season than Marcel Reed book market, snippet, put it on all the message boards. Was last season, the Avery Johnson Heisman hype that tanked horribly. Maybe I think. Yeah. Like he was the 60 to one dark horse that everybody's like, but if it works, yeah maybe it this year maybe maybe it colin klein as your head coach that pushes it through all right what about marcel reed against John Mateer I got those two in a similar range on my list and I think that they probably fit in about the same area Do you all see it that way? Yeah. I think so. It's fair. I'd love to put Marcel Reed a little bit ahead of Mateer. I think Marcel's a better passer than Mateer, or at least he's shown better flashes of it like to me material and avery johnson are still very much running backs playing quarterback whereas at least i've seen some process development out of reed but how much of that was colin klein and will he be able to do the same thing for avery yeah like what you saw from a tear at oklahoma reminded you of reed as a first year player like some run it around and chuck it but reed actually did have to go out there and deliver slants on time and and be able to like hit hit players to be able to get them to to spring open the explosive plays um yeah i can see that what other uh what other names did you have sort of on the fringe of your big board and then before we close this thing out we'll debate the top in terms of how you see them guys i had around there i mean cj bailey we've talked about did you got so who had did anybody have drew mestemaker i've got him 11 12 13 14 yeah i had him just off because i'm curious to see how he takes the next step up in competition you know could be awesome yeah and if we want to talk about the avery johnson quality of competition i don't have Oklahoma State schedule pulled up, but there will be more defenses that Mestemaker will see that are closer in quality rating to the defenses he faced in the American Athletic Conference than if he was playing somewhere else. Of guys we have not discussed, I considered Noah Fafita. I just can't get over the height. I do. You know what I said on my note? He's still in the league i know that's what i thought he had a good year for like he had a good season he was good yeah it's the height just keeps him from being the top 10 guy to me um other guys like they're the transfers that are coming from you know g5 to the p4s you know you got your colton josephs at wisconsin your katin housers at illinois i need to see them perform at the p4 level before i'm going to comfortably say that they are those guys i mean we mentioned byron Brown. Yeah. It's, I won't sell Devin Dampier. I know the offense is changing, but he's, he's good enough that I'm not going to, I'm not going to go total blind shots in the dark before I, you know, get to Devin Dampier. Devin Dampier is a fun college quarterback. That's not the same thing as being one of the 10 best in the country. Yeah. Did not have him anywhere close to 10, but I just, as I was going through the exercise and just continuing to list as many names as I could um bud mentioned in the text message that there were some first year starters that he even considered flirting with top 10 my curious mind wandered who do you think would be on that list well first of all we were ranking returning starters bud second um first year starters that he'd have i don't know let's go look at last year philo philo probably he's got a little bit little glimpse we've seen him handle it a little bit and he's gonna go into from troy boy so you know he's gonna put some girls quarterback on there uh keelan russell or austin mack whoever ends up winning the alabama job i would say is probably a first year starter who he holds you there at louisville that's another one that uh i could potentially see on there kenny minchi at uh kentucky jared curtis at vandy oh my goodness not one of us even uttered the words dj lagway well would we would we i was gonna say we didn't mention a little more i mean like as kind of a what could have been what did we we this is not saying that dj lagway can't have a great season can't live up to the hype but we talked at the very beginning we were joking around like recruiting rankings right and the consensus and what you know like the value of who's interested dj went from being the starting quarterback at florida a highly ranked highly touted recruit to he's at baylor now like the market is usually right yep bud had uh jks uh which i think is probably equivalent to your bryce underwood maybe he played better through the ball better i think that's probably one of Bud's more projected picks, which I'm totally okay with if you squeeze one of those on this top 10. You know, it's going to deal with coaching change, but for them to bring him back, pay him, keep him from leaving, he's uber talented. Dante Moore was at number one on Bud's list, which should not come as a surprise to anybody who listens or watches the show. But Bud's got like – he writes Mr. Dante Moore on his notebook during the show. Like he's just in love with that guy. Little hearts on it. Yeah. All right. The O's are hearts and more. coming up on the other side, uh, we'll, we discussed sort of the wide range. Well, let's narrow in 10 toes down. What's the top of your board? How do you defend it? Compare and contrast all that and more. Nope. Back here. Less about it. Back here on the cover three podcast. Um, at, At the very top, how much constant, Tom, at the very top of your board, how much sort of internal consternation did you have trying to sort out your CJ Carr, Dante Moore, Arch Manning, Julian Sane? How about that? Where is your dividing line when looking at that? Honestly, I didn't have a ton of internal debate about it. CJ Carr was the first name that came to my mind. Then Dante Moore, but I considered putting Arch above Dante. I considered putting Darian above Julian. Like I considered putting Brendan above Julian. Like there's like this, there's not really tiers. I would say this is all very close, but CJ Carr, I guess you could say was his own tier because I did not really consider putting anyone else. Number one. But I just think that from what we saw from him as a first year starter, very talented, I expect he will get even better going into his second year. And Dante Moore, like I think is a very good quarterback. Like he's going to be one of the best quarterbacks in the country. again just like he was last year i also think that he is still somewhat limited in what he does and that i want to see more growth from him and he could be the best quarterback in the country by the end of next season but i also think that there's a reason he came back and that i think it was a very wise choice of his to come back even though maybe financially he would have been just fine i think if he's more worried about his long-term nfl potential and career i think coming back and getting better was a smart move instead of getting drafted by a terrible team and getting Barry. DK, I know you got a role here in just a second. Can we get a quick look at your list? Where'd you draw the line at the top? What's your top tier? I would say I do have a tier as far as who I trust more than the rest. And I would say it's probably, if we get it up here, I think it was at the top five maybe, maybe top four. Yeah, I would say the five. I'd say the top five I feel really good about. Like you do have new situations with Hoover, Soresby, Levitt. you know, Chambliss, new coaching staff, you know, even though he was pretty dynamic, what's he do without Charlie Weiss and Lane Kiffin. So I think the top five and for the arch thing, I feel better about him because his year was up and down because he did go through kind of the fire, got all the criticism, played his way out of it and was playing really, you know, as good as anybody to finish out the season. And now that you're adding some more weapons around him and cam coleman and others i i feel pretty good about arch manning it's it's the true year of the redemption after danny was out on arch manning to start 2025 we start as the president of the arch manning fan club so keep beating that drum baby i love it vegas championship go ahead and lock it up uh dk i know you got to run all right for my uh my board i've for me it was top three tom i did those were the i just i knew i wanted those top three and then I began the adventure, right? That was the part I did not have to, you're talking about I didn't think much. CJ Cart, number one, sure. Danny Putt-Narch at number one, not my one, but sure. I understand it. And then of course I've got Dante Moore. Everything else either takes shaking off something you saw, hello Julian saying, or, you know, hoping that Sunrun can continue. Hello Trinidad Chambliss, hello Darian Mensah. Like that next tier is probably where I draw my next line. But for me, going into the season, whatever kind of quarterback you want, that's how I see my top three where Moore, Manning, and Carr would be the first three names that I would want on a superstar, mon-stars depth chart. Like the one part of your list that I genuinely have a strong disagree on, it's not Demond and Bryce being considered. it's Chambliss being like ahead of saying because I do think like saying obviously he struggled in the playoff against Miami and he struggled a lot against Texas to start the year although that was his first career start so I don't hold that too much against him but I just think the consistency with saying is far more reliable as far as trust whereas Chambliss man I loved what he was doing in the playoff but a lot of what trinidad does does not strike me as repeatable like if we go back to the georgia game there were a lot of just running around and then chugging the ball down field to make a huge place it's not like a sustainable approach to playing quarterback at the college level at a successful mark so i i think that his ceiling is very high which is i mean i did include him in my top 10 but as far as consistency and reliability i think i would have saying comfortably ahead of trinidad he was a heisman finalist it was just because it was the indiana game too right i mean it was just who struggles against indiana nobody but julian saying hey listen i it it's gonna be fascinating like i yeah i've recency biased that hey chambliss and saying that is a flaw in my in my top 10 that i put together today what do you hate about my list let's see pull up your list i am not ready to anoint hoover as being the next fernando i think that's the corner that i'm standing on right now that's why i wanted to like position curtis rourke position fernando mendoza i think he's an upgrade on curtis rourke but you know he i agree with you that the the surrounding cast wasn't as great but he still had some good players he he made some mistakes the performance was a little spotty so that's it's the hoover hoover's another one where I'll just, I'll be a little bit, I'll be late to it. You know, he'll probably carve up their non-con, but you know, then, then when we get into some of those toughest games and remember bold prediction in the big 10, no teams undefeated in conference play. So that means that he's, that means he's going to take a loss at some point. We'll see who it's against and how it goes. So I, I see a Chris, it, it is to see it on the screen and realize that we're sitting here as Julian saying not as one of the top players in the country when he was a Heisman finalist. I get it. It's remarkable. I mean, you know what? I mean, it's just more, more fuel for the fire for that Ohio state team that always needs an extra edge. Right. I will say like Ohio state is going to have Jeremiah Smith still, obviously. So I'm not going to go that far, but we think of what Indiana has lost at receiver with Cooper and Surratt, but they have Charlie Becker coming back and we saw what Becker was doing last year for them. And then maybe a lot of people don't know because they didn't spend a lot of time watching Michigan State for obvious reasons last year because they sucked. But Nick Marsh? Indiana's going to have one of the best receiving cores in the Big Ten again next year. And I think Josh Hoover is going to have a pretty damn good season with them. Yep. And again, I've got Hoover as my 12. So I'm not going to let this list get too long before I include a player of that talent in a situation that good, but on your list, that was the one where I was like, okay. Cause if you were to go look at FanDuel Sportsbook, uh, play your game, Hoover is like sixth on the Heisman odds. That feels like an overreaction or playing in Fernando's shadow. Yeah, maybe, but Indiana is going to be good. And they did just win the national title and Hoover has been good. And I think that they've got their offensive coordinator back. It's going to look – I don't want to drag Fernando here because this is going to sound like Fernando question marks. We've got the combine preview tomorrow. Let's go ahead and get out Fernando slandered now. A lot of what they do in that offense is – the quarterbacks don't have to make a ton of decisions after the snap. They just have to figure it out before the snap. And I think a lot of Josh Hoover's problems at TCU last year were decisions after the snap. Oh, I'm just going to chuck it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. I just mentioned it. We will be back Thursday, 11 a.m. Eastern time with our NFL Combine preview. Tom already has his mock draft 1.0 up on CBSSports.com. The mock draft machine is up and churning for Tom. Danny, of course, providing great analysis as well. And what we have, well, we've got our own damn eyes and minds that have been watching these players for the last three or four years. So we'll get you set with what we're expecting, what we are excited about with the NFL Draft Combine. That'll be Thursday, 11 a.m. Eastern time. We will not ignore mailbag questions. If you want to jump in the tailgate NFL Draft or other questions, jump in the tailgate youtube.com slash cover three. Before we get going, drop a question. We will tackle it within the episode. And you can follow him on Twitter at Tom Fornell. You can follow me at chip underscore Patterson, Tom. Thank you very much. Thank you.