Rare quarterback uncertainty for rivals Michigan and Ohio State
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Jake Trotter, ESPN Staff Writer
Will Howard‘s first exit from the Ohio Stadium turf following Ohio State‘s spring game took a detour. Hundreds of Buckeye fans, who had gathered by the home tunnel, waved him over, eager to give the Kansas State transfer the starter treatment — even though Ohio State has yet to name its starting quarterback.
Howard signed mini helmets, footballs, hats and even offered a few high-fives. Finally, after several minutes, he escaped to the locker room with fans still shouting “Go, Will!” as he jogged away.
Howard arrived in Columbus hoping to win the quarterback competition heading into one of the most pivotal seasons in recent Ohio State history. An aggressive offseason in the portal landed the Buckeyes a series of notable transfers, including Howard, loading an already-talented Ohio State team with the players it hopes can wrest back control of the Big Ten from rival Michigan. The reigning national champion Wolverines have rolled to three straight conference titles, highlighted by three consecutive victories over the Buckeyes.
Michigan, however, has its own quarterback battle to settle in 2024. The Wolverines face the enormous task of replacing J.J. McCarthy, the 10th overall pick of the Minnesota Vikings in this year’s NFL draft who went 27-1 as Michigan’s starter.
How these Big Ten bluebloods answer their quarterback quandaries figures to have major implications for the College Football Playoff, the Big Ten race and, of course, “The Game” on Nov. 30 in Columbus. Not since 2015 have the two schools had high-profile quarterback battles in the same year.
“We want to win, and the goal is to do the same thing we did last year,” said Michigan senior quarterback Davis Warren, the star of the Wolverines’ spring game. “The quarterback is a really important part of that.”
Beginning with McCarthy, the Wolverines had 13 players selected in the draft, two more than any other school.
In a year of transition in Ann Arbor, Michigan also has a new head coach in 38-year-old Sherrone Moore. He takes over for Jim Harbaugh, who is now coaching the Los Angeles Chargers.
But the Wolverines still boast plenty of leftover talent, with several intriguing options at quarterback.
Jack Tuttle, who was McCarthy’s backup last year, was approved for a seventh college season in February. Tuttle did not play in the spring game due to an undisclosed injury. But the 25-year-old easily brings the most experience. Before transferring to Michigan last year, he started five games at Indiana while playing behind another top 10 NFL draft pick in 2024.
“We talked about this as a team, as a staff — the dudes that he backed up are Michael Penix (before Penix transferred to Washington) and J.J. McCarthy,” Moore said of Tuttle, who’s expected to be cleared to resume throwing this summer. “So he’s got talent. … He’ll be in it.”
Tuttle isn’t the only one in it, though.
Junior Alex Orji brings a compelling dual-threat skill set to the competition. On the opening drive of Michigan’s spring game, he led the Wolverines down the field before dashing in for an 18-yard touchdown. After the score, Orji rolled the ball into his offensive teammates, mimicking a bowling strike knocking over pins.
A perfect strike from #10
? @CFBONFOX pic.twitter.com/wtBOJrYAxQ
— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) April 20, 2024
“I think as a QB group,” Orji said, “we’ve all taken the necessary steps to put ourselves in a position, to be in position.”
Warren took a big step himself in Michigan’s spring game, taking over in the fourth quarter. Off play-action, he launched a pass that hit Kendrick Bell in stride for a 42-yard touchdown. On his next drive, Warren scrambled outside of the pocket to his right, then threw another strike across his body to Fredrick Moore, who scampered the other way for a 48-yard score to give the Maize the 17-7 comeback victory.
“Grateful that [new offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell] and Coach Moore and the whole team believes in me, feels like I have an opportunity to be the guy for this team and win games in the fall,” Warren said. “I’m just grateful for the opportunity and I don’t take it lightly.”
Junior Jayden Denegal and true freshman Jadyn Davis, who was the fourth-ranked dual-threat quarterback recruit in the country before enrolling early, both also had moments in the spring game. Both will have their opportunities to win the job, too.
“Everybody’s getting better,” Moore said of his quarterbacks. “Think that will go into the summer, the fall. We’ll see when we get to fall camp.”
The Buckeyes are taking a patient approach with their quarterback competition, as well.
Though Howard passed for 5,786 yards and totaled 67 touchdowns over 34 games playing for K-State, the Buckeyes haven’t just handed him the job.
“Not trying to get ahead of myself and look at the end goal,” Howard admitted to reporters during Ohio State’s pro day. “Just trying to get better. … Every single day, it’s just getting more comfortable. It’s a process.”
Howard completed 9 of 13 passes for 77 yards in the Buckeyes’ spring game, while rotating with five other quarterbacks. Junior Devin Brown, a former four-star recruit, threw the scrimmage’s only touchdown pass. Last preseason, Brown lost the starting job to Kyle McCord, who transferred to Syracuse in December. Still, Brown has already declared that he has no plans to transfer himself, even if he loses the competition again.
“I’m a Buckeye, and I’m here to compete, no matter what,” he told reporters in March.
Five-star freshman Julian Sayin, sophomore Lincoln Kienholz and freshman Air Noland all got snaps in the spring game.
Sayin, who originally signed with Alabama before enrolling at Ohio State, completed 10 of 17 passes for a scrimmage-high 85 yards, but he also threw a pick-six.
It won’t be easy for Sayin to win the job as a true freshman, at least immediately. But similar to Davis at Michigan, Sayin has already impressed in just a few weeks on campus and could be Ohio State’s eventual successor under center.
“Julian is a very fast processor,” said offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who left his job as UCLA’s head coach in February to call plays for the Buckeyes. “He really thinks very, very quickly on his feet. He makes really quick decisions. He doesn’t stick on [receivers] in reads. He can progress and he sees things really well for a young player.”
Ohio State coach Ryan Day didn’t have much to say about his quarterback battle after the spring game, only that he would have to “look at the film.” But Kelly noted when the Buckeyes are finally ready to decide on a starter, there won’t be much of a decision to make.
“You always want to do it earlier, but I also believe every time I’ve been involved in this, it kind of happens organically and authentically because the players know,” Kelly said. “Players understand who they feel is the guy. And most of the time the decision is very obvious.”
The last time the Buckeyes and Wolverines had quarterback battles seemingly this wide open in the same summer was 2015. And both Urban Meyer and Harbaugh waited until opening drives of the openers to publicly reveal their starters.
In Columbus, Cardale Jones had just led the Buckeyes to a pair of playoff wins, including the 2014 national championship. But J.T. Barrett was having an All-Big Ten season before suffering a season-ending ankle injury against Michigan, opening the door for Jones to take over. Jones ended up starting the 2015 opener against Virginia Tech, but ultimately split time with Barrett.
Harbaugh, meanwhile, kept his quarterback plans a secret during his first preseason in Ann Arbor. Iowa transfer Jake Rudock got the start over Shane Morris against Utah. Despite losing that first game, Rudock led the Big Ten in completion rate (64.0%). But Barrett totaled four touchdowns in Ohio State’s 42-13 win over the Wolverines to end their regular seasons.
Neither the Buckeyes nor the Wolverines reached the playoff in 2015, with Michigan State claiming a spot instead. With the start of the 12-team playoff era, Ohio State and Michigan both missing the playoff again seems unlikely. And so, two of college football’s most consequential quarterback competitions will continue into the summer. With the rivalry, the Big Ten title and, likely, a playoff berth all firmly on the line.
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Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer
TIGER, Ga. — Georgia‘s former starting quarterback, Carson Beck, rolled through campus in a sleek Lamborghini, reportedly valued at more than $300,000. The head-turning sportscar was part of a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal with a high-end automotive group.
In stark contrast, the Bulldogs’ new starting quarterback, Gunner Stockton, cruises through town in a 1984 Ford F-150. With a four-speed transmission and odometer that clicked past 300,000 miles long ago, the two-tone truck lacks modern conveniences such as air conditioning, power locks and power windows.
For Stockton’s family and friends in the tiny mountain town of Tiger, Georgia (about 90 minutes north of Athens), the old pickup feels like an appropriate choice.
“I think that sums him up,” said Stockton’s uncle, Allyn Stockton. “He’s just kind of a plain-wrapper guy. He’s really a simple guy.”
On Dec. 7, college football fans were introduced to Stockton in the second half of Georgia’s 22-19 overtime victory against Texas in the SEC championship game. After Beck was injured on the final play of the first half, Stockton came off the bench to rally the Bulldogs from a 6-3 deficit.
With Beck undergoing season-ending surgery this week to repair the elbow on his throwing arm, the No. 2 Bulldogs’ hopes in the College Football Playoff now rest partly on Stockton’s right arm and legs.
The third-year sophomore is expected to make his first career start against No. 7 Notre Dame in a CFP quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on New Year’s Day (8:45 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+).
Stockton’s family and friends say he has been preparing for this moment for much of his life.
“The people that watched him play in Rabun County aren’t surprised at all,” Allyn Stockton said. “They knew this was coming.”
IT WOULDN’T TAKE someone long to meet all of Tiger’s residents; its population was 422 in the most recent U.S. Census. The one-stoplight town has a still-operating drive-in theater. The roadside attraction Goats on the Roof on Highway 441 used to sell everything from Amish foods and furniture to homemade fudge and ice cream. And, yes, visitors could feed goats that maintain the lawn on the roof.
The Stockton family settled in Rabun County in 1956 and opened a car dealership; Stockton’s dad, Rob, still works there. Gunner was named after his paternal great-grandfather, V.D. Stockton, who was shot down twice while serving as an aerial gunner aboard B-17s during World War II and was known to his friends as “Gunner.”
Both of Rob’s parents attended Georgia and his late father, Lawrence, also graduated from the university’s pharmacy school. Lawrence was an avid Bulldogs football fan and took his sons to many home games and a few on the road over the years.
Rob and Allyn weren’t with their father when Georgia knocked off No. 8 Auburn 20-16 on the road on Nov. 16, 1985. The aftermath of that upset win became one of the most bizarre moments in the history of the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” because Auburn police used water cannons on Georgia fans who had rushed the field. The police also eventually turned the hoses on Bulldogs fans in the stands.
Jack Walton, the Auburn University police chief at the time, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he didn’t second-guess what his officers did. “My only regret is that we didn’t get every one of them,” he said.
Lawrence Stockton was among 38 people who were arrested that night. He told the AJC that he never went onto the field. According to Lawrence, he was handcuffed and taken to a holding area for asking a police officer why they were spraying the stands. He spent four hours in jail until his wife bailed him out.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have gone down and asked why they were spraying in the stands,” Lawrence Stockton told the AJC. “But you can only watch and take so much before you become a concerned citizen.”
Three days later, Allyn Stockton was sitting in homeroom at Rabun County High when a friend showed him the newspaper article. He didn’t know his dad had been arrested.
“Dad’s rendition of it was probably different from reality,” said Allyn Stockton, an attorney in Rabun County. “His thing was, ‘Hey, it’s one thing to turn the hoses on the people on the field. They turned them up on the people in the stands. There were elderly people up there and they couldn’t get out of the way.'”
V.D. Stockton had been the area’s district attorney for more than a decade, and his son’s charge of disturbing the peace was soon dropped.
Many years later, a stepbrother sent Allyn Stockton another article that included a photo history of the 1986 Auburn-Georgia game, which is still remembered as the “Game Between the Hoses.” He spotted his dad on the field in one of the photos.
“I mean, he’s on the field,” Allyn Stockton said. “One guy’s got a billy stick and there’s about three or four [cops] on him. My understanding was Dad wasn’t on the field, but he’s clearly getting the hell beat out of him on the field.”
On Oct. 30, 2010, Lawrence Stockton died after watching Georgia lose to Florida 34-31 in overtime in Jacksonville, Florida. He walked back to a tailgating area outside the stadium with friends and collapsed from a heart attack. He was 63.
ALLYN AND ROB shared their father’s love of football. Rob was an All-American safety at Georgia Southern and is a member of the school’s athletics hall of fame. Gunner’s mother, Sherrie, a counselor at Rabun County High, was among the all-time scoring leaders in basketball at Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina. Gunner’s sister, Georgia, played basketball at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina.
But Gunner is the best athlete in the family. When Gunner was about 6 years old, Rob asked Rabun County High assistant coach George Bobo if he’d start working with his son. Bobo had been a longtime high school football coach in Thomasville, Georgia. His son, Mike, is currently Georgia’s offensive coordinator.
George Bobo moved to the north Georgia mountains at the urging of then-Rabun County High coach Sonny Smart, who is Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart’s father.
When George Bobo saw Gunner throw a football the first time, he said, “Holy crap, you need to make him a quarterback.”
Stockton was the quarterback on teams that went 65-0 in the North Georgia Youth Football League. He didn’t lose a game until the seventh grade at Rabun County Middle School. The next season, he played quarterback for the high school JV team as an eighth grader.
Stockton was a four-year starter at Rabun County High. As a senior in 2021, he completed 71.3% of his pass attempts for 4,134 yards with 55 touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 956 yards with 15 scores. In four seasons, Stockton accumulated 13,652 passing yards with 177 touchdowns and 4,372 rushing yards with 77 scores.
Stockton broke Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence‘s state record for career touchdown passes and Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson‘s state mark for career total yardage.
Stockton ran for seven more touchdowns than current Detroit Lions tailback Jahmyr Gibbs, who had 70 at Dalton High School from 2017 to 2019.
When Stockton wasn’t playing sports, he tended to cattle, hunted deer and bears, and fished for trout in mountain streams. He fished and water skied at nearby Lake Rabun, where former Alabama coach Nick Saban and other coaches had vacation homes. Just before Stockton turned 16, he asked his parents for cows to put on his grandmother’s farm. They gave him four cows and a bull for Christmas.
“The old farm had terrible fencing,” Rob Stockton said. “Everybody in the county helped him and knew that they were his when they got out of the fence. We would get 911 calls and they’d say, ‘Your cows are out, put them up.’ Or people would stop and just put them up.”
Stockton once went gator hunting with a nuisance trapper in Florida, along with his uncle Allyn, Bulldogs safety Dan Jackson and former tight end Cade Brock. He told his family he wanted to beat the Gators in Jacksonville because that’s where his grandfather died.
BEFORE HIS JUNIOR season of high school, Stockton committed to play at South Carolina, where Mike Bobo was working as offensive coordinator. After Bobo left for Auburn, Stockton flipped to Georgia. By the time he enrolled, Bobo was working as an analyst for the Bulldogs.
Stockton redshirted at Georgia in 2022, then attempted 19 passes in four games last season. He had taken the field in only three games before he was thrust into action against the Longhorns.
“He has never stood on the sidelines in his entire life,” Rob Stockton said. “His goal this year was to be the greatest backup and greatest supporter of Carson Beck that he could possibly be.”
Stockton’s time finally came against Texas in the second half of the SEC championship. He led the Bulldogs on a 75-yard touchdown drive on his first possession, then threw a bad interception that helped the Longhorns tie the score at 16 on Bert Auburn‘s 37-yard field goal with 18 seconds left in regulation.
With the Bulldogs trailing 19-16 in overtime, Stockton lowered his shoulder pads at the end of a run at the Texas 4. He was met by Longhorns safety Andrew Mukuba, whose jarring tackle sent Stockton’s helmet flying.
Stockton held on to the ball for a first down, and Trevor Etienne ran into the end zone on the next play to give the Bulldogs a victory.
“It was brutal to watch,” Rob Stockton said. “Watching the replay of it on the scoreboard was worse than watching it live. But seeing him pop back up, it didn’t bother me much.”
Sherrie Stockton hasn’t watched a replay of the hit and “doesn’t intend to.”
The Bulldogs will have had more than three weeks to get Stockton ready to play the Fighting Irish. Regardless of what happens at the Sugar Bowl, his parents don’t expect him to stray far from his roots.
Stockton will still make the 74-mile drive from Athens back to Tiger in the same 40-year-old truck his grandfather once owned. He might even need a few neighbors to push it off when it doesn’t crank.
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