Lane Kiffin on draw of the SEC to Cal QBs, Southern Cal as a QB hotbed

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin spoke during Wednesday’s SEC Coaches teleconference on why California high school quarterbacks are more drawn to SEC schools.

“California quarterbacks have always played well and now they’ve started to move,” Kiffin said. “They’ve started to move into the SEC more and I think that’s just a product of the SEC being better than everywhere else and the offenses have changed out here. Used to be the West Coast was ahead offensively and the SEC was a little bit archaic and that’s obviously changed a lot now.”

Kiffin added that the emphasis on training and offensive systems in Southern California are the reason the region is a quarterback hotbed.

“There’s a lot of quarterback training from an early age,” he said. “Lot of good pass offenses out there. Lot of high school coaches really know what they’re doing throwing the ball.”

When Lane Kiffin’s Rebels take on Alabama on Saturday, both teams will feature a starting quarterback from California in Matt Corral and Bryce Young.

Corral, who attended Long Beach Poly and Oaks Christian, has emerged as the Heisman frontrunner through the first month of the season Young, who attended California powerhouse Mater Dei, has lived up to his five-star billing coming out of high school in his first season as the starter for Alabama.

Corral has thrown for 997 yards and nine touchdowns in three games, completing nearly 70% of his passes. On the ground, Corral has rushed for 158 yards and five more touchdowns.

Young has thrown for 1,124 yards, 15 touchdowns and just one interception in four games, completing over 72% of his passes.

Over the years, California has produced the likes of JT Daniels, the starting quarterback for Georgia, DJ Uiagalelei, starting quarterback for Clemson, Jayden Daniels, starting quarterback for Arizona State and Tanner McKee, starting quarterback for Stanford, in addition to the aforementioned Corral and Young.

The California quarterback pipeline likely isn’t stopping anytime soon. In the 2022 class, California is home to Texas, Michigan State, Michigan and Utah quarterback commits, in addition to four-star Justyn Martin, who Kiffin is heavily recruiting.

In 2023, California is home to two quarterbacks rated in the top ten players nationally, in Los Alamitos Oklahoma commit Malachi Nelson and Downey (Calif.) Warren four-star Nicholaus Iamaleava. In 2024, Elijah Brown looks to follow in Bryce Young’s footsteps from Mater Dei starting quarterback to elite recruit.