SEC is undergoing significant QB turnover in 2025

Before Thursday’s national semifinal matchup between Penn State and Notre Dame at the Orange Bowl, the college football world was hit with a bombshell. You cannot say the transfer portal era is boring. Georgia quarterback Carson Beck officially became the top available player in the free agent market.

The two-year starter at Georgia with 7,912 career passing yards and 63 total touchdowns has entered the portal with one year of eligibility remaining. Beck’s time in the portal ended with a commitment to Miami on Friday.

Go Canes 🙌 pic.twitter.com/VPRLm3dKUH

— CB (@carsonbeck01) January 10, 2025

After declaring for the draft, Carson Beck made quite the pivot as he as decided to return for his sixth season in college football. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that the quarterback will not be able to throw until March but should be ready to roll before fall camp after having elbow surgery. Beck suffered a UCL injury in the SEC Championship Game.

The move officially confirms that there will be a new SEC starting quarterback in 2025. Garrett Nussmeier (LSU), LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina), Nico Iamaleava (Tennessee), and DJ Lagway (Florida) headline next year’s QB1 lineup while there are still some moving parts to get through.

We’re going to have a Manning, at least four new transfer starters, and Diego Pavia looking to lead Vanderbilt back to a bowl game in 2025.

School	QB1 (2024)	Projected QB1 (2025)
Alabama	Jalen Milroe	TBD
Arkansas	Taylen Green	Taylen Green
Auburn	Payton Thorne	Jackson Arnold (Oklahoma)
Florida	DJ Lagway	DJ Lagway
Georgia	Carson Beck	Gunner Stockton
Kentucky	Brock Vandagriff	Zach Calzada (Incarnate Word)
LSU	Garrett Nussmeier	Garrett Nussmeier
Mississippi State	Blake Shapen	Blake Shapen
Missouri	Brady Cook	Beau Pribula (Penn State)
Oklahoma	Jackson Arnold	John Mateer (Washington State)
Ole Miss	Jaxson Dart	Austin Simmons
South Carolina	LaNorris Sellers	LaNorris Sellers
Tennessee	Nico Iamaleava	Nico Iamaleava
Texas	Quinn Ewers	Arch Manning
Texas A&M	Marcel Reed	Marcel Reed
Vanderbilt	Diego Pavia	Diego Pavia

Some have pointed to the lack of high-level quarterback play being the reason why we saw the national championship race become so wide open in 2024. Most notably, the SEC only got one team into the national semifinal and had multiple teams on the playoff bubble behind Indiana and SMU. Will the league return to dominance in 2025?

The starting quarterbacks will have a big say.