Editor’s note: Ryan O’Gara and Connor O’Gara grew up following sports in suburban Chicago. The brothers, separated by 20 months, debated about their favorite teams and players so often that their father would often have to remind them, “This isn’t PTI.” Each Friday, they’re bringing that debate to you, centered around the Big Ten and college football as a whole.

This week’s debate: How many SEC quarterbacks are better than the Big Ten’s best?

RYAN: This week’s topic was sparked by this preposterous tweet from Connor.

I mean, this is SEC arrogance at its finest, right guys? This is like Greg McElroy saying Penn State (currently ranked fourth in the country) would finish fourth in the SEC West and in the middle of the SEC. This is like ESPN putting Mississippi State at No. 8 in its FPI rankings.

So the Big Ten has had a down year with QBs, at least at the top with guys like Michael Penix Jr. and Graham Mertz, and I think that was Connor’s point. Before I turn the floor over to him and let him state his case, a quick word.

Maryland QB Taulia Tagovailoa is Pro Football Focus’ No. 1 graded QB in the country this season. As in, there are no SEC QBs (or any QBs) that have graded better than him. But he would only be the seventh-best SEC QB this year? And if he played for Florida, he’d be their third-stringer?

I think we need some clarification on that, Con.

CONNOR: Ok, Ok. Let’s back up a second.

I want to start by saying I’ve been nothing but complimentary of Penn State during the season. The Lions would at LEAST be third in the SEC West. And yeah, I bashed Mississippi State’s horrendous FPI ranking, too.

And you’re right. My point was that QB play in the B1G has been incredibly disappointing. In addition to Penix and Mertz, CJ Stroud and Tanner Morgan have disappointed, and seeing Sean Clifford not really look significantly better than Bo Nix only added to this point. Also ask Penn State fans how they feel about Will Levis, who didn’t even crack this group of 6 I’m referring to. In case you were wondering, Nix isn’t in that group of 6 SEC quarterbacks that came to mind with that initial tweet.

Here was my thinking — I’d take these 6 guys over any B1G quarterback right now:

  • Mississippi’s Matt Corral (Heisman Trophy favorite)
  • Alabama’s Bryce Young (No. 2 in Heisman odds)
  • Georgia’s JT Daniels
  • Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson
  • LSU’s Max Johnson
  • Florida’s Emory Jones

I don’t need to explain Corral and Young. Flip on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday if you need any further clarification there.

Daniels hasn’t even played much this year because of an oblique injury and UGA’s blowouts, but in a limited sample size, he still looked like the guy who had UGA fans so fired up about this team’s potential at the end of 2020. Jefferson just beat his second top-15 team, and while I winced at the Cam Newton comparisons, he ranks No. 15 in FBS in quarterback ranking while also sitting at No. 8 in rushing among Power 5 quarterbacks.

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Johnson has 6 consecutive games with 3 touchdown passes dating to last year, which is the longest active streak in the country. He’s tied for the Power 5 lead with 15 touchdown passes, too. Yeah, UCLA was ugly. He wasn’t the reason LSU lost that game. With a virtually non-existent ground game since he’s been the starter, he’s still 5-1 in those 6 games, 4 of which were against Power 5 competition.

Jones vs. Tagovailoa is where it gets interesting. I like Tagovailoa a lot. I think he’s undoubtedly the B1G’s best signal-caller through 4 games. I like guys who seem like hell to get off the field on third-and-long. That’s what Tagovailoa is. He’s better than Jones in that regard, and if you ask me who I’d rather have pushing the ball downfield, I’d take Tagovailoa. You can’t trust Jones to make some of those reads, and if it’s anything more than looking off a safety and hitting a guy down the sideline, he can make mistakes.

But Jones, who leads Power 5 quarterbacks in rushing, showed a lot in that Alabama game. After the first quarter, he made smart decisions, and he was effective as a runner. Florida had a chance to win that game in large part because of how well Jones ran the offense. A week later, he followed that up by becoming the second Florida quarterback to ever pass AND run for 140 yards in a game, with a certain Tim Tebow being the first.

Has Tagovailoa had to face an elite defense yet? Nope. And I was half joking in the tweet about Anthony Richardson (Florida’s backup), but if we want to talk PFF grades, he’s the No. 1 quarterback in America if you take away the snap minimum, because he has averaged 21 yards per touch. The sample size is too small for Richardson to be part of this discussion.

I think, at the very least, the SEC has 5 quarterbacks I’d rather have than any in the B1G, with the 6th at least being debatable depending on the style of offense you want to run.

Alright. I’m out of breath. Tell me why that take reeks of SEC bias.

RYAN: Of course, I’ll concede Corral and Young. Those guys belong as Heisman front-runners, no question. I’ll flip over to that game as soon as Illinois vs. Charlotte wraps up in the first window.

Since I don’t want to minimize anything about Arkansas, which is easily the best story in college football, I’ll reluctantly give you Jefferson. But I will ask you this: If Jefferson transfers to Ohio State, he’s winning that job over CJ Stroud (and Kyle McCord)? Or he’s beating out Tagovailoa at Maryland? Or if one of those guys transfers to Arkansas, they wouldn’t be able to beat out Jefferson? Yes, he has 2 top-15 wins … in which he has completed a total of 21 passes.

That’s where I draw the line, though. I think everything else is debatable. What have Emory Jones, Max Johnson and JT Daniels done so far that Stroud and Tagovailoa haven’t?

I know the bar is incredibly low for Georgia’s offense, but has anyone checked in on which teams Daniels has actually faced? Last year he got Mississippi State, South Carolina, Missouri and Cincinnati, only one of which was a top-50 defense (Cincinnati). This year, he has faced Clemson, South Carolina and Vandy (Clemson is the only one that will end up as a top-50 defense). I mean, he’s been fine, but a slam-dunk, no-brainer pick ahead of the entire Big Ten? Tagovailoa hasn’t necessarily faced an elite defense either, but he put up way better numbers against West Virginia (332 passing yards, 3 TDs) than Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler (256 passing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT).

Talking up Jones — the QB who threw for a combined 2 TDs and 4 INTs against Florida Atlantic and South Florida — is laughable. You’re telling me that if he transferred to Ohio State right now, he’s beating out Stroud? Or he’s beating out Tagovailoa? The guy who was booed by his own fans during that Alabama game? Yeah, it was a nice comeback, but why was Florida down so big in the first place? He’s an awesome athlete, but as a QB, no way. He dinks and dunks, and he runs it on third-and-10 because he can’t throw the ball downfield. I’m just going to remove Jones from this discussion. If your fan base wants the backup to play, you’re not better than an entire Power 5 conference.

Here’s a name you’ve neglected to mention: Payton Thorne. The Michigan State QB has 5 career starts, and he is 4-1 with 13 TD passes and 2 INTs. Three of those have been road starts against Power 5 teams (at Penn State, Northwestern and Miami), and in those games he has 8 TD passes and 1 INT. He is playing extremely well and is worthy of being in this discussion. And I don’t want to hear about a small sample size; he has the same number of starts as Jefferson and Jones have.

Lastly, say what you will about Clifford, but he has 2 wins over top-20 defenses this year (Wisconsin and Auburn). Is he perfect? No. But he has played very well this season.

CONNOR: A lot of fair points in here, and I agree that I should be giving Thorne more credit. You’re right. He’s been solid as MSU’s starter after years of offensive frustration.

But I don’t like the point about “who would win a QB battle right now” at another school because time in the system matters, and that can outweigh who the more talented quarterback is. Yeah, Stroud beats out Jefferson if he walked on Ohio State’s campus tomorrow, but can Stroud run Kendal Briles’ up-tempo offense? Not from what I’ve seen with how he’s struggled to process coverages.

I’ll push back on the Daniels take, too. He lit up the defenses he should’ve lit up, and no, he wasn’t especially prolific against Cincinnati in last year’s Peach Bowl and against Clemson this year. Most guys facing top-6 defenses away from home don’t go off for 400 yards and 4 touchdowns, especially when their offensive line is overmatched like Georgia’s was against Clemson. PFF had Daniels with the best passer rating vs. the blitz among FBS quarterbacks last year, too. With how he stretches the field, yes, I believe Daniels — currently ranked No. 8 in QBR — is absolutely better than Tagovailoa or Stroud.

I’d say the same about Johnson. I watched him win at Florida last year in his first career start as a massive underdog, so maybe that’s part of why I’m high on him. He keeps his eyes downfield and covers up a lot of areas of weakness for an otherwise 1-dimensional LSU offense. He and Kayshon Boutte are the only reasons LSU has sort of been able to steady the ship dating back to the last couple weeks of 2020.

We’re gonna agree to disagree on Jones, but I’ll say this. I was ready to totally dismiss him after those 2 starts because of how good Richardson looked. But with Richardson out of action the last 2 games, we’ve seen a totally different player. He’s got his limitations, but who doesn’t in this group that we’re debating? Let’s see Tagovailoa against an elite defense because he was terrible against the two he faced last year, and unlike Daniels, Tagovailoa made the costly turnovers.

I think this was about as heated of a debate as we’ve had so far. Maybe we should revisit it in a month or so?

RYAN: The “who would win a QB battle right now” wasn’t so much about time in the system, it was more about is Jones the caliber of player who would be able to beat out the 4 bluechip QBs on Ohio State’s roster? That’s an easy “no” for me. Is Jefferson? I think not. Is Johnson? I think not.

And let’s make sure we provide the proper context for Tagovailoa last year. His poor performance against Northwestern was in his first career start; his other down game against Indiana was after a 3-week break due to Maryland’s COVID issues. Other than that, the guy has been outstanding.

I just think it’s easy to move the goal posts in these sorts of debates. For Jefferson, it’s about who he has beaten (but his numbers don’t matter). For Jones, it’s about how he played in one half against a good team (but not about who he’s beaten, because there isn’t anyone). For Johnson, it’s about his numbers (but not about losing to UCLA).

All of these guys have done good things, but there’s a nice list of guys in the B1G who have done good things as well.

And yes, I think it would be wise to revisit this in a month.

Until then, enjoy the games everyone!