Inside the QB battles that could form the College Football

• Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Elder WriterJul 28, 2023,

  07:00 AM ET Close

  • College football reporter.
  • Signed up with ESPN.com in 2008.
  • Graduate of Northwestern University.Training camps begin this

week for choose groups( many more follow next week), which indicates position competitors are resuming in earnest. As constantly, no group of players will record more attention than those vying to be QB1 for Week 1. The variety of significant quarterback competitors isn’t extremely

robust, but several top-shelf programs are included. Of the four CFP groups from 2022, just Michigan(J.J. McCarthy )returns a starter at quarterback. Alabama is set for among its most wide-open preseason competitions in the Nick Saban period, while in-state rival Auburn also should discover its response after adding Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne.Teams such as Baylor( incumbent Blake Shapen ), BYU (Pitt transfer Kedon Slovis) and Texas Tech(incumbent Tyler Shough)decided their starting quarterbacks in the spring. But others remain unclear, even those that included prominent transfers, such as Oregon State(D.J. Uiagalelei). Fourteen quarterbacks were picked in the NFL draft. While some teams have clear replacements– Tennessee’s Joe Milton III for Hendon Hooker, Penn State’s Drew

Allar for Sean Clifford, TCU’s Chandler Morris for Max Duggan, Kentucky’s Devin Leary for Will Levis– others need to discover responses in the coming weeks, including Florida, UCLA and possibly even Ohio State.Here’s a picture of the key quarterback competitors around college football, the top candidates and how things might progress as August rolls along. 2022 starter: Bryce Young(first-round NFL draft pick, No. 1 overall)2023 prospects: Tyler

Buchner, redshirt sophomore; Jalen Milroe, redshirt sophomore; Ty Simpson, redshirt freshman