College Football

Prepping for the NFL: How college football coaches compare at developing QBs

Updated Jul. 11, 2023 5:56 p.m. ET

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Bryan Fischer

College Football Writer

Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series on how college coaches fare at developing players for the NFL. Check out previous stories on SEC offensive players, SEC defensive players, ACC offensive players, ACC defensive players, Big 12 defensive players, Big 12 offensive players, Pac-12 offensive players, Pac-12 defensive players, Big Ten offensive players and Big Ten defensive players.

Following the 2023 NFL Draft, FOX Sports pulled decades worth of recruiting data and looked at just how productive (or not) each active Power 5 coach was at both recruiting and developing players when it came to the ultimate eye in the sky of the NFL. 

Across 10 parts this summer, we’ve looked at every Power 5 league to see who the best coaches within each conference are at developing players across every position group.  But when looking at the big picture nationally, just how do coaches stack up against each other when it comes to finding all those good players and, well, coaching them up?

To sort it all out, FOX Sports utilized a points system that rewarded development and applied it to every active Power 5 coach’s draft class. Every quarterback who was drafted into the NFL received a certain number based on what round he was selected and what kind of recruit he was coming out of high school. An unrated signal-caller going in the first round would be at the very highest end of the scale, while a former five-star sneaking into the seventh round of the draft would be at the lowest end.

To gain a better understanding at just how effective coaches were, this cumulative score was then divided by the number of seasons coached at the Division I level to get an overall rating.

As a result, here’s a look at how every active Power 5 coach in the country does when it comes to producing quarterbacks for the next level:

The Best: Ryan Day (Ohio State)

Day has developed three first-round quarterbacks in just five seasons as a head coach – four fully in charge of the Buckeyes – and occupies the top spot in this ranking. As noted earlier in this series, Day has had all three guys that he has coached and called plays for selected in the top 15 of the NFL Draft: C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields and the late Dwayne Haskins.

It's also worth rehashing this remarkable stat: Day was a junior in high school the last time a Big Ten QB was drafted in the first round who wasn’t coached by him (Kerry Collins in 1995). 

Ohio State fans might be understandably nervous about the upcoming 2023 campaign and the burden of replacing Stroud’s abilities behind center, but the track record their head coach has in this department is, at the moment, is second to none.

Also excellent: Lincoln Riley (USC), Chris Klieman (Kansas State), Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M), Nick Saban (Alabama)

Had this series been conducted following the 2024 NFL Draft, Riley would have leap-frogged Day for the top spot, even if Heisman winner Caleb Williams doesn't go No. 1 overall next spring. 

Until then, he’ll have to settle for a silver medal by the narrowest of margins based on overall rating to his future Big Ten rival. However, if you were to ask a few NFL scouts, they might lean in the direction of the former Oklahoma and current USC head coach.

It doesn’t take much to understand why Riley is so highly regarded when it comes to QB development. Three different signal-callers have won the Heisman under Riley, and two of the three wound up becoming No. 1 overall picks. This included a former three-star walk-on in the case of Baker Mayfield, and blue-chip transfer in Kyler Murray. His greatest success might actually be second-rounder Jalen Hurts, who went from second-stringer at Alabama to recently becoming one of the highest-paid players in the NFL.

Even without Williams sure to pad his stats this upcoming season, Riley has had more No. 1 overall picks at QB than the 11 other Pac-12 coaches have had drafted at the position.

Riley’s former conference rival, Chris Klieman, has also done pretty well. In nine seasons at the Division I level, the Kansas State and former North Dakota State head coach has sent three players to the league out of a much different recruiting pool compared to the current USC coach.

In fact, Klieman’s first success story is also his greatest when it comes to collegiate development – folks in the NFL might argue otherwise – as former unrated high school recruit Carson Wentz went No. 2 overall back in 2016 while playing for the Bison. The average star ranking from recruiting services of the signal-callers drafted under the Wildcats coach’s watch is 2.0, a far cry from that of Riley (3.67) and Day (4.34).

Klieman’s most recent bowl opponent also has quite the track record, especially as of late since jumping on board with the latest offensive trends. Alabama head coach Nick Saban has sent an impressive nine quarterbacks to the NFL dating back to his days at Michigan State, including three in the first round. All three have come in the past four drafts, with former five-star Bryce Young living up to his prep billing by becoming the No. 1 overall selection a few months ago. 

Saban's former assistant, Jimbo Fisher, has also earned a calling card for developing players at the position. In addition to coaching three of Saban’s drafted signal-callers as LSU’s offensive coordinator, he’s produced the second most quarterbacks drafted overall among active Power 5 coaches. Three of Fisher’s four have gone in the first round and the one that didn’t, former four-star Kellen Mond, still went in the top 100. 

In total, there 69 Power 5 head coaches across FBS football, and only five of the 69 (7%) have had multiple players go in the first round at the position. Four of those five coaches (Day, Fisher, Saban and Riley) are responsible for producing half of the first-round QB picks among active coaches. 

Surprisingly disappointing: Greg Schiano (Rutgers), Chip Kelly (UCLA), Gus Malzahn (UCF), Matt Campbell (Iowa State), Jim Harbaugh (Michigan)

Schiano, Kelly and Malzahn have all coached at least nine seasons in college football, yet all three have just one NFL quarterback to show for it, none of whom went inside the top-100 picks. Both Schiano and Kelly also became head coaches at the NFL level, and the latter is largely credited for revolutionizing the game by making the up-tempo spread offense en vogue. 

Yet, at the most important position on the field, all have just one Day 3 pick to show for it all.

Campbell, while statistically belonging to the same group, has coached at lower-resourced programs with far different recruiting footprints – plus Brock Purdy seemingly outplayed his Mr. Irrelevant draft slot several times over last season. 

The numbers paint a fascinating dichotomy when it comes to Michigan’s head coach and the position he has played, been drafted at, coached, and is most closely associated with: quarterback.

Harbaugh, for all the credit he deserves in recruiting and briefly coaching Andrew Luck while at Stanford, has actually never recruited and coached a quarterback from high school to the NFL. This is especially surprising as he has coached 15 years in Division I with a successful stint in the league in the middle. As noted earlier in this series, Luck is also the only QB of the 15 recruited by Harbaugh ranked three-stars-or-above to neither transfer nor change positions. 

Another successful campaign with JJ McCarthy has the chance to change things around as the talented junior signal-caller is expected to be an early draft selection in either the 2024 or 2025 NFL Draft.

Bryan Fischer is a college football writer for FOX Sports. He has been covering college athletics for nearly two decades at outlets such as NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports and NFL.com among others. Follow him on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.

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Bryan Fischer