Three weeks into the 2026 college football season, the quarterback conversation already has a new shape to it. Fresh names are pushing forward, familiar ones are being judged more closely, and the NFL projection game is starting to settle into view. The exercise here is simple: rank the best quarterback prospects in college football right now, regardless of class, with an eye on who looks most like an NFL quarterback down the road.
There’s one major name left out of the list, though, and that’s Texas quarterback Arch Manning. He’s helped drive Steve Sarkisian’s team to a No. 1 national ranking and a 3-0 start, including a come-from-behind win over then top-ranked Ohio State in Austin.
Manning has the traits NFL teams want. The size, the arm talent and the mobility all check out.
What still hangs over him are the parts of the job that matter most when the lights get brighter. Now in year four at Texas and his second season as a full-time starter, the questions remain about his mechanics, his processing and his decision-making when he has to stay inside the structure of the offense.
With one of the best supporting casts in the country around him, Manning has been uneven in his first three starts this season, and that has echoed what his career has looked like so far. In his last game against UT San Antonio, he completed only 50 percent of his passes.
Few quarterbacks have been scrutinized more since high school, but few have also been given more room to grow when it comes to NFL projection.
Manning is scheduled to make his 18th career start this weekend in Knoxville against No. 14 Tennessee. Texas then faces seven ranked top-25 opponents over its next nine games, so the coming stretch will go a long way toward showing whether Manning can be the kind of quarterback who lifts a team to a national title and eventually becomes the face of an NFL franchise.
With Manning set aside, here’s the ranking of the most intriguing quarterback prospects in the college game.
- Kamario Taylor, Mississippi State
Draft eligible: 2028
It didn’t take long after Mississippi State’s convincing road win in Minneapolis two weeks ago for Kamario Taylor to start sounding like a name built for the top of this kind of list. He’s the kind of athletic outlier you don’t come across often, and the comparisons to Cam Newton are easy to understand.
Taylor’s start to 2026 has been electric enough to make people wonder if he could be one of the most gifted athletes college football has seen since Super Cam was on the Plains more than 15 years ago.
Mississippi State is 3-0 for the first time since 2022, and Taylor has been a huge part of that. The next stretch is about to get much harder, though, with four top-25 opponents in the Bulldogs’ next five games.
Even with the sample size still small, Taylor’s ceiling remains wide open. He’s only beginning to tap into what he can do.
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Dak Prescott Just Added Fuel To Mississippi State's Early Buzz
Kamario Taylors fast start has already helped turn some early-season optimism into something louder in Starkville, and now he has a high-profile admirer in Dak Prescott. The former Mississippi State quarterback and current Dallas Cowboys starter praised Taylor after the young Bulldogs quarterback led the team to a 3-0 record, flashing the kind of passing and rushing production that has made the start of the 2026 season feel different around the program.
Prescott said he likes Taylors mentality, and that matters as much as the numbers when a team is trying to build real momentum. Mississippi State has been looking for a spark to match the renewed enthusiasm around the program, and having one of its most successful former players publicly buy in only adds to the buzz. The next question is whether Taylor can keep the momentum rolling once the schedule starts asking more of him. [Read more 🡒]
Mississippi State Faces Its First Real SEC Test After Fast Start
Mississippi States fast start has carried the Bulldogs into the AP Top 25 and, more importantly for the rest of the league, into the part of the schedule where the discussion gets real. After rallying to beat South Carolina and move to 3-0, Jeff Lebbys team now opens SEC play at home against Missouri, a matchup that pairs two unbeaten teams and gives Mississippi State its first chance to see how the early momentum holds up against conference-level pressure.
The timing makes the game feel like more than just another September stop. Mississippi State has the confidence of a comeback win and a weekly honor for Amaree Williams, while Missouri arrives with the same spotless record and a coach in Eliah Drinkwitz who knows what kind of test awaits in Starkville. For the Bulldogs, this is the point where a hot start has to translate into something sturdier, and where the league starts answering the question of how far this group can really go. [Read more 🡒]