Best QBs Clemson with Face in the ACC (Part 1)
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The ACC was once the conference of quarterbacks boasting Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, Brad Kaaya, Ryan Finley, Daniel Jones, and Mitchell Trubisky as starters all at the same time (2016). This year looks like a potential down year for ACC QBs.
The Tigers will likely start Christopher Vizzina who has just one career start and didn’t get many opportunities to play last season other than a mostly impressive start against SMU. What QBs will he square off against? Now we countdown the toughest QBs he’ll go head-to-head against during ACC play. In this article we focus on #8 to #5.
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8. Billy Edwards Jr. (North Carolina)
A true college football journeyman, Edwards began his career at Wake Forest in 2021. After redshirting, he transferred to Maryland where he waited behind Tualia Tagovailoa for two seasons. He broke through at the end of 2023 when Tualia opted out of the bowl game and Edwards started and won the bowl MVP. Edwards entered 2024 as the starting QB and began the season well throwing 11 TDs and just 2 INTs as the team went 3-2.
After that point, Maryland went 1-6, Edwards threw 4 TDs and 7 INT. He entered the portal at the conclusion of the year. He finished with 2,881 yards on 65% passing with 15 TDs and 9 INTs. He landed at Wisconsin, won the starting job for the 2025 season, and then injured his knee and missed nearly the entire year. He transferred for the third time to the fourth team in six years and will use his final year of eligibility at North Carolina. With the new five years of eligibility rule, these sixth-year players will soon become a thing of the past.
7. Walker Eget (Duke)
While Clemson had detailed evidence and a clean conscious to make public complaint over Ole Miss’s tampering with LB Luke Ferrelli, Duke had a far more damaging situation and mostly took it on the chin. Darien Mensah committed to staying at Duke and reportedly signed a 2-year deal for $8 million. Then, on the last day of the portal window, Mensah reneged on the agreement and entered the portal. Duke sued for breach of contract but settled relatively quickly with most believing they accepted a contract exit fee.
Duke was forced to scramble to find a QB from what was left in the portal. They had already signed Ari Patu from North Alabama, but he was supposed to be a developmental piece. They needed more and they found it with Walker Eget from San Jose State. After a brief limbo with the NCAA over a medical redshirt year, he was granted a sixth year of eligibility. The odd circumstances in Durham gave him a shot to play at the P4 level.
Eget posted a sub-70 PFF grade last year, but one could argue he was still one of the better QBs in the conference after Anthony Colandrea at UNLV (former at Virginia). He finished with the 3rd most passing yards, 5th most passing TDs, and 8th best passer rating in the Mountain West. He did it while playing on a bad knee which he had repaired after the season.
Eget seems grateful to have this opportunity. He has valuable experience both succeeding and overcoming adversity, but it remains to be seen how he fares against P4 competition. Even if he is serviceable, Duke also lost their star WR, Cooper Barkate, who transferred with Mensah to Miami. Eget was a solid addition in a desperate situation, but Mensah led the ACC in pass attempts last season and was at the core of their success, so expect the Blue Devil passing game to take a step back.
6. Ashton Daniels (Florida State)
In 2024, Ashton Daniels came into Death Valley and threw for 71 yards with 3 INTs, but frustrated Clemson fans by running for 87 yards. That was at Stanford. He spent last year as the backup for Jackson Arnold at Auburn and now has transferred to Florida State where he is the presumed starter. Across 721 career pass attempts, Daniels has 24 TDs, 22 INTs, and an average of 6.6 yards per attempt. Entering his fifth college football season, it is probably fair to assume he’ll be a better runner than passer and post reasonable PFF grades as he has done in the past. Perhaps Kelly Bryant with far less than the 2017-2018 Clemson Tigers rosters around him is the best comparison.
5. Alberto Mendoza (Georgia Tech)
Here’s where things start to get very interesting. The Yellow Jackets had a memorable era with Haynes King the former Texas A&M transfer. Aaron Philo was his highly respected backup and was poised to lead Buster Faulkner’s offense for GT this year. Faulker took the offensive coordinator job at Florida though and pulled Philo to Gainesville with them. He didn’t leave at the last second after committing to staying like Darien Mensah at Duke, but that still left them searching. Eventually, they signed Indiana transfer Alberto Mendonza, younger brother of Heisman trophy winner and 1st overall NFL draft pick Fernando Mendoza.
Mendoza held P4 offers from just Indiana and Duke coming out of high school (perhaps he would have transferred to Duke had Mensah given earlier notice). He committed in the class of 2024 while his brother was at Cal and it was Fernando who came and joined him. Indiana chose to hit the portal for a proven high-level starter and certainly found one in Josh Hoover of TCU. That’s the way forward for most top programs now and likely prompted Mendoza to look for an opportunity to start.
Mendoza only played 106 snaps last year. He was highly productive throwing for 286 yards, 5 TDs, and 1 INT in only 24 pass attempts. Of course, all his appearances were in garbage time of blowout wins and 104 of his yards came in a 73-0 rout of Indiana State. On the one-hand, he is a former 3-star recruit who has little playing time entering season three in college football. On the other hand, he looked great in a tiny sample while playing for college football’s best coach and learning from college football’s best QB of last season. He looked good in the Spring Game and all but secured the starting QB job. I’m optimistic about his ability, but neither the ceiling nor the floor is defined here.
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