🏈 The 70 Best Returning QBs in College Football for 2025
Whether sticking with the same program or finding a new home, these FBS quarterbacks bring the most value back from last season.
With college football’s 2025 season kicking off in just under two weeks, the countdown to Week Zero is always an electric feeling. It’s Year 2 of the expanded 12-team playoff, and the path to a national title promises to be as tough a test as ever. And while some of 2024’s brightest stars — including Davey O'Brien Award winner Cam Ward — are off to the NFL, a talented crop of proven quarterbacks is back to retake that test in pursuit of Saturday glory.
Around this time last year, I put together a list of the best returning QBs in the country, and it became one of my favorite features ahead of the new season. So we’re doing it again — ranking the top returnees in schedule-adjusted Points Above Replacement (PAR), a metric that blends passing and rushing impact into one number, per 13 team games.
These are the 70 quarterbacks who created the most value in 2024 and are still on somebody’s campus1 for 2025. (Friendly note: A certain QB with a famous last name was a backup last season, so he ranks lower in returning production than if we were projecting his value this year — but don’t worry, we’ll do a special spotlight for him.) I’ll also highlight the programs that lost the most QB production since last year — and the names who’ll be tasked with replacing it.
1. Garrett Nussmeier, LSU, Sr.
2024 stats: +3.64 PAA/game,2 8.52 PAR/game, 110.7 PAR/13 team gms
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