Liberty moves into Conference USA this fall, and with that comes an entirely new group of teams the Flames will be competing against.
Under first year head coach Jamey Chadwell, the Flames are hopeful to compete for the conference championship in its first season in CUSA. To do this, Liberty must have some consistent play at quarterback, regardless of who is the starter.
Here is a look at a preseason ranking of CUSA quarterbacks for the 2023 season:
9. Grayson James – FIU
At one point in the 2022 season, Grayson had FIU at 4-4 and sniffing around a possible bowl appearance. Then, in his last three games of the season, he threw 0 touchdowns to 5 interceptions with FIU being outscored, 144-27. He’s 6’3″, 230 pounds, and was a three-star quarterback who looks the part. He struggled mightily against better defenses and two of FIU’s top receivers are gone. Behind James is Haden Carlson who played most of the 2022 season finale against MIddle Tennessee while throwing for 414 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also threw four interceptions in the 33-28 loss.
8. Garvin Hardison, Calvin Brownholtz – UTEP
Hardison has 35 touchdowns to 26 interceptions for his career but just a 53% completion percentage. He throws a pretty good deep ball, is not much of a threat on the ground, and threw 11 touchdowns and 8 interceptions last year. He very much has a love/hate relationship with UTEP fans. Some believe he will break out, while others think he’s just not cut out for FBS football.
7. Nicholas Vattiato – Middle Tennessee
Vattiato sat behind Cade Cunningham, who led Middle Tennessee to the upset win at Miami last year. In 6 starts during the 2021 and 2022 season, he threw 7 touchdowns and 7 interceptions with a 66.8% completion percentage. He’s not afraid to throw the ball downfield, is good when he gets in rhythm, and can extend plays with his feet even though that might not be a strength of his.
6. Zion Webb – Jacksonville State
Webb has a ton of experience. This is his 7th! year playing college football. In his first year in a Rich Rodriguez offense last year, the team went 9-2 despite Webb throwing just 10 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Over his career, Webb has 29 touchdowns and 28 interceptions with a 56% completion rate. At 6’2″, 200 pounds, he doesn’t have the biggest build, but his passing is not his calling card. In four years as a quarterback, Webb has run for 1,570 yards and 25 touchdowns. He will be facing a step up in competition as JSU moves to CUSA and the FBS,but he led the Gamecocks to the 10th best rushing attack in FCS in 2022.
5. Johnathan Bennett, Kaidon Salter, Trey Lowe – Liberty
Bennett is likely the favorite to become the Flames’ starting quarterback this season which is obviously far from a given at this point. He won’t wow any NFL scouts with any one single feature. He is a veteran who finished last year with 12 touchdowns and 9 interceptions and has 17 touchdowns and 12 interceptions for his career. Bennett also has a 56.9% career completion percentage. He owns wins over BYU and Arkansas, a couple of the biggest wins in school history. His biggest competition for the starting spot this season likelly comes from Kaidon Salter, a transfer from Tennessee. He played part of the year last year and ended up with 8 touchdowns and 5 interceptions with a 58.4% completion percentage. He started off with a bang against Southern Miss and Wake Forest, but the youngster didn’t seem to significantly progress from there. He also fumbled 6 times on the season, losing five of them, including four in the final four games. He has a ton of upside but does Coach Chadwell trust him to run the offense?
4. Grant Gunnell – Sam Houston
There are three quarterbacks at Sam Houston but Gunnell is the guy that is most likely to emerge and take charge. He has bounced around during his college career, beginning at Arizona before transferring to Memphis and North Texas before finding his way to Sam Houston. During 2019 and 2020, he threw 15 touchdowns and 3 interceptions for Arizona while completing 66.5% of his passes. While Keegan Shoemaker and Jordan Yates will likely challenge for the starting job, the 6’6″, 228 pound Gunnell has he highest upside.
3. Hank Bachmeier – Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Tech brought in former Boise State starter Hank Bachmeier. He’s had a weird career and has been a little bit of an enigma. He helped Boise beat three ranked teams on the road for the Broncos, including wins at Florida State and BYU. He also threw for 41 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in his time there. After a 2-2 start that featured a 27-10 loss at UTEP last year, he was benched and did not see the field again.
2. Diego Pavia – New Mexico State
Pavia doesn’t look like a quarterback as he is more built like a fullback or bruising running back at 6’0″, 200 pounds. He won’t have the highest completion percentage or put up the most gaudy stats, but he has gotten the job done. Pavia started very slow in 2022, with New Mexico State falling to 1-5. Something clicked after that though, as Pavia would help lead the team to a 5-1 record down the stretch as he threw for 13 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. This stretch included a 49-14 blowout win at Liberty and a bowl game win over Bowling Green. His added running dimension drives defensive coordinators crazy as he rushed for 508 yards and 6 touchdowns last season. In his second season under head coach Jerry Kill, there’s no reason to think he won’t continue to improve and be a headache for CUSA defenses.
1. Austin Reed – Western Kentucky
There’s no doubt who is the top quarterback in Conference USA. Following Bailey Zappe was a difficult task, but the 6’2″, 220 pound Reed more than lived up to expectations last year. Transferring from West Florida where he won a Division II national championship as a redshirt-freshman, Reed threw for 4,746 yards, 40 touchdowns and 11 interceptions with a 64.5% completion percentage in his first year with the Hilltoppers in 2022. He’s got a strong arm, can throw into tight windows, has a good feel for the pocket, and is seen by many as a likely NFL draft pick.
