Pat McAfee Reveals His Controversial Pick for Best QB in the Big Ten

Pat McAfee could have went in any number of directions when asked who the best quarterback in the Big Ten was during Saturday’s “College GameDay.”

After all, the conference has several signal-callers coming off big performances last week including Ohio State’s Will Howard, Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel and USC’s Miller Moss, but McAfee went in a different direction.

While most are in agreement 2024 is a big season for Penn State QB Drew Allar, not many would crown him the top QB in the conference, but McAfee did.

“Drew Allar only got bigger, stronger and better through the air this offseason,” McAfee stated. “Not only that, he’s talking his stuff too. They are very confident, very strong — they pounded West Virginia. … Yeah, I’ll say he is [the best QB in the Big Ten].”

Allar had a decent 2023 season, throwing for 2,631 yards, 25 touchdowns and just two interceptions, but he left fans and scouts wanting to see more from him. In Penn State’s 34-12 romp of West Virginia last week, the 6-foot-5 junior had an efficient 216 yards and three touchdowns, but he was hardly the conference’s most impressive QB.

Though Oregon should’ve beat Idaho by more than 10 points, Gabriel still had an impressive showing. He completed 41 of 49 passes for 380 yards and two touchdowns, becoming the eighth player ever to reach 15,000 career passing yards and also passing Ty Detmer (15,031 yards) for seventh place on the NCAA’s all-time passing list.

Moss was arguably the most impressive of the group, however, hitting on 27 of 36 passes for 378 yards and a touchdown while leading USC to a come-from-behind win over then-No. 13-ranked LSU. Moss led an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive in the final 1:47 of the fourth quarter to pull off the win.