2012 College Football Recruiting Rankings: QB

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- by Braden Gall (@BradenGall on twitter)

The next batch of in-coming college football All-Americans have inked their respective letters of intent. Recruiting is the life blood of the greatest sport on the planet, and, while coaching stills plays the biggest role in winning a championship, having better players can go a long way to earning a trip to the BCS.

Recruiting is an inexact science by definition. It is virtually impossible to accurately peg the mental make-up of any 17-year old child -- much less high-profile, over-coddled 17-year-old athletes. But team recruiting rankings offer the best indication of which team has the best ingredients each coach has to work with each season.

Related:Athlon's Top 25 Recruiting Classes of 2012

Offensive Positional Rankings:QB | RB | WR/TE | OL
Defensive Positional Rankings:DL | LB | DB | ATH

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My biggest issue with quarterback recruiting rankings is the lack of quarterback depth near the top of the rankings. Normally, there are four to six AC100 signal callers in any given year. However, seeing as how the quarterback is the single most important position on the field, it seems like the position (somehow, someway) gets underranked.

The 2006 quarterback class comes to mind. The Tim Tebows and Matt Staffords landed in five-star territory, but Sam Bradford, Andy Dalton, Colin Kaepernick, Greg McElroy, Christian Ponder, Thad Lewis, Ricky Stanzi, Nate Davis and Todd Reesing were all three-star prospects. It makes no sense that every one of those names wasn't at least considered a "national recruit." For some reason, the most important piece to any football puzzle gets consistently underranked.

In 2012, there are only five top-100 quarterback recruits — one of which is a longshot to stick at the position. I find it hard to believe that only five of the best 100 players in the nation play quarterback.

Additionally, where a player lands can also impact how he is rated. Devin Fuller and Anthony Alford, for example, might not be listed as quarterbacks had they gone to different schools. But at UCLA and Southern Miss, those two dual-threat athletes will get every chance to play quarterback.

The league to watch out for in this class is the Pac-12. Washington and Cal landed arguably the two most game-ready signal callers in the nation in Cyler Miles and Zach Kline respectively. UCLA and BYU each landed an elite passer as well, giving the West Coast four of the top six quarterback prospects.

Here are the best incoming quarterbacks in the nation:


	Name	HT	WT	Hometown	AC100	College
1.	Jameis Winston	6'3"	195	Hueytown, AL	No. 15	Florida State
2.	Gunner Kiel	6'4"	220	Columbus, IN	No. 24	Notre Dame
3.	Devin Fuller	6'	195	Old Tappan, NJ	No. 35	UCLA
4.	Zach Kline	6'2"	210	Danville, CA	No. 39	Cal
5.	Cyler Miles	6'4"	218	Centennial, CO	No. 91	Washington
6.	Tanner Mangum	6'3"	195	Eagle, ID	No. 113	BYU
7.	Chad Kelly	6'3"	209	Buffalo, NY	No. 115	Clemson
8.	Anthony Alford	6'	200	Petal, MS	No. 119	Southern Miss
9.	Connor Brewer	6'2"	200	Scottsdale, AZ	No. 134	Texas
10.	Zeke Pike	6'6"	225	Edgewood, KY	No. 153	Auburn
11.	Matt Davis	6'2"	202	Houston, TX	No. 162	Texas A&M
12.	Jeremy Liggins	6'3"	270	Oxford, MS	No. 171	LSU
13.	Travis Wilson	6'6"	207	San Clemente, CA	No. 183	Utah
14.	T.J. Millweard	6'4"	225	Ft. Worth, TX	No. 192	UCLA
15.	Tyler Matthews	6'3"	205	McPherson, KS	No. 193	TCU
16.	Chad Voytik	6'1"	185	Cleveland, TN	No. 200	Pittsburgh
17.	Justin Thomas	5'11"	185	Prattville, AL	No. 202	Georgia Tech
18.	Ford Childress	6'4"	210	Houston, TX	No. 250	West Virginia
19.	Tommy Armstrong	6'2"	210	Cibolo, TX	No. 252	Nebraska
20.	Bart Houston	6'4"	215	Dublin, CA	No. 259	Wisconsin