Big 12 football tiers: Where Dillon Gabriel, Alan Bowman rank among conference QBs

One quarterback stands alone as the Big 12’s best through the first four weeks of the season: OU’s Dillon Gabriel.

The senior from Mililani, Hawaii, is first among Big 12 quarterbacks in touchdown passes (12), completion percentage (78%) and passing yards (1,227). On a national level, Gabriel is tied for fifth in touchdown passes, third in completion percentage and 11th in passing yards.

Gabriel is +2200 to win the Heisman Trophy, according to FanDuel. He has the seventh-best odds, tied with Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman.

The six players with better Heisman odds than Gabriel are all quarterbacks: Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. (+380), Southern Cal’s Caleb Williams (+380), Texas’ Quinn Ewers (+500), Oregon’s Bo Nix (+1000), Florida State’s Jordan Travis (+1200) and LSU’s Jayden Daniels (+1600).

Expect the odds for Gabriel and Ewers to shift one way or another after the OU-Texas game on Oct. 7.

Gabriel and Ewers, to no surprise, lead our Big 12 quarterback tiers this week.

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Tier 1: Heisman candidates

Dillon Gabriel, Sr., OU

Touchdown/interception ratio: 12/1

Passing yards per game: 306.8

Completion percentage: 78%

Only Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy (79.8%) and Oregon’s Bo Nix (79.4%) have been more accurate than Gabriel. Among those three, Gabriel averages the most yards per attempt (10.4).

Here’s a fun stat: Gabriel is a perfect 10-for-10 on passes inside his own 20-yard line, with eight of the 10 completions resulting in first downs.

Quinn Ewers, So., Texas

Touchdown/interception ratio: 9/0

Passing yards per game: 258.3

Completion percentage: 64.3%

Ewers is one of 13 qualified quarterbacks (minimum 15 attempts per game) who has yet to throw an interception.

Ewers’ numbers aren’t as gaudy as Gabriel’s, but Ewers has made significant progress from his freshman to sophomore season. He’ll likely be in New York City by season’s end if he guides the Longhorns to the College Football Playoff.

Jalon Daniels, Jr., Kansas

Touchdown/interception ratio: 5/1

Passing yards per game: 235

Completion percentage: 74.7%

Daniels’ Heisman odds are much longer than the two guys above, but hey, don’t count him out if Kansas is a Big 12 contender.

Daniels, more of a dual threat, rushed nine times for 54 yards in KU’s win over BYU last weekend.

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Tier 2: High-end starters

Chandler Morris, So., TCU

Touchdown/interception ratio: 9/3

Passing yards per game: 279.3

Completion percentage: 68.8%

Morris ranks third among Big 12 quarterbacks in completion percentage and second in touchdown passes and passing yards per game. He’s also rushed for 46 yards per game, averaging 6.3 yards per attempt.

The former Sooner has done a fine job succeeding Max Duggan, last year’s Heisman runner-up.

Will Howard, Sr., Kansas State

Touchdown/interception ratio: 8/4

Passing yards per game: 268

Completion percentage: 65.5%

Howard already has 14 touchdowns — eight passing, five rushing and one receiving thanks to a trick play against Southeast Missouri State. He’s also thrown four interceptions, one in each game.

Howard, a bruising quarterback at 6-foot-5 and 242 pounds, has struggled to stay healthy in his career. So far so good this season.

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Tier 3: Competent QBs

Timmy McClain, So., UCF

Touchdown/interception ratio: 5/1

Passing yards per game: 212.7

Completion percentage: 64.9%

McClain, a South Florida transfer, has done an excellent job filling in for injured starter John Rhys Plumlee. Facing a tough test at Kansas State, McClain threw for 264 yards, three touchdowns and one interception in a loss.

UCF coach Gus Malzahn said Monday that he’ll be “shocked” if Plumlee (knee) doesn’t return this season. Plumlee had played well before getting hurt, completing 70.4% of his passes for 276.5 yards per game despite having a 3/4 touchdown to interception ratio.

Emory Jones, Sr., Cincinnati

Touchdown/interception ratio: 7/5

Passing yards per game: 242.5

Completion percentage: 62.1%

Jones struggled in his Big 12 debut against the Sooners, but that’s to be expected. Jones’ college production hasn’t matched his hype coming out of high school, but the Bearcats could do much worse.

Jones has to cut down on the interceptions, though.

Kedon Slovis, Sr., BYU

Touchdown/interception ratio: 8/3

Passing yards per game: 254.3

Completion percentage: 60.3%

Slovis’ best season was in 2019 as a freshman at USC, but it’s been downhill from there. He underwhelmed at Pitt last season and transferred to BYU, where he ranks 10th among Big 12 qualified quarterbacks in passer rating.

Slovis put up big numbers in a loss at Kansas, but he also threw two interceptions.

Rocco Becht, Fr., Iowa State

Touchdown/interception ratio: 7/3

Passing yards per game: 224.3

Completion percentage: 64.7%

The redshirt freshman had a breakout game against OSU. He threw for 348 yards and three touchdowns, completing 71% of his passes.

We’ll see how Becht responds this weekend against the Sooners.

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Tier 4: The Replacements

Alan Bowman, Sr., OSU

Touchdown/interception ratio: 2/3

Passing yards per game: 128.3

Completion percentage: 53%

It’s incredibly difficult to assess Bowman when he’s only been the guy for one game. But since he handled the full workload in OSU’s loss at Iowa State, he makes the tiers list over Garrett Rangel and Gunnar Gundy.

The Cowboys’ offense looked better than expected against the Cyclones’ defense, but Bowman was up and down. He completed fewer than 50% of his passes and threw for two touchdowns with two interceptions.

Donovan Smith, Jr., Houston

Touchdown/interception ratio: 5/3

Passing yards per game: 253

Completion percentage: 62.3%

Smith transferred from Texas Tech to Houston, and this weekend he’ll face his former team.

Smith ranks average to below average in just about every quarterback category, but he’s coming off his best game of the season, completing 78% of his passes for 294 yards against Sam Houston. He did not play well in losses to Rice and TCU.

Garrett Greene, Jr., West Virginia

Touchdown/interception ratio: 4/0

Passing yards per game: 134

Completion percentage: 55.3

Greene did not play in West Virginia’s win over Texas Tech after getting hurt the week before against Pittsburgh. It was sophomore Nicco Marchiol who quarterbacked the Mountaineers, completing 12-of-21 passes for 78 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

Greene should get his job back when he’s healthy.

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Tier 5: So far, not so good

Sawyer Robertson, So., Baylor

Touchdown/interception ratio: 1/4

Passing yards per game: 161.8

Completion percentage: 49.5%

Blake Shapen can’t come back soon enough for the Bears. Shapen suffered an MCL injury in Baylor’s season opener and it sounds like he could return in the next week or two.

Robertson, a Lubbock, Texas, native who transferred from Mississippi State, has really struggled. Bowman is the only qualified Big 12 quarterback with a worse passer rating.

Behren Morton, So., Texas Tech

Touchdown/interception ratio: 3/1

Passing yards per game: 115

Completion percentage: 42%

Former starting quarterback Tyler Shough broke his left fibula at West Virginia and is expected to miss the rest of the season. It’s a bad blow for the Red Raiders, as they now turn to Morton, who completed just 13-of-37 passes in Texas Tech’s loss to West Virginia.

Morton was born in Lubbock and grew up in Eastland, Texas.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Where Dillon Gabriel, Alan Bowman rank among Big 12 quarterbacks