Urban Meyer Has Already Picked His Best B1G QB — And It’s Not Julian Sayin

The Big 10 might as well be called the quarterback conference now. Because the early stretch of 2025 empirically proves it. You have got seasoned veterans, Heisman potential candidates like Drew Allar, while Luke Altmyer continues last year’s form. Jayden Maiava has been making a lot of noise, and so has Julian Sayin with 779 yards and 8 touchdowns, although he has been turnover-prone with 3 interceptions. But the depth across the conference is striking, with outstanding quarterbacks found in every other team. And naturally leads to the question, “Who is the best among them?”

For Urban Meyer, the answer has never been clearer. On The Triple Option podcast, when Meyer asked about his opinion on the best QB, he cut straight to the chase, naming a Big 10 phenom without hesitation. “Dante Moore is the best quarterback right now in the Big 10. He’s playing tremendous. 78%, seven touchdowns, one pick,” he said. And those numbers are clearly why Moore is at the top of that list. Moore has a mind-boggling 78.1% completion rate through three games with 657 passing yards and an impressive 7:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. The numbers don’t lie, and they clearly portray him as someone who is careful with the ball while still pushing it downfield whenever required.

Meyer also tipped his hat to Washington’s signal caller, who was also the winner of the Air-it-out challenge in the Manning Passing Academy this year, Demond Williams Jr. He said, “Another guy, Demond Williams, 69% completion rate, two touchdowns.” Williams also boasts an impressive 69.4% completion rate and a clean sheet in terms of interceptions. But when it came to Julian Sayin, Meyer’s enthusiasm was more measured. He said, “I’m giving Julian Sayin an honorable mention. When you’re beating teams, you should beat them by 40 points, you know, that doesn’t mean anything. And then in the first game against Texas, he did what he was supposed to do. He’s got eight touchdowns, three picks, and an 80% completion rate.”

That critique is actually the heart of Urban Meyer’s evaluation. Meyer praised Sayin’s performance against a tough opponent but gestured at the fact that he has to do it consistently against other big opponents to be in the conversation. But here’s where that logic clashes. Dante Moore has not played any ranked teams and has only performed against what one would call freebie opponents. We like to think that the title of best quarterback in the Big 10 cannot be bestowed upon him unless the game against Penn State happens. Penn State and Drew Allar are yet another one who haven’t played a tough opponent yet. With that logic, Julian Sayin is still just as good, if not better than, both of these guys, barring those three interceptions. He still has got to clear that department

Meyer’s quarterback hierarchy is exactly what coaches value in September. The base of the hierarchy is hardcore numbers. Moore sits at the pinnacle of that list because of his outstanding completion rate and minimal turnovers. The fun in the Big 10 is that it will be ramping up fast pretty soon (except Penn State), and that’s when the real competition begins. When the elite squares up against the elit,e that’s when Meyer’s early assessment will face its true test. Because it’s not easy to separate contenders from pretenders when all they play against are teams with low talent density.

Meyer and Underwood

Meyer’s quarterback list also had one more interesting name, and it was the Michigan quarterback, Bryce Underwood. Urban Meyer praised Underwood but not before addressing the controversy it entailed. He said, “When I complimented Bryce Underwood, Mark, my phone blew up. People are saying, ‘What the hell’s wrong with you? You’re you’re complimenting a Wolverine.’ I said, I used to compliment him all the time.” Previous affiliations matter in college football, and they especially matter when you’re a part of the most iconic rivalry ever.

Meyer then went on to praise Underwood. He said, “You don’t have to like him, but you better show respect. And I’m telling you that guy, talent for talent,  he might be as good as I’ve seen in a while. He can run. And you know what? They added in something in this, I think it was a second quarter, 12 minutes left in the second quarter, a Q run. Yeah. And the whole world just took notice cuz you start adding that into that offense.” His enthusiasm during this monologue showed how good Bryce Underwood actually is. Underwood has thrown for 628 yards and rushed for 108 yards with two touchdowns. Although Urban Meyer still put him behind Dante Moore, his comments showed that Underwood might not be far down that list.