Playoff QBs include a hometown recruit, a prep title rematch and some 1-year hired guns
AP Sports Writer
Kevin Jennings wasn’t even the player that Rhett Lashlee was going to watch when he went to his first Texas high school playoff game a week after becoming SMU’s coach.
Three years later, Jennings is the only quarterback starting for his hometown team in the debut of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. He is one six QB starters still at the schools where they began their college careers, including Clemson’s Cade Klubnik playing in his hometown at Texas in their first-round game Saturday.
Of the six transfers, four are in what will be the only season with their current team. Kurtis Rourke with surprising Indiana or Riley Leonard of Notre Dame will play his final game Friday night in the playoff opener matching one-year hired guns.
Atlantic Coast Conference newcomer SMU plays Saturday at Penn State, where Drew Allar is the second-year starter and has already announced that he will be back next season. That is the only first-round CFP game with both starters at their original schools.
“That’s a good stat,” Lashlee said. “For Kevin to be a Dallas high school player … and has been here for the duration, that’s really special.”
Klubnik and Longhorns starter Quinn Ewers previously met in a Texas Class 6A state championship game in January 2021; Klubnik and Austin Westlake won that day. Ewers then enrolled at Ohio State, where he got into only one game as a freshman that fall before returning to his home state.
Redshirt freshman Nico Iamaleava starts for Tennessee, which plays at Ohio State, where Will Howard settled in this year after starting 34 games for Kansas State the previous four.
“My ability to push this team and lead this team is going to be crucial,” Howard said. “I need to be bringing that the whole game.”
Unexpectedly finding his future QB
Lashlee was hired by SMU on a Sunday night, talked to his new team the next morning and spent several days trying to keep intact the roster of an 8-4 team in the first year the transfer portal was available. There was also the early signing period, and the former offensive coordinator finally got out to look at some high school players that first Saturday of December.
When Lashlee went to watch some players from Lovejoy High in the Texas 5A playoffs, the quarterback on the other team really caught his attention. Jennings led South Oak Cliff to a victory that day, and later won the first state title for a Dallas Independent School District team since 1958.
“Everything happens for a reason. The timing was right and it ended up the way it was supposed to,” Lashlee said of that chance encounter. “Kevin was meant to be here and be our quarterback. Really glad it worked out the way it did.”
Jennings has already said he will be back on the Hilltop next year. His first start for SMU was in last year’s American Athletic Conference championship game after Preston Stone broke his leg. Stone started the first three games this year before Jennings got the job.
Waiting in the second round
There will be a second-round matchup of original-school QBs in the Fiesta Bowl. SMU or Penn State will move on to play there New Year’s Eve against Boise State, with Maddux Madsen the Broncos starter for the first time this year in his third season there.
Rourke or Leonard will move on to the Sugar Bowl. Even if fifth-year Georgia quarterback Carson Beck can’t play after getting hurt in the Southeastern Conference championship game, redshirt sophomore Gunner Stockton is an original Bulldog.
Arizona State redshirt freshman Sam Leavitt won 11 games after transferring from Michigan State. The Big 12 champion Sun Devils play Texas or Clemson in the Peach Bowl.
Ohio State or Tennessee will move on to the Rose Bowl against top-ranked Oregon and Dillon Gabriel. The left-handed Hawaiian is in the final season of a college career that began with three seasons at UCF before the past two at Oklahoma.
Transfer to the playoffs
Rourke had been at Ohio for five years, and was selected the Mid-American Conference’s top player in 2022 before being recruited by new Indiana coach Curt Cignetti.
Rourke broke Indiana school records for regular-season wins (11) after the Hoosiers were a preseason pick to finish 17th in the 18-team league — much like Big 12 newcomer Arizona State was projected to be at the bottom of that 16-team conference.
Dual-threat Leonard played 27 games for Duke over three seasons. He has completed two-thirds of his passes at Notre Dame for 2,092 yards and 16 touchdowns, while running for 721 yards and 14 more scores.
Some former Big 12 champs
Howard was part of a Big 12 championship team at Kansas State. He threw two TDs when the Wildcats beat previously undefeated TCU in the 2022 conference title game. TCU still made the four-team playoff.
Since his detour through Columbus as a freshman, Ewers had helped rejuvenate the Longhorns. Texas departed the Big 12 after winning the league and making the CFP for the first time a year ago. The Longhorns are back as the SEC runner-up with their only two losses being to Georgia.
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