College football programs across the country are evaluating the talent on their rosters heading into the 2022 season. One of the most important positions that coaching staffs are looking at is within the quarterback room. 

As we look forward to 2022, there are a number of teams that will have to make big decisions regarding their starting quarterback. Some have to decide between veteran QBs and ones that recently transferred into the program. Others have talented true freshmen coming onto their team that might be good enough to start early on. 

Let's run through which programs have the toughest quarterback decisions to make in 2022. 

 

Florida Gators

Outside of Kyle Trask's two years as a starter, Florida has been struggling to find consistency at quarterback virtually every season since Tim Tebow left in 2009. Heading into 2022, new head coach Billy Napier has a pair of quarterbacks that saw plenty of playing time last season in Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson. 

Jones was the starter for most of the season in 2021, but he struggled to play consistently well throughout the year. He finished the year having thrown for 2,734 yards and 19 touchdowns with 13 interceptions, rushing for another 759 yards and four scores. 

Richardson finished the year with 529 passing yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions and 401 rushing yards and three touchdowns. During his lone start in 2021 against Georgia, he finished with just 82 passing yards and two interceptions along with just 26 rushing yards in a 34-7 loss. 

In the 2022 recruiting cycle, Napier has also added Ohio State transfer Jack Miller III, who played in just six games over two seasons in Columbus. Miller was a 4-star QB prospect from the class of 2020 and the No. 13-ranked pro-style prospect. Florida's 2022 class also includes 3-star QB Max Brown out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, while the Gators have redshirt freshman Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, a former 4-star QB prospect from Florida's class of 2021, as well as former 3-star QB Jalen Kitna.

Although Jones was reportedly set to transfer away from Florida, per Pete Thamel for Yahoo Sports, he is still with the team for now. Napier addressed the current QB situation in Gainesville, including the uncertainty surrounding Jones, in a recent press conference: 

"I'm going to work with those guys exclusively every day," Napier told reporters. "So, when the team struggles or the player struggles, it's important that you take ownership of that as the teacher, and, certainly, we'll have that approach, right? But we have a lot of work to do to get ready to play winning football, right? And, certainly, a lot of that has to do with the quarterback position. So, as far as Emory's concerned, he's been great so far."

Napier has some talented guys on his roster and a big decision to make. And if Jones were to transfer away from Florida, that would make his QB decision a bit easier. For now, Jones is still with the team and in the mix to earn the starting job again in 2022.

 

Texas Longhorns

Unlike the Florida Gators, the Longhorns' starting quarterback from 2021 is no longer with the team. That would be Casey Thompson, who opted to transfer to Nebraska following the end of the 2021 season. Fortunately for head coach Steve Sarkisian, he has a number of talented guys on his roster to choose from for 2022. 

One of the biggest names added to Texas' quarterback room was former Ohio State Buckeye Quinn Ewers. Ewers, a former 5-star QB prospect and the No. 1 overall signal-caller from the class of 2021, lost out to Heisman finalist C.J. Stroud for the Buckeyes' starting job prior to the 2021 season. Ewers played high school football at Southlake Carroll in Texas. 

But Ewers won't be the only Longhorns QB with a chance to start. He'll likely compete against Texas' class of 2022 signee Maliik Murphy. Murphy is a 4-star QB prospect who was the No. 12 quarterback in the class of 2022 out of Gardena, California. As a senior at Junipero Serra High School last season, Murphy threw for 2,973 yards and 22 touchdowns with nine interceptions.

Ewers and Murphy will also join a quarterback room that includes Hudson Card, a former 4-star QB prospect. Card started in two games last year for Texas before Thompson took over for him. Card redshirted in 2020, so he will enter 2022 as a redshirt sophomore.

 

Clemson Tigers

Clemson's starter from 2021, DJ Uiagalelei, will be back in 2022, but could head coach Dabo Swinney be open to a little QB competition? It's no secret that Uiagalelei's first season as Clemson's full-time starter didn't go as well as Tiger fans would have hoped. 

Uiagalelei finished the season having thrown for 2,246 yards and just nine touchdowns with 10 interceptions. After previous seasons of record-setting QBs such as Trevor Lawrence and Deshaun Watson, the play under center wasn't quite like it had been in seasons past. 

Uiagalelei is the presumed starter heading into 2022, but Clemson's 2022 recruiting class is headlined by 5-star QB prospect Cade Klubnik. Not only was Klubnik ranked as the No. 1 overall QB prospect, he was 247Sports' top-ranked prospect out of the state of Texas. 

The true freshman's high school career included three state titles, and he threw for 7,426 yards, 86 touchdowns and just seven interceptions in his career. Klubnik was also impressively the first starting signal-caller in the state of Texas since Kyler Murray to go undefeated in the highest classification while winning consecutive state titles. Swinney hasn't hesitated to start true freshman QBs before—both Lawrence and Watson started during their true freshmen seasons coming out of high school. 

Also in the mix for Clemson's starting job in 2022 will be graduate transfer Hunter Johnson. Johnson, a former 5-star prospect from the recruiting class of 2017, actually started his career at Clemson. He signed with the Tigers in 2017 before transferring to Northwestern in the spring of 2018, shortly after Lawrence stepped on campus. Johnson made eight starts over three seasons for Northwestern before heading back to where his collegiate career began.

 

Texas A&M Aggies

Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher will have a number of quarterbacks to choose from heading into 2022. The Aggies' starter for the majority of 2021, Zach Calzada, has since transferred to Auburn. 

Calzada was the Aggies' backup at the beginning of the 2021 season for the first two weeks of the season. Haynes King started TAMU's first two games of the year, throwing for 300 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions before suffering a season-ending leg injury. The QB out of Longview, Texas, is a former 4-star QB prospect from the class of 2020. He was 247Sports' No. 5 dual-threat QB prospect from his class, too. Since Fisher named King as the Aggies' starter last season, he might have an advantage in the QB competition heading into 2022. King won't be the only QB competing to start, however. 

The Aggies also were joined by a quarterback with SEC starting experience this offseason in Max Johnson. Johnson transferred to TAMU after spending the last two seasons at LSU. Johnson played in six games for LSU as a freshman in 2020 and was LSU's starter last season. He threw for 2,814 yards and 27 touchdowns with six interceptions, winning the starting job after teammate Myles Brennan broke his arm before the season began.

TAMU's 2022 recruiting class made history on National Signing Day earlier this month. Fisher's class went down as 247Sports' highest-ranked recruiting class ever. Included in Fisher's historic class is 5-star QB prospect Conner Weigman out of Bridgeland High School in Cypress, Texas. Weigman was ranked as the No. 2 QB prospect from the class of 2022 and the No. 5 prospect from his home state of Texas, and he just might be talented enough to compete against both King and Johnson for the starting job.