In December, Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy. He'll be back at Alabama this college football season with a good chance to win another.

At the Rose Bowl, C.J. Stroud — playing without two future first-round NFL draft picks at receiver — threw for 573 yards and six touchdowns, setting himself up as the presumptive favorite to knock Young off the Heisman throne.

In January, a former walk-on quarterback led Georgia to a national championship, and as a result, we are now obligated to spend the next year asking the age-old question: Is Stetson Bennett elite?

In February, Caleb Williams announced that he'd follow his former Oklahoma coach, Lincoln Riley, to USC, giving the Pac-12 something to be excited about for the first time since the George W. Bush administration.

This year's quarterback class should be a deep, talented and ridiculously fun crop. But why stop at just the top tier of QBs? We're sifting through all 131 quarterback situations (plus a few more, for good measure) in what is the definitive, no doubt about it, inarguable ranking of talent that will undoubtedly prove 100% accurate at year's end.

Tier 1: Heisman or bust (three players)

Ohio State's C.J. Stroud
USC's Caleb Williams
Alabama's Bryce Young

Barring something catastrophic, it's fair to say these three can safely book their flights to New York for the Heisman ceremony now. Young could become just the second player in history to win a second Heisman after taking home the hardware last year. Stroud was a finalist in 2021, and had Williams been Oklahoma's starter from Week 1, he might have been there, too. Williams got his first start in Week 7, and from that point on, these three combined for an 89.3 Total QBR with 90 total touchdowns and just 15 turnovers.

Tier 2: The Heisman waiting room (three players)

NC State's Devin Leary
Utah's Cam Rising
Miami's Tyler Van Dyke

College football's QB Mount Rushmore (Mount Pass-more?) for 2022 is still waiting on its fourth member, and these guys are best poised to earn the spot.

Van Dyke was forced into action after D'Eriq King went down with an injury, and it took him a few weeks to adjust. But in each of his final six games, Van Dyke threw for 300 yards and three touchdowns. The only other player to do that vs. six straight Power 5 foes in the playoff era was Joe Burrow in 2019. Solid company.

Like Van Dyke, Rising didn't open the year as Utah's starter, but once he took over, he was superb, finishing just shy of 3,000 total yards with 26 touchdowns while going 9-2 as the starter. The Utes scored 79 points in those two losses, by the way.

Does Leary belong here? Some numbers suggest he's way too high. He finished behind Max Duggan in passer rating (157) and Adrian Martinez in Total QBR (71.9). But look at a few other stats and the case seems solid. Leary finished 2021 with 35 passing touchdowns and just five picks, while racking up 3,433 yards through the air. Only three other QBs have done that in the playoff era: Mac Jones, Marcus Mariota and Cody Kessler. Whether Leary ultimately looks more like Jones and Mariota or Duggan and Martinez likely will depend on how well he handles the now lofty expectations facing NC State in 2022.