Stetson Bennett IV, Max Duggan, J.J. McCarthy and C.J. Stroud took dramatically different paths to college football's biggest stage.
The College Football Playoff semifinals kick off Saturday with TCU taking on Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl and Ohio State meeting defending champion Georgia in the Peach Bowl. The winners meet in the national championship game Jan. 9 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
All four starting quarterbacks have remarkable backgrounds. Two of the signal callers were pegged as five-star prospects coming out of high school, one was a four-star and another a walk-on.
Stetson Bennett IV of Georgia was largely absent from the prospect rankings despite having a stellar senior season at
Pierce County (Blackshear, Ga.). The Bears went 9-4 and he threw for 40 touchdowns — including seven in one game during the 2016 season.
Bennett drew offers from Columbia, Georgia Southern, Mercer and Middle Tennessee State but wanted to walk-on at Georgia — where he attended more than 90 games growing up. After leaving Athens for junior college in 2018, he returned a year later and led the program to its first national title since 1980 last season. Now the Bulldogs are favored to repeat and become the first team to go back-to-back in the College Football Playoff era.
Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy led IMG Academy to the 2020 MaxPreps National Championship. (Photo: Robbie Rakestraw)
On the opposing Peach Bowl sideline will be
C.J. Stroud of Ohio State, who signed with the Buckeyes as a five-star recruit out of
Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) in the Class of 2020. He became the varsity starter in 2018 as a junior and received his first college offer following the season. The multi-sport athlete had more than 4,000 yards of total offense and tossed 47 touchdowns during his senior season against some of the top teams in Southern California.
At Ohio State, Stroud has been a Heisman finalist in each of his two years. He threw for 3,340 yards this season along with 37 touchdowns.
In the Fiesta Bowl, five-star Michigan quarterback
J.J. McCarthy is looking to lead the Wolverines to their first national title since 1997. The sophomore signal caller was a three-year starter in high school and won a state championship as a sophomore at
Nazareth Academy (LaGrange Park, Ill.) and later a MaxPreps National Championship as a senior at
IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.).
McCarthy went 31-3 in his high school career and had more than 7,700 passing yards. He left Nazareth after his junior season when it was unsure Illinois would have a high school football season due to the COVID pandemic.
At IMG, he led the Ascenders to an 8-0 record while throwing 16 touchdowns without an interception.
TCU senior
Max Duggan was a four-star recruit out of
Lewis Central (Council Bluffs, Iowa) in 2019. Duggan started all four years in high school and won 36 games. A true dual-threat, he threw for 59 career touchdowns and ran for another 51 as the Titans went to the state playoffs each year.
At TCU he has also been a four-year starter and he has more than 11,000 career yards. He has rushed for at least 350 yards each season and is four total touchdowns away from 100 in his career.
Ohio State's C.J. Stroud was a two-sport standout in California at Rancho Cucamonga and tossed 47 TD passes his senior season. (Photo: Louis Lopez)
