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Justin's NCAA college football top quarterbacks from Week 9 of the 2023 season. Top performers include Kaidon Salter and Jordan Travis.
Week 9 of the college football season is now behind us. It was a week filled with strong play from the quarterback position, with 20 different players throwing for over 300 yards. That includes 12 quarterbacks who threw for over 350 yards.
Seven quarterbacks had four or more passing touchdowns. Among the players not mentioned below were App State's Joey Aguilar, Fresno State's Mikey Keene, Washington's Michael Penix Jr., and Western Kentucky's Austin Reed, who all had four touchdown passes.
Below are the top five quarterback performances from Week 9 of the college football season. These are judged through a combination of statistics, fantasy scoring, and game context, with consideration also given based on the team's offensive systems. Let's take a look at this week's top performances.
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5. Haynes King - Georgia Tech
I was really high on Haynes King when he first showed up at Texas A&M, but he just never really put it together in College Station. The most games he played was in 2022, when he appeared in six games and completed just 55.6% of his passes with seven touchdowns and six interceptions.
It seems that a fresh start at Georgia Tech was all that King needed. He’s playing the best football of his career this season, completing 61.7% of his passes for 2,122 yards with 21 touchdown passes. The only real mark against him has been his 10 interceptions.
The Yellow Jackets scored an upset win over North Carolina this week, taking down the Tarheels 46-42. King was 23-for-30 for 287 yards and four touchdowns in the victory. He was picked off once. He also added 90 rushing yards, bringing his total for the year up to 462 yards.
King currently leads the ACC in touchdowns responsible for and sits second in the conference in passing yards. He’s also second in rushing yards per attempt at 6.7.
4. Frank Harris - UTSA
UTSA’s Frank Harris has had a pretty uneven season. He’s missed a couple of games with injury and threw three picks against Houston back in his first start.
UTSA has won Harris’ last five starts, moving the team to 4-0 in American play. After a shaky start, the Roadrunners are back on track to contend for the conference title. That's what this team was expected to do this year as it moved over from Conference USA, which the team had dominated over the past two seasons.
On Saturday against East Carolina, Harris was 20-for-32 for 395 yards with four touchdowns and one interception. It was the first four-touchdown game for Harris since last November, when he had that many in a win over UAB.
3. Jordan Travis - Florida State
I’ve been thinking all year that while Jordan Travis was playing really good football, he needed to have some big games if he wanted to be a serious contender for the Heisman.
Well, Saturday’s showing against Wake Forest was a big game. The Seminoles moved to 8-0 in the win and Travis threw for a season-high 359 yards in the victory, completing 62.9% of his pass attempts. He tossed three touchdowns, his most since his four-touchdown game against LSU back in Florida State’s season opener.
Travis also ran for a touchdown in the game. He’s now had six rushing touchdowns this season, with four of those coming over the last three games. I think it’s safe to say that this game makes the Travis Heisman case a good bit stronger.
2. Chandler Rogers - North Texas
If North Texas had held on to beat Memphis on Saturday, I’d probably have Chandler Rogers as the top QB this week. I considered having him in that spot anyway, as he was the only QB with over 400 passing yards and it wasn’t his fault that Memphis had a last-second touchdown to win it.
Rogers wasn’t even UNT’s starting quarterback when this season began, but he claimed the starting job after the team started 0-2 with Stone Earle at QB. Rogers has gone over 300 yards in all but one of his starts for the Mean Green.
He had his best game on Saturday, going 32-for-49 for 411 yards and five touchdowns. He still hasn’t thrown an interception since the team’s season opener, when he tossed one while coming in in relief in the loss to Cal. The former Louisiana-Monroe quarterback has been a key to UNT’s offense this season.
1. Kaidon Salter - Liberty
Liberty moved to 8-0 with this week’s 42-29 win over Western Kentucky. The Flames are the only team that’s undefeated in Conference USA play as they look like they’re heading for a conference title in their first season in CUSA.
Quarterback Kaidon Salter had an efficient day through the air on Tuesday, as he was 10-for-15 for 169 yards and three touchdowns. It was the third game in a row that Salter failed to throw for 200 yards, but he’s had multiple touchdown passes in all three of those games. Sometimes it isn’t how many yards you throw for but what you do with those throws.
He’s also been making a major impact with his legs, with Salter posting consecutive games with over 100 yards on the ground. In the win over WKU, he had 13 carries for 117 yards and a touchdown. He now leads CUSA in touchdowns from scrimmage with his seven rushing touchdowns while also sitting second in the conference in passing touchdowns.
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