Quarterback University  

So, which school produced the best professional quarterbacks over the past twenty years? We're looking at overall quality first, quantity second. We're looking at guys who played in the NFL over the past twenty years. We're focusing on NFL success here, so Ty Detmer and Gino Toretta are barking up the wrong tree. We went in independently, and we both emerged with the same somewhat surprising results. What were they? Find out:

First, some honorable mentions.

-Purdue. Since no one would ever imagine them here. However, Brees, Orton, the entirely underrated Chris Everett are pretty powerful. Open up the period another couple of years, and hall of famer Bob Griese joins the gang.

-Notre Dame. When you are headlined by arguably the best quarterback ever (Joe Montana, of course) you are always going to be in the conversation. Open up our parameters a year, and Joe Theismann becomes available. Not an all-time great, but a nice career and a super bowl. Add Steve Beuerlein who had a solid NFL career to boot.

-Stanford. They are here because they produced Elway and Plunkett, and considering they are like the Ivy League's California cousin, that's definitely worthy of a mention.

Now the list:

3) Miami. Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde. If college success mattered, they'd have a bunch more. Kelly is worthy of the hall, Bernie was better than useless, and Vinny stuck around for a long time, which is pretty much the only nice thing I have to say about him.

2) Michigan. Tom Brady leads the bunch. He has the super bowls, the playoff record, the stats and the demeanor to be one of the all-time greats. He's joined by the always overrated Jim Harbaugh, as well as Elvis Grbac who had a couple of nice years, and Brian Griese who still has time to either redeem himself, or become completely irrelevant. My money is on the latter.

1) Well, it's a stunner. Washington Wins! Even more surprising than their 1991 National Title, it's Huskie time at the 323. How did they get here? Well, having the incomparable Warren Moon (with 9 pro bowls, top five all-time in several major passing categories) is a great start. Oh, he also had an amazing CFL career. One of the underrated players over the past twenty years. Add in Mark Brunell, who has multiple pro bowls, and was always dangerous with his feet, and who has another season or so to leave a real legacy. Finally, Chris Chandler had a solid career, made a couple of pro bowls, and led a totally overmatched team to an improbable super bowl appearance. Washington also managed to produce NFL caliber players in both of the Huard's (Damon and Brock) as well as Billy Joe Hobert. Who knew that the Huskies were such a hotbed of quarterbacks. Maybe Steve Entman should have switched positions once he got drafted.