Herder ranks FCS’s top 25 returning quarterbacks for 2026 season

1. Beau Brungard, Youngstown State

Brungard sits at the center of the whole conversation because his 2025 season already looked like a playoff cheat code: 3,230 passing yards, 26 passing touchdowns, 3 interceptions, plus 1,468 rushing yards and 27 more scores. He also came home with the Walter Payton Award and unanimous All-America honors, the kind of résumé that tells every contender in the subdivision it still has to catch him first.

2. Justin Lamson, Montana State

Lamson is the cleanest example of how quarterback continuity can protect a national-title defense, because his first full season in Bozeman ended with 3,172 passing yards, 26 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 734 rushing yards and 16 rushing scores. Montana State is not just carrying a championship banner into 2026, it is doing it with the same signal-caller who helped deliver the program its first FCS title in 41 years.

3. Andrew Body, Alabama State

Body changed Alabama State’s ceiling in a hurry, throwing for 1,770 yards, 20 touchdowns and only 1 interception in 2025 while adding 518 rushing yards and 4 scores. The bigger story is what that production meant for the program, because his return keeps the Hornets’ first 10-win season in 21 years from feeling like a one-year spike.

4. Keali'i Ah Yat, Montana

Ah Yat was the only returning FCS quarterback to clear 4,000 passing yards in 2025, finishing with 4,070 yards, 33 touchdowns and 9 interceptions, and he added 8 rushing touchdowns on top of that. The interception total is why he is not higher, but the arm talent is exactly why Montana still feels like a team that can force its way into the seed conversation.

5. Chris Parson, Austin Peay

Parson gave Austin Peay the kind of lift that turns a near miss into a real threat, throwing for 3,003 yards, 23 touchdowns and 5 interceptions while rushing for 743 yards and 14 touchdowns. A quarterback who can account for 37 total touchdowns and help fuel a 4-8 to 7-5 turnaround is the exact profile fringe playoff teams need to become dangerous.

6. Devin Farrell, Rhode Island

Farrell is pure passing production, and that matters in the CAA, where his 3,746 yards and 24 touchdowns made Rhode Island look like a weekly stress test for opposing secondaries. He completed 65.1 percent of his throws, and that efficiency is the difference between a decent offense and one that can actually survive playoff-level pressure.

7. DJ Williams, Southern Illinois

Williams gives Southern Illinois one of the best dual-threat stress points in the subdivision, with 2,846 passing yards, 22 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, plus 847 rushing yards and 18 rushing scores. In the MVFC, that kind of run-pass blend is how a team stays alive against deeper rosters and longer November afternoons.

8. Chase Mason, South Dakota State

Mason did not have to carry South Dakota State with volume to matter, and that is part of the point. His 2,005 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and 4 interceptions fit a team that wins with structure, efficient execution and a quarterback who keeps the machine moving.

9. Hayden Johnson, Lehigh

Johnson has already proven he can guide a program through pressure, throwing for 2,511 yards and 18 touchdowns while rushing for 451 yards as Lehigh kept stacking Patriot League wins. His 15-2 record as a starter is the kind of stability that can turn a conference favorite into a true playoff nuisance.

10. Jordan Cooke, Idaho State

Cooke delivered 3,052 passing yards and 16 touchdowns for Idaho State, then helped push the Bengals into a postseason recognition run that included 11 All-Conference selections, their strongest such haul in five years. In a Big Sky race loaded with returning arms, his job is to make Idaho State more than a spoiler and less than a weekly coin flip.

11. Ty Pennington, Northern Arizona

Pennington’s 2025 jump, 3,116 passing yards, 19 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions, is exactly why Northern Arizona feels like a team on the edge of something bigger. His efficiency and Big Sky honorable-mention status make him one of the clearest examples of a quarterback who can raise a roster’s floor and ceiling at the same time.

12. Pat McQuaide, Villanova, and Collin Hurst, West Georgia

Herder’s tie at No. 12 captures two very different kinds of value: McQuaide threw for 3,092 yards and 24 touchdowns for Villanova, while Hurst posted 2,704 yards and 26 touchdowns at Presbyterian before bringing that production into West Georgia. McQuaide’s possible extra year of eligibility only deepens the picture, and both quarterbacks sit in the tier where veteran execution can swing a conference race.

13. Jerry Kaminski, North Dakota

Kaminski’s numbers are loud enough to matter, 2,570 passing yards and 26 touchdowns, but the 12 interceptions show why the margin gets tighter in the MVFC. He still belongs near the front of the conversation because productive quarterbacks with growth left are how conference title races get complicated in a hurry.

14. James Murphy, Brown

Murphy completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 2,784 yards and 18 touchdowns, and Brown’s own athletic department says he started all 10 games, earned second-team All-Ivy honors and ranked second in FCS in completions per game. That is the profile of an Ivy quarterback who can keep a team in the playoff debate if the rest of the roster stays on schedule.

15. Andrew Indorf, Towson

Indorf’s freshman year gave Towson a real foundation, with 2,344 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions. For a CAA program trying to climb, that kind of efficiency is often the first sign that the offense is ready to stop merely surviving Saturdays.

16. Dante Reno, Yale

Reno threw for 2,498 yards and 21 touchdowns, then turned the spotlight up by carving Harvard for 273 yards and 3 scores in Yale’s league-clinching win. When a quarterback delivers that kind of statement game and keeps his team in the Ivy playoff picture, the ranking finally starts to feel like a title roadmap.

17. Grayson Saunier, Dartmouth

Saunier gave Dartmouth 2,142 passing yards and 9 touchdowns, then stacked that production with second-team All-Ivy honors and a Phil Steele All-Ivy third-team nod. He is the kind of steady Ivy League veteran who can keep a team relevant while others around him chase headlines.

18. Cason Carswell, Western Illinois

Carswell’s freshman season, 2,054 passing yards, 16 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions, is the kind of first chapter that can accelerate a rebuild. Western Illinois does not need him to be spectacular every snap, just stable enough to make the Leathernecks harder to dismiss.

19. Gunnar Smith, Fordham

Smith started all 12 games in his first year with Fordham and answered with 2,680 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and 6 rushing scores. In the Patriot League, that kind of size, mobility and experience can keep a program in every conversation that matters.

20. Joshua Wood, Idaho

Wood’s 1,898 passing yards and 14 touchdowns only tell part of the story, because he also added 589 rushing yards and 7 scores. That dual production is why Idaho can keep pressing into Big Sky contention even when the game script turns chaotic.

21. Jake Stearney, Colgate

Stearney threw for 2,099 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2025, then kept Colgate on the Patriot League map as a multi-year starter with real résumé points already in hand. He is not the flashiest name on the board, but he is the kind of quarterback who keeps a team from losing ground while the league sorts itself out.

22. Frankie Weaver, Monmouth

Weaver flashed immediately as a freshman, putting up 1,331 passing yards and 14 touchdowns with a 65.6 percent completion rate. Monmouth does not need a savior here, just a quarterback whose efficiency can keep the Hawks from getting lost in the CAA pileup.

23. Bryce Schondelmyer, Dayton

Schondelmyer might be the most mistake-free passer on the board, throwing for 1,398 yards, 16 touchdowns and no interceptions while earning PFL Offensive Player of the Week after a five-touchdown game against Stetson. That kind of clean quarterbacking is gold for a program trying to stay near the top of the Pioneer League.

24. Jared Lockhart, Jackson State

Lockhart’s freshman line, 1,208 passing yards, 8 touchdowns and 3 interceptions, came with 171 rushing yards and 4 more scores, enough to earn SWAC co-Freshman of the Year honors. That is the type of return that keeps Jackson State in the HBCU spotlight while the quarterback matures with the job.

25. Sonny Mannino, Marist

Mannino closes the list with 1,818 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and 3 interceptions, along with All-PFL recognition on Marist’s roster page. His presence is a reminder that the best preseason quarterback boards are not just about power names, they are about finding the passer who can keep a program relevant when the margins get thin.