Why Is Jared Goff Not Among the Top 100 College QBs of This Century?

ESPN usually does a pretty good job in its rankings of players or teams over a certain period of time, but respected reporter Bill Connelly had a noticeable omission in his ranking of the top 100 college quarterbacks of the 2000s.

It was noticeable to members of this site because the omission was former Cal quarterback Jared Goff. Somehow he was not considered one of the best 100 college quarterbacks of this century.

ESPN also left Aaron Rodgers lower than he should have been at number 68. Rodgers led Cal to a No. 4 national ranking in the final regular-season poll of 2004, and his career number – 43 touchdown passes, 13 interceptions – stack up favorably to others ranked higher.

Maybe he got dinged because was a starter at Cal for only a season and a half, but there are a number of others ranked higher who had only one standout season.

The Rodgers slight can be rationalized.

Not having Goff in the top 100 is hard to understand.

BJ Symonds, Bailey Zappe, Timmy Chang, Colt Brennan, Todd Reesing and Jordan Lynch are just a few members of ESPN’s top-100 club that don’t deserve to be ranked ahead of Goff.

Goff played three seasons at Cal and finished with 96 touchdown passes and 12,200 passing yards. In his final season as a junior in 2015, he threw for 4,719 yards and 43 touchdowns, setting Pac-12 records in both, while throwing just 13 interceptions. He was a first-team all-Pac-12 selection that year.

Granted he played in Sonny-Dykes’ pass-happy offense, but Chang, Symonds, Colt Brennan and Graham Harrell also played in offenses that passed the ball on nearly every play, and they are all in the top 100.

Maybe the fact that Cal did not win a lot of games with Goff as its starting quarterback ruled him out. But Hawaii’s record in Chang’s final season and Texas Tech’s record in Symonds’ final season were 8-5, the same record Cal had in Goff’s last year in Berkeley.

It’s safe to say Cal played a more challenging schedule than Hawaii did, and Symonds was never a first-team all-conference pick

Bailey Zappe had some outstanding numbers in his one and only season at Western Kentucky, but the Hilltoppers went just 9-5 while playing inferior competition in Conference USA.

Zappe, Chang and Symonds are all in ESPN’s top 100, and there are many similar examples of players whose college performance did not compare favorably with Goff’s.

Finally, let’s point to the fact that Goff was the No. 1 overall pick in 2016 NFL draft.

While it’s true that pro potential is not necessarily a reflection of college performance, NFL scouts must have seen something about Goff’s play at Cal that impressed them to make him the top pick.

Eighteen quarterbacks were the No 1 overall NFL pick since 2001, and all but three of them are among ESPN’s top 60 quarterbacks of this century. And it will be 16 out of 19 when Fernando Mendoza, who is No. 14 on ESPN’s list, goes No. 1 in the 2026 NFL draft.

The three No. 1 picks left off the top 100 are Goff, Matthew Stafford and LaMarcus Russell.

Stafford’s numbers at Georgia (51 TDs, 33 interceptions) were a far cry from what Goff put up at Cal, and Russell . . . well, we don’t need to remind folks what a terrible draft pick that was by the Raiders.

If this were not a site about Cal athletics, Goff’s absence from the top 100 would probably go unnoticed.

Are we biased? Maybe. But we still believe Goff was a better college quarterback than a number of players in ESPN’s top 100.