No. 1 College Football QB Recruit's Sweepstakes Down to Three Major Programs

The past several days has already seen some serious movement among the best quarterback prospects in the 2027 college football recruiting cycle, and now the player some consider the very best in the country could be trending towards some elite schools.

Five-star Chandler (Ariz.) quarterback Will Mencl is listed as the top signal caller in the country by one group of analysts, and now the recruit might be leaning towards three college football powerhouses ahead of what should be a consequential decision.

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What schools are in play?

Right now, it could be down to a pair of Big Ten contenders and one SEC insurgent.

Oregon and Penn State are among that trio for the quarterback, while Auburn rounds out that top three at this stage in his recruitment, according to Rivals.

Who is in the lead?

Between those three contenders, however, one appears to clearly stick out.

That would be the Ducks, who have long been considered the near consensus favorite for Mencl, thanks in large part to the continuity of Dan Lanning’s program compared to the others.

Matt Campbell at Penn State and Alex Golesh at Auburn are both first year coaches and are still building their respective programs.

Lanning has proven a reliable winner at Oregon, going 48-8 in four seasons and won two College Football Playoff games last year.

“The Ducks have been involved with Mencl from the beginning. They were involved with him before he shot up the rankings... I think that really pays off,” Rivals recruiting analyst Adam Gorney said.

What the recruiting gurus are thinking

Analysts remain high on Oregon, which has a staggering 97.4 percent advantage to eventually sign Mencl, according to the Rivals Recruiting Prediction Machine.

Auburn sits at 1.2 percent likelihood, while Penn State is under 1 percent heading into April.

Miami was thought to be getting consideration from Mencl, but the recent commitment of No. 3 quarterback Israel Abrams to the Hurricanes’ 2027 class appears to have put the reigning national title runners-up out of the conversation at this point.

Ducks are strong at QB right now

Dylan Raiola, the former five star Nebraska starter, transferred to Oregon this offseason, and Dante Moore will return as QB1 in 2026, giving the program considerable stability at the quarterback position, in particular.

A blue chip prospect nationally

Mencl is arguably the single best quarterback playing in high school nationally right now.

Rivals considers the Arizona product to be the No. 1 ranked quarterback in the 2027 recruiting class after revealing its most recent Rivals300 prospect rankings.

That outlet also marks Mencl as the No. 4 overall recruit inthe country at any position.

The industry weighted average of the national recruiting services lists Mencl as the fourth overall quarterback prospect in the country and No. 50 player overall irrespective of position.

Mencl has been productive on the field

This past season, Mencl completed just over 70 percent of his pass attempts, while covering 3,815 yards in the air and added 33 passing touchdowns against only 5 interceptions.

He posted 2.5 touchdowns per game on average while appearing in 13 contests for Chandler, and was responsible for nearly 294 yards each time out, according to MaxPreps figures.

The year before, Mencl had 1,058 yards passing in eight appearances, hitting on 71.4 percent of his throws with 11 touchdowns and 3 handovers.

A productive dual threat, he has 22 career varsity rushing touchdowns on 147 carries with 906 yards on the ground and an average of 6.2 yards per run over 21 varsity games.

(Rivals)