We are now in the third day of G.O.A.T. week. Make sure you go back and read our pieces ranking the greatest coaches and the greatest teams in Michigan State football history. Today, we take a look at the greatest quarterbacks in Michigan State history.
#5 Brian Hoyer (2005-08)
Remarkably, Brian Hoyer has gone on to have probably the second-best NFL career of any Michigan State quarterback in recent memory.
Mark Dantonio’s first quarterback in East Lansing, he actually had his best year at MSU in what was a pretty mediocre year. He finished the 2007 season with 2,725 yards.
Hoyer has gone on to a long, successful career, which I don’t think even Spartan fans really expected at the time. He’s now played 10 seasons in the NFL, racking up 9,902 yards and 48 passing touchdowns. He is now backing up Tom Brady in New England.
#4 Jeff Smoker (2000-03)
Jeff Smoker, there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. It’s crazy to think that when he graduated, he was the fifth all-time leading passer in Big Ten history and had a legitimate shot at a career in the pros.
He threw for just under 9,000 yards and 61 touchdowns in four years at MSU. Afterward, he bounced around the NFL for a couple years before heading to the Arena Football League until that league ended.
Smoker held Michigan State’s passing record until Connor Cook broke it in 2015, which is crazy given that Kirk Cousins also put up big numbers at MSU.
#3 Drew Stanton (2003-06)
The heir to Jeff Smoker at Michigan State, Stanton inherited probably the worst Spartan football team of the 21st century. Michigan State never had more than five wins during the Stanton era and he never even got the chance to prove himself in a bowl game.
It’s really depressing to me how bad those teams around Stanton were because he truly was one of the best quarterbacks in school history. With a better supporting cast, he could’ve been even higher on this list, and this is reflected in his long NFL career.
#2 Kirk Cousins (2008-11)
These days, most people know Kirk Cousins as the gunslinging, highly-paid starting quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. But Spartan fans know him as one of the best quarterbacks in school history. In fact, he was the best QB in MSU history for a few years there, until the #1 quarterback on our list came to town.
Cousins earned the Spartans a share of the Big Ten Championship in 2010 and got MSU into the first-ever Big Ten Championship game in 2011 (they lost to Wisconsin). He ended his career at MSU with 9,131 yards and 66 touchdowns in 45 games.
#1 Connor Cook (2012-15)
Is this really a surprise? In my article yesterday ranking the best teams in Spartan history, three of the top-5 teams were helmed by Connor Cook. He was simply electric in college. He’s the only quarterback on this list who made it into the top-10 for the Heisman Trophy, coming in at 9th overall in 2015.
Here are a few reasons he is ranked in this spot:
- He owns pretty much all of MSU’s passing records.
- 2x Big Ten Championship MVP and Champion
- 2014 Rose Bowl Offensive MVP and victor
- He helped lead the comeback in the 2015 Cotton Bowl over Baylor.
- First-Team All-Big Ten in 2015.
- 2015 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Winner
For reasons that are still unclear to me, Cook hasn’t been able to string together an NFL career like most of the other guys in this list, but he was undoubtedly the best quarterback in Michigan State football history.
