How do Sumlin, Tate rate? Ranking the Pac-12 coach-quarterback combinations

Who's the leader of the Pac?

Who has the best head coach-quarterback combination in the Pac-12? Who has the worst? Where do the Arizona Wildcats fit in?

We answer all those questions with our HC-QB Combo Rankings. We ranked the coaches 1-12, as well as the quarterbacks (or in some cases, quarterback situations). First place was worth 12 points, second place 11, etc. We then added it all up. Here’s how it came out (rankings within each category in parentheses; ties broken by higher ranking in coach category):

No. 1 Washington

Coach: Chris Petersen (1)

Quarterback(s): Jake Browning (2)

Comment: Peterson won big at Boise State, and he’s winning big at Washington, including back-to-back seasons with double-figure victories and the conference’s lone College Football Playoff berth over the past three years. No Pac-12 passer has more experience than Browning, who has compiled a 78-24 TD-INT ratio, a 64.4 percent completion rate and a 153.3 rating in his three years as a starter.

No. 2: Stanford

Coach: David Shaw (2)

Quarterback(s): K.J. Costello (5)

Comment: Shaw took the baton from Jim Harbaugh and hasn’t stopped running, winning 10 or more games in five of seven seasons at the school with the most stringent academic standards in the Pac-12. Costello showed great promise in his first year as the starter, fashioning a 14-4 TD-INT ratio, but still must prove he can do it over the long haul.

No. 3: Arizona

Coach: Kevin Sumlin (6)

Quarterback(s): Khalil Tate (1)

Comment: Sumlin won 67.3 percent of his games at Houston and 66.2 percent at Texas A&M; either would rank as the highest mark at Arizona for any coach over the past 40 years. Tate doesn’t have the experience of Browning or the NFL measurables of Oregon’s Justin Herbert, but if you were drafting Pac-12 quarterbacks for the 2018 season, is there anyone you’d rather have?

No. 4: Utah

Coach: Kyle Whittingham (4)

Quarterback(s): Tyler Huntley (7)

Comment: Those who didn’t think Utah could win consistently in the Pac-12 underestimated Whittingham, who has led the Utes to four straight bowl appearances and a 35-17 record over that span. Huntley can run (537 yards, six TDs), completed a high percentage of his passes a year ago (63.8) but needs to cut down on turnovers (15-10 TD-INT).

No. 5: Oregon

Coach: Mario Cristobal (9)

Quarterback(s): Justin Herbert (3)

Comment: This isn’t Cristobal’s first rodeo; he led a moribund Florida International program – which went 0-12 prior to his arrival – to winning seasons in Years 4 and 5. Herbert has star potential and the eyes of the NFL upon him; he just needs to prove he can stay healthy and produce for a full season after missing five-plus games last year.

No. 6: UCLA

Coach: Chip Kelly (3)

Quarterback(s): Wilton Speight/Dorian Thompson-Robinson/Devon Modster (10)

Comment: If we were doing this in 2012, Kelly would rank No. 1; he went 46-7 in his four seasons at Oregon but drops a couple of notches over concerns about whether he can approach that success now that many have co-opted his methods and schemes. Speight completed 61.6 percent of his passes with an 18-7 TD-INT ratio at Michigan in 2016; Thompson-Robinson fits Kelly’s system better and is the quarterback of the future, if not the present.

No. 7: Colorado

Coach: Mike MacIntyre (8)

Quarterback(s): Steven Montez (6)

Comment: MacIntyre led the Buffaloes to the Pac-12 Championship game in 2016, but that’s their only winning season on his watch, and he could be in trouble if they don’t make a bowl game in ’18. Colorado’s success hinges largely on Montez, a redshirt junior with NFL tools and measurables who must become more consistent after an up-and-down ’17 campaign.

No. 8: Arizona State

Coach: Herm Edwards (11)

Quarterback(s): Manny Wilkins (4)

Comment: Even Edwards’ most ardent supporters can’t dispute these facts: He was a sub-.500 head coach in the NFL (54-74) and hasn’t coached in college since 1989, when he was the defensive backs coach at San Jose State. Wilkins is probably the most underrated QB in the Pac-12; he completed 63.4 percent of his passes and accounted for 27 touchdowns last season while leading ASU to the Sun Bowl.

No. 9: Washington State

Coach: Mike Leach (5)

Quarterback(s): Gardner Minshew/Trey Tinsley (11)

Comment: Leach posted 10 straight winning seasons at Texas Tech; his overall winning percentage at WSU — maybe the hardest place to recruit to in the Pac-12 — is just .500, but the Cougars are 26-13 over the past three seasons. Leach’s quarterbacks always put up prolific numbers; if grad transfer Minshew wins the job, he could surpass the stats he totaled in two seasons at East Carolina (3,487 yards, 24 TD passes).

No. 10: USC

Coach: Clay Helton (7)

Quarterback(s): JT Daniels/Jack Sears (9)

Comment: Helton has gone 21-6 in his two full seasons as USC’s coach, including a Rose Bowl win and a Pac-12 championship, yet a segment of USC’s hard-to-please fan base still isn’t sure he’s the right man for the job. Daniels might be the next great Trojans QB, but it’s hard to rank a true freshman ahead of any established veteran, no matter how high Daniels’ upside might be.

No. 11: Cal

Coach: Justin Wilcox (10)

Quarterback(s): Ross Bowers (8)

Comment: Wilcox got off to a promising start, going 5-7 with wins over North Carolina, Ole Miss and Washington State, but must prove himself over the long haul at a place that lacks the infrastructure of many of its Pac-12 rivals. Bowers needs to build off his finish to 2017; he had only four interceptions in his final eight games after throwing eight in his first four.

No. 12: Oregon State

Coach: Jonathan Smith (12)

Quarterback(s): Jake Luton/Jack Colletto/Conor Blount (12)

Comment: This is the first head-coaching job for Smith, who returned to Corvallis (where he played quarterback) after a successful four-year run as the offensive coordinator/QB coach at Washington. That once-touted JC transfer Luton didn’t quickly pull away from the competition in spring or training camp probably isn’t a good sign for the downtrodden Beavers.