college football recruiting 2025 ESPN 300 rankings update takeaways

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the top quarterbacks in the 2025 class, it’s that they’ve all had their ups and downs on the camp circuit. It’s part of the process.

Game film takes top priority in an evaluation, but a lot of elements make up quarterback evaluation. Film study, camps, combines, Elite 11 performance and personal workouts are all pieces of the puzzle. It’s very important to not make a final assessment on a quarterback based on one average or poor camp performance over three hours on a single afternoon. That’s not fair or responsible.

The Elite 11 is an iconic event, but it’s not necessarily predictive of next-level success. The event does provide one final opportunity for us to evaluate and rank quarterbacks before their senior season. Those evaluations have led to a big change in the updated ESPN 300 rankings. Elsewhere, the spring and summer camp circuit has allowed several players to make moves in the rankings.

Here are the takeaways from the rankings:

Jump to a section:
At the top | QB breakdown
Moving up | New entrants

QB Bryce Underwood takes over No. 1 overall spot in ESPN 300

Bryce Underwood, the new top-ranked QB in the class, did not participate in this year’s Elite 11 because he didn’t attend a regional combine. But as noted above, a single event should never dictate a player’s ranking.

When Julian Lewis reclassified from the 2026 class to 2025, it put the top five of the ESPN 300 and the quarterback rankings in flux. We initially gave Lewis the nod given his age and advanced skill set. Lewis performed at a high level at Elite 11. Decisiveness, timing and anticipation are three of his greater traits. As stated previously, the USC commit has one of the smoothest deliveries in this class.

As the cycle has progressed, it’s clear that Underwood and Lewis love to come out and compete, even when there’s little left to prove for either of them.

Underwood did so at the Under Armour New Jersey camp. In harsh weather conditions, with no real upside to perform, the LSU commit still performed. He is a chemistry-set type of quarterback –…