ESPN's Bill Connelly posted " The 40 most important players in college football in 2026 ", and he listed both Air Noland and Marcus Stokes at No. 37.
While it's a list, it's broken down into different sections. New likely QBs for potential contenders, QBs with a game-changing leap in them, QBs with spoiler and contender potential, potential stars in need of a breakthrough, most important non-QB transfers, pure transcendence potential, and breaking down the other conferences.
The final section lists the ACC, Big 12 and Group of Six, and Connelly listed "Air Noland or Marcus Stokes" at No. 37. Connelly said that the Tigers will contend in the conference if they nail the quarterback position.
Charles Huff brought in Noland from South Carolina, while Stokes transferred to Memphis after spending three seasons at Division II West Florida. Stokes started at the Division II level for most of the last two seasons, and the Argonauts are making the jump to the FCS level for the 2026 season.
The two quarterbacks took different paths to Memphis, and they've been engaged in a quarterback battle since spring practice.
Noland joined the program after spending time at Ohio State and South Carolina, where he saw limited playing time in 2025. The quarterback was a four-star recruit who signed with the Buckeyes but transferred to South Carolina after his freshman season.
In 2025, he attempted only three passes, completing two for 13 yards.
On the other side, Stokes was also a four-star recruit in high school, but he signed with West Florida after multiple scholarship offers were rescinded when the quarterback posted a video of him using a racial slur while rapping along to a song.
In 2023, he appeared in three games and redshirted. In 2024, he started eight games, finishing the season with 1,540 yards and 14 touchdowns, before entering his redshirt sophomore season as the full-time starting quarterback.
Last season, he threw for 3,297 yards, 30 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, and he added 367 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. He helped lead West Florida to a 10-2 record and was named a finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy, the Division II equivalent for the Heisman Trophy.
It will be interesting to see how the battle plays out, and Huff has said he would like to announce a starter to the team about a week before the season opener against UNLV.
"There's a point in time where you've got to tell the team who their guy is," Huff said in the spring. "I'm a week out from the game, two weeks out from the game, but there's no 'we've got to know by this date."
