photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas quarterback Thomas MacVittie high fives his teammates after breaking from a team huddle during practice on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019.

Nobody knows if Thomas MacVittie is the answer for the Kansas football team.

The Jayhawks have struggled to find stability at the quarterback position for the past decade. MacVittie transferred to Kansas from Mesa Community College this offseason, and he has appeared to become the favorite to land the starting quarterback job for head coach Les Miles.

MacVittie is new, which naturally means fans want to believe that he might solve KU’s quarterback problem. But a recent article by Pro Football Focus, in which it ranked all starting quarterbacks in the FBS, might end up tempering those expectations for MacVittie.

PFF listed MacVittie as the No. 110 overall starting quarterback, meaning he is ranked higher than just 20 collegiate signal callers. MacVittie is 23 spots lower than any other Big 12 signal caller, as TCU’s Alex Delton is ranked No. 87 overall.

MacVittie is exactly one spot behind Nevada’s Malik Henry, who was previously at Independence Community College and the star from the past two seasons of the Netflix show “Last Chance U.”

Here is what PFF had to say about MacVittie: “Originally a 4-star recruit from Moeller High School in Cincinnati, MacVittie lands at Kansas for what now is his junior season after garnering No. 1 JUCO pro-style QB ranking from 247Sports. MacVittie has more upside than his counterpart to win the gig and more projection than actual data backing him as he went the JUCO route to hone his abilities as a quarterback after two years basically away from the position at Pittsburgh from 2016-17.”

Obviously, that is not what Kansas fans want to hear with a little over two weeks away from Miles’ debut.

There is a hope in MacVittie, who is someone Miles attempted to recruit at LSU. MacVittie even has the pedigree as a four-star recruit out of high school. He tossed 1,064 yards and 16 touchdowns in six games last season with Mesa CC.

At the same time, there is still plenty of unknown with MacVittie. He only got on the field at Pitt by playing special teams, which was just three games in 2017. Miles has yet to even name MacVittie the starter, as he recently said that Carter Stanley is still in the mix for the job.

Does this mean MacVittie can’t succeed this fall? Of course not. He, or perhaps even Stanley, could exceed expectations. This list just shows that it might take some time for Miles to completely solve KU’s quarterback conundrum.

Big 12 quarterback rankings (via PFF)

• Sam Ehlinger, Texas — No. 6

• Brock Purdy, Iowa State — No. 8

• Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma — No. 11

• Charlie Brewer, Baylor — No. 12

• Alan Bowman, Texas Tech — No. 26

• Skylar Thompson, Kansas State — No. 58

• Dru Brown/Spencer Sanders, Oklahoma State — No. 60

• Austin Kendall/Jack Allison, West Virginia — No. 78

• Alex Delton, TCU — No. 87

• Thomas MacVittie, Kansas — No. 110