Houston — It was the year of the quarterback.

In 1999, the Southland Conference was the only Division I conference that had three quarterbacks drafted in the NFL Draft: Sam Houston’s Josh McCown (Arizona) Stephen F. Austin’s Wes Pate (Baltimore) and Northwestern State’s Craig Nall (Buffalo).

Eight seasons later, the quarterbacks are back on the rise in the SLC, with Texas State, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin and Central Arkansas each possessing highly-touted and talented signal-callers.

“I can remember back when I was at McNeese State, and the Southland Conference was the only conference with three players that were drafted in the same year,” SFA head coach J.C. Harper, who as served as an assistant at McNeese, Northwestern State and SFA. “Heck, we might be right back in that same situation to where you have those kind of players at quarterback.”

Texas State’s sophomore Bradley George, Sam Houston junior Rhett Bomar, SFA senior Danny Southall and UCA junior Nathan Brown all have the talent and ability to take over and win football games.

“In this conference, you win with quarterbacks, and there are definitely a number of talented quarterbacks in this conference,” Texas State head coach Brad Wright said. “We watched Southall almost single-handedly beat us last season, you know Bomar brings a lot of talent to the table and I saw film on the Central Arkansas guy and he’s a great quarterback as well.”

Topping the list is Southall, who was a first-team all-conference performer last season, his first as a starter. Starting all 11 games, Southall led the conference averaging 170.6 passing yards per game and 208.6 yards of total offense a game. The dual-threat quarterback competed 169-of-294 passes for 1,877 yards with only four interceptions and eight touchdowns.

“Last year was his first year starting, so coming in after a whole year as a starter will really help him,” Harper said. “He's obviously a very good athlete, who’s big tall and quick. He's very athletic and can take it right at you with his big body and we’re really going to try to get him to run the ball more this season.”

More running makes Southall a happier quarterback.

“It makes me excited because I know it’s going to give me more options to tuck it in and run to make something happen when I can,” Southall said. “Whatever it takes for us to win.”

Although he has yet to take a snap in a SLC game, Bomar will attract the most national attention when he makes his first start for the Bearkats, but not for the right reason. Bomar was released from the University of Oklahoma before last season after getting caught violating NCAA rules for taking money from an Oklahoma auto dealership for work that was not performed. Kicked off the Sooner squad, Bomar transferred to Sam Houston and sat out last season as he awaited reinstatement by the NCAA.

Sam Houston head coach Todd Whitten said Bomar has done a lot to put the past behind him.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. He knows he made a bad mistake and he’s been humbled very much,” Whitten said. “He’s done everything right since then and is ready to move on.”

In 2005, Bomar passed for 2,018 yards and 10 touchdowns, leading the Sooners to victories over Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor, Nebraska Texas A&M; and Oklahoma State. He was named the Most Valuable Player in the Holiday Bowl, passing for 229 yards in a 17-14 win over Oregon, and his career best performance was 20-for-28 for 298 yards against A&M.;

Bomar threw for 6,097 yards and 33 touchdowns during his high school career at Grand Prairie.

“He's fiercely competitive, he's got a great arm with a quick release and he has the best feet I've ever coached as a quarterback,” Whitten said. “He’s brings athleticism that is really going to help us, but probably the most important factor is that football is so important to him. It is such a priority to him.”

Texas State’s George is the youngest in classification among SLC starting quarterbacks, but the oldest in age. The 25-year-old sophomore spent six years as a professional baseball player before deciding to go back to playing football three seasons ago. As a redshirt freshman last season, George started six games after taking the starting role from Chase Wasson last season. He completed 124-of-233 passes for 1,676 yards and 11 touchdowns and was named a second-team All-SLC preseason selection.

“We’re excited about Bradley because the year of experience he got is different than the year of experience other quarterbacks got in the league. Our guy hadn’t played a football game since 1999, so that experience to him was invaluable,” Wright said. “In the spring he made unbelievable improvement and hopefully we will continue to see that. I think the sky’s the limit for the guy.”

Brown is the new kid in the conference, as UCA enters its first full year as a SLC member. But his accolades are already some of the strongest in the conference.

Brown led the Bears to an 8-3 record last season with wins at SLC members Sam Houston State and SFA, as well as an overtime win at perennial national power Georgia Southern.

In less than two full seasons, Brown has made a sharp climb in the UCA recordbooks. He ranks first in career completion percentage (67.2 percent), second in career pass efficiency (157.4), total offense (198 yards) total offense per play (7.35 yards). He also ranks third in career touchdown passes (43) and passing yards per game (198 yards). His 4,356 yards of total offense ranks 8th in school history

“He’s a great competitor and has the intangible ability to make everyone around him elevate their level of play. He commands more of himself than anybody else,” UCA head coach Clint Conque said. “I’m not so sure our players would rather let me down than let him down. That’s how passionate he is and how much they respect him. We’re blessed to have him two years.”

Brown said he feels like his team will be in the fold for a conference title even though SLC preseason polls have the Bears picked at or near the bottom,

“I know we can compete in this league. We only played two games last year in the Southland Conference and it showed that we can have some success, winning both of them,” said Brown. “But I also think we may have been flying under the radar last year and might have snuck up on some people. But this year is going to be a great opportunity and challenge for our team because we’re meeting it head on with a full conference schedule.”

It’s not certain that one or all of these quarterbacks will get the chance to play at the next level. But they are certainly going to be exciting to watch this season.

rstevens@sanmarcosrecord.com