Rating the Top College Quarterbacks
Question: Which of the following highly-touted quarterbacks - all of whom at one time or another have been mentioned as possible Heisman Trophy candidates - have higher passer ratings than the virtually-unkown-23-year-old-5th-year-Jr. quarterback of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Todd Boeckman?
Tim Tebow, Florida
Brian Brohm, Louisville
Dennis Dixon, Oregon
Colt Brennan, Hawaii
Pat White, West Virginia
Chad Henne, Michigan
Andre' Woodson, Kentucky
Colt McCoy, Texas
John David Booty, USC
Matt Ryan, Boston College
Nate Longshore, California
Answer: Of that group of Heisman candidates, only Tim Tebow of Florida, with the highest passer rating in the country, ranks higher than Ohio State's Todd Boeckman, who currently has the 3rd highest passer rating among Division 1 college quarterbacks.
The guy who now seems to be everybody's golden boy for the moment, and is often mentioned as a favorite to win the Heisman, is Boston College's Matt Ryan. Ryan, whose Eagles are ranked #2 in the country behind Boeckman's #1 Buckeyes, has the 53rd highest passer rating - 50 places behind non-Heisman trophy hopeful Boeckman.
Which isn't to take anything away from Ryan, whose last-minute heroics against Virginia Tech this past week are the stuff of which legends are made.
Rather, it is to point out what a tremendous job Boeckman has done in coming out of the shadow of last year's Heisman winner, former Buckeye quarterback Troy Smith. In fact, Boeckman is, arguably, having a better season than Smith did last year, and is doing so with, arguably, fewer "big-time" weapons than Smith had in his arsenal. (Although this might be explained by the fact that Ohio State's schedule this year has been considerably weaker than the schedule Smith's Ohio State team played last year.)
Labels: Football, Higher Education
posted by Pro Ecclesia 12:00 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Boeckman is good. I think he suffers from the fact that people in other parts of the country don't think the Big-10 is as good as some other major conferences, especially the Pac-10 and the SEC, coupled with Ohio State's weak non-conference schedule.
It's always been interesting to me too that the Heisman finalists are frequently not the best pro prospects--as was the case with OSU's quarterback last year.
Colt Brennan is the man. Unfortunately he plays for Hawaii where teams such as Michigan dropped from their schedule (replaced with Appalachian State) because of their fear of the spread offense of June Jones.
I'm a homer. I grew up in Hawaii, but at the same time Colt is for real.
He plays barely a half of football in many games because Hawaii has pretty much destroyed their competition.
Coupled with the 'east coast' bias of college football, Hawaii has almost no chance to play for the national title. They may bet a BCS birth, but beggars can't be choosers.
Who is Colt? He was Matt Leinarts backup in high school that's who.
He may get third place in the Heisman, but certainly deserves the trophy above and beyond the other pretenders.
That's my two-cents worth.
Aloha oi!
Tito
Waimea
Class of '88
I'm just sorta amazed that there are 2 guys named "Colt" who start for Division I football teams, much less that both have been, at various times, mentioned as potential Heisman candidates.
How long before we see "Stallion" and "Stud" making their marks on the gridiron?
;-)
Yeah, I agree that Boeckman is a very solid guy. Part of the problem regarding his profile is that, yes, he hasn't had the signature game.
But he's also not "The Man" at OSU like Smith was. He's not the focus. At the risk of an explosive comparison, he's very much like Chad Henne--a steady, smart pocket passer who gets the job done. Which is all Tressel asks him to do, and which is why he's not getting the pub.
Brennan's problem is that he QBs in a run and shoot system in a perennially weaker conference with a history of explosive offenses. Just think of Lavell Edwards' mad-bombing BYU teams.
Brennan would have to have insane numbers--as in breaking all sorts of records by record margins--to get serious consideration.
I remember when Ohio State's quarterbacks were most famous for handing off to Archie Griffin and other backs.
Coach Woody Hayes had studied ancient warfare and saw football as a peacetime application of the Greek phalanx.
Dale,
He may be able to pull that off, ie, have insane numbers destroying many NCAA records.
The only thing holding him back right now is that he has a badly bruised ankle and he gets pulled at halftime because of the game being a foregone conclusion.
It'll be interesting to see how he fares now into the meat of the schedule with Boise State, Fresno State, and Washington looming up ahead.
Tito
PS Yeah, lots of 'Colt's in this years running.
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