Ranking college QBS: Lawrence makes move
If there’s no correlation between pass attempts and team success – six of the top 10 in attempts per game have a losing record, led by 2-6 Mississippi State – you can draw a connection between winning and per-pass production.
The top 10 teams in pass attempts per game have a combined record of 39-36, boosted immensely by Clemson (8-1 overall and fifth nationally) and Nevada (5-1 and ninth).
The top 10 in yards per attempt are a combined 54-12, with no losing records in the group and four unbeaten teams (Alabama, Brigham Young, Ohio State and Western Michigan).
It’s a quarterback-driven sport, and the production at the position has never been better. Here’s a look at the best of the best – the 10 top quarterbacks in the Football Bowl Subdivision during a 2020 season when as many as two dozen passers are under consideration.
1. Kyle Trask, Florida Trask’s production has tailed off slightly in the last two games, which is a revealing testament to the ridiculous standard set during his first six games. The senior has still managed to throw for a combined six touchdowns and 639 passing yards against Vanderbilt and Kentucky to give him an Fbs-best 34 scores on the season.
2. Trevor Lawrence, Clemson Lawrence returned after a prolonged absence and picked up where he left off, with 403 passing yards and multiple scores in Clemson’s 52-17 win against Pittsburgh. And per the norm, Lawrence did the wide majority of his damage in the first half and then sat in the fourth quarter. The junior has made 14 pass attempts in the last 15 minutes of games all season and just 85 attempts in the fourth quarter across his three seasons. In comparison, Boston College’s Phil Jurkovec has made 92 throws in the fourth quarter in 2020 alone.
3. Mac Jones, Alabama Jones in Saturday’s rout of rival Auburn: 302 yards, 11.6 yards per attempt, five touchdowns, zero interceptions. He has completed at least two-thirds of his throws and averaged at least 9.4 yards per throw in every game and tossed at least two touchdown passes in every game but one.
4. Justin Fields, Ohio State It’s a numbers issue for Fields. The per-snap performance is predictably outstanding: He leads the country in completion percentage (79.6%) and is averaging a touchdown per every 8.7 passes. But with the Buckeyes having played only four games, Fields is working with a smaller sample size than Trask, Lawrence and Jones. As with the Buckeyes and the College Football Playoff, it’s still more than enough to keep Fields in the top four.
5. Zach Wilson, Brigham Young BYU will play twice more this season, counting the Cougars’ eventual bowl destination. That should give Wilson a shot at cracking the program’s top 10 in single-season passing scores. He’s currently at 26, six off matching Ty Detmer (in 1989) for 10th and eight away from moving into sole position of fifth in the school’s record book.
6. D’eriq King, Miami (Florida) Most graduate transfers fail to make more than a ripple. The impact King has had on Miami since arriving from Houston might be unmatched in the history of the graduate-transfer rule, rivaled only by the difference made by Russell Wilson when he transferred from North Carolina State to Wisconsin in 2011. After the Hurricanes went 6-7 in 2019, King has helped Miami to a 7-1 start and a shot at the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.
7. Desmond Ridder, Cincinnati Ridder’s game continues to take off. He has thrown for at least 300 yards and accounted for at least 395 yards of total offense in each of his last two appearances and is now averaging 8.3 yards per snap, good for 17th in the FBS. The Bearcats are one of two teams to rank in the top 12 nationally in yards gained and allowed per play against FBS competition, joining BYU.
8. Matt Corral, Mississippi The perception of Corral’s season under first-year coach Lane Kiffin has been colored by his six interceptions against Arkansas, by far his worst performance and the Rebels’ worst loss of the year. If you remove that game, Corral has thrown 22 touchdown passes and just three interceptions against a Southeastern Conference-only schedule and gone toe-to-toe with the league’s best in competitive losses to Florida and Alabama. The sophomore has 12 scores and 1,310 yards without an interception in the last three games.
9. Ian Book, Notre Dame Wins are a team stat, not a quarterback stat. And the Notre Dame senior isn’t in elite company in the very basic metrics used to evaluate quarterback production: Book ranks no higher than 30th nationally in completion percentage (45th in the FBS), yards per attempt (30th) and efficiency rating (33rd), for example. But he has a wonderful grasp of the Notre Dame system, is not cowed by any high-pressure moment and has clearly taken a step forward in the past month as the Irish have cruised toward a playoff berth. Book’s evolution mirrors Notre Dame’s development into a true national championship contender.
10. Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma Like Corral, if to a lesser degree, Rattler’s redshirt freshman season has been largely overlooked nationally after he threw three interceptions (and four touchdowns) in the Sooners’ disappointing loss to Kansas State in late September. He’s had ups and downs since, unsurprisingly, but Rattler had the best performance of his young career in the win against rival Oklahoma State (17 of 24 for 301 yards and four scores) and is developing as expected in Lincoln Riley’s system. He’ll be right near the top of the Heisman Trophy conversation heading into 2021.