Wednesday August 22, 2007

History Not on Korn's Side

History Not on Korn’s Side
Perhaps the most difficult thing to do in college football is to be successful as a starting quarterback as a true freshman. As fans we follow recruiting and get all hyped by a hot shot high school quarterback. The facts indicate otherwise as Jemalle Hollway is the only true freshman quarterback to ever lead his team to a national title when he took the Sooners to the promise land in 1985.

I would add that the wishbone offense he led that season was not one where Holloway had to make a bunch of reads outside of his triple option reads that he was good at in his high school days. Oklahoma’s system used his natural running ability and athleticism instead of his experience. Therefore, it is very safe to say the defenses are more complex so the offenses have become more complicated since 1985.

Vince Young could not do it. Matt Leinhart could not do it. Eli Manning, Tom Brady and Carson Palmer could not start as true freshmen at their schools. In fact last season only six schools had true freshmen as their starting quarterbacks and their programs suffered last season because of the inexperience.

In 2006, only Isaiah Williams of Illinois, Mitch Mustain of Arkansas, Matthew Stafford of Georgia, Josh Freeman of Kansas State, Thaddeus Lewis of Duke and Nate Davis of Ball State started a majority of the games for their respective schools and thus were the only six players to be considered starters as true freshmen at their position. Others filled in at times but these were the only guys that started more than six games last season as true freshmen.

It also needs to be pointed out that Lewis was the only player to start at least 10 games. Duke started Lewis in 11 of their 12 games last season. Illinois’ Williams started nine games, Georgia’s Stafford, Arkansas’ Mustain and Kansas State’s Freeman started eight games and Davis of Ball State started seven contests.

The six true freshmen starting quarterbacks combined for a 21-30 record in the games they started. If you take away Mustain’s 7-1 record they went 14-29. I think it is OK to take away Mustain’s 7-1 because all he did was hand the ball off to Darren McFadden and Felix Jones or at least that is all he did according to his mommy. For Willy Korn’s argument, maybe he will only be handing off to James Davis and C.J. Spiller though.

The quarterbacks combined to throw 64 touchdowns and 70 interceptions.

Stafford was perhaps the nation’s best true freshman quarterback a year ago. The Texas native completed 135 of 256 passes for 1,749 yards in helping Georgia to a 6-2 record in the games he started. However not all was smooth for Stafford as he threw 13 interceptions to go along with his seven touchdowns. He did not become a starter until mid-way but he did play a lot in the 18-0 win at South Carolina. His low point may have been three picks at Kentucky which led to a loss in Commonwealth Stadium but Stafford rebounded as the Dawgs beat three straight ranked opponents for the first time in UGA history. The high point and maybe turning point came in a 37-15 upset over then fifth-ranked Auburn on the road when he went 14-20 through the air for 219 yards with one touchdown without an interception. Stafford also rushed for 83 yards in the huge win.

Georgia feels it is better now because they endured through the growing pains last season. On our morning show a few months ago UGA head coach Mark Richt said Stafford was the best he had ever coached at this stage and the list of Richt’s pupils include two Heisman Trophy winner, Charlie Ward and Chris Weinke.

Mustain’s record looked great from a wins and losses standpoint but credit McFadden and Jones for the 7-1 record. In fact, Mustain was eventually beaten out by sophomore Casey Dick. Only once last season did Mustain throw more than 20 passes in a game and he threw for more than 100 yards in a game three times. After being beaten out Mustain threw only 11passes in his team’s final six games and he has since transferred to Southern Cal.

Freeman went 4-4 as the starter at Kansas State but he also had his extreme highs and lows. The mammoth man helped lead the Wildcats to a 45-42 upset win over Texas where he went 19 of 31 for 269 yards and three touchdowns but he also threw only seven touchdowns and was intercepted 15 times the entire season.

Juice Williams was a hotshot national recruit that Ron Zook lured to Illinois but he did not look like the high school All-American as indicated by the 1-8 record. Williams passed for less than 1,500 yards and threw nine touchdowns and nine picks in a tough freshman campaign that saw Illinois finish last in the Big Ten. Williams probably did not anticipate completing only 39% of his passes last season.

Davis looked very good at times last season at Ball State and his 18 touchdown to eight interception ratio was the best among the six true freshmen from last year. I am not sure what Ball State’s record would have been if he started more than seven games but the Cardinals were only 3-4 in the games he did start.

And finally it is not fair to judge the 0-11 record Lewis had a starter at Duke because Johnny Unitas might not have fared much better. Lewis is a terrific athlete that gained valuable experience as a first-year starter.

Also consider the true freshmen like Tim Tebow at Florida that were not starters but did see some playing time. Would Florida have won a national championship with a true freshman starter at quarterback? My guess is no.

So what does this mean for Korn?

I think it is fairly clear he is a better prospect than some of the true freshmen that started last season but not as gifted as Stafford and maybe Mustain. However, each of the signal callers played in a different offense and under different expectations. Maybe Mustain is the best example of what Korn will have to work with in his running game if he is forced into action.

What we do know is that if Korn is the starter at some point this season he has a bunch of history stacked against his success. What we also know is that he is a special kid with special make up that I would not bet against any week.

864-834-6060

The Brad Hughes All-State Insurance Agency