Ranking past BYU QB’s and Beck

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by El Guapo

I don't know how much I agree with that. A QB can only do so much. Was Elway not a great QB until he won the SuperBowl? What if he retired three years earlier? Was he only great for his last few years in the NFL? What about Marino? Is he not a great QB because he couldn't win when it really mattered? Stockton? Malone?

One player is limited in the impact they can have in a team event. Regardless of a single player's heroics, they can't win alone. If BYU had a defense, or anything resembling a defense, last year, they would have won a lot more games (including the Yewtah game). Would that suddenly make Beck great? If so, it is an odd result, considering he would have done the exact same thing in both instances, but in only one would you consider him great.

I think you can consider a QB for greatness if he has any of the three stats I use in my analysis: winning percentage, pass efficiency rating, and offense rank. I doubt you can make a case for greatness for any QB who doesn't at least shine in one of these three.

Compared to past BYU QB's, Beck doesn't look favorable in any of those three stats THUS FAR.

[ute4ever]

I don't expect Beck to win a BCS championship, but winning the MWC would be a good start.

Statistically, he and Brian Johnson were about the same last season. There hasn't been any talk about Brian's greatness and for a good reason: he was okay. He didn't suck, but he was not phenomenal either.

[jay santos]

Update

John Beck: Career PER: 142, seasons of 129, 137, 172. Scoring offense rankings: #67, #24, #6. Record: 21-16

assuming a win in the Vegas Bowl

So where does he fit in? I'm thinking I might have to redo the tiers and put Sark, Beck, Doman, Bosco together in Tier 2.

Originally Posted by jay santos

Here I rank the 19 BYU QB’s who have been “the man” for at least one season going back 20 years. I’ll categorize by Tier 1,2,3,4 (the greats, the almost greats, the goods, the not so goods).

The criteria: pass efficiency, winning percentage, scoring offense (I had this from ’79 on and was lazy and didn’t get the pre ’79 numbers).

How to handle longevity stats as criteria…I used longevity as a criteria only in the sense that two great seasons counts as better than one and three greater than two. But I didn’t count any career total stats. No one believes Timmy Chang (career yardage leader) is the best QB in NCAA history, and he probably wouldn’t be in the top 100 list.


Tier 1, the greats

1. Jim McMahon: Career PER: 157, seasons of 177, 155. Scoring offense rankings: #1, #1. Record: 23-3.

2. Ty Detmer: Career PER: 163, seasons of 138, 176, 156, 169. Scoring offense rankings: #13, #4, #2, #11. Record: 37-13-2.

3. Steve Young: Career PER: 150, seasons of 140, 169. Scoring offense rankings: #7, #2. Record: 19-5.

4. Steve Sarkisian: Career PER: 162, seasons of 150, 174. Scoring offense rankings: #36, #5. Record: 21-5.


Tier 2, the almost greats

5. Robbie Bosco: Career PER: 149, seasons of 152, 146. Scoring offense rankings: #2, #7. Record: 24-3.

6. Brandon Doman: Career PER: 152, senior season: 160. Scoring offense ranking: #1. Record: 14-2.

7. Gifford Nielsen: Career PER: 145, seasons of 140, 143, 156. Scoring offense rankings: ?. Record: 24-10.

8. John Walsh: Career PER: 148, seasons of 156, 143. Scoring offense rankings: #12, #26. Record: 16-9.


Tier 3, the goods

9. Marc Wilson: Career PER: 137, seasons of 148, 106, 147. Scoring offense rankings: ?,?,#1. Record 29-7.

10. Ryan Hancock: Career PER: 145, season 145. Scoring offense rankings: #16. Record 8-5.

11. Gary Sheide: Career PER: 139, seasons of 144, 134. Scoring offense rankings: ?. Record: 12-10-1.

12. Kevin Feterik: Career PER: 140, seasons of 144, 140, 139. Scoring offense rankings: #68, #37, #28. Record 23-14.


Tier 4, the not so goods

13. Sean Covey: Career PER: 131, seasons of 129, 130. Scoring offense rankings: #22,#13. Record 18-8.

14. Steve Lindsley: Career PER: 130, season 130. Scoring offense rankings: #39. Record: 8-5.

15. Charlie Peterson: Career PER: 126, season 114. Scoring offense rankings: #73. Record 3-4.

16. Bob Jensen: Career PER: 118, season 117. Scoring offense rankings: #22. Record 9-4.

17. Matt Berry: Career PER: 117, seasons of 121, 112. Scoring offense rankings: #87, #109. Record 5-9

18. Bret Engemann: Career PER: 109, seasons of 108, 109. Scoring offense rankings: #73, #87. Record 4-5.


Incomplete

John Beck: Career PER: 130, seasons of 129, 137. Scoring offense rankings: #67, #24. Record: 12-14.

The big question is where does Beck fit in? He has a chance to finish #2 in all time career passing yardage, so many will be tempted to put him in at the top when you make this list. But he also has a chance to finish #1 in career pass attempts, so high on the yardage list is a given.

Where does Beck fit in with the rest of these guys based on stats that don’t take longevity into consideration? If he never plays another game as a Cougar, I’d put him somewhere in the #12-#14 range. Obviously, he has a senior season left that could be very special that could put him much higher, with an outside chance to move into Tier 2.