Brady Quinn: The Notre Dame Senior has earned some lofty praise this off season, and why not? He is the preseason Heisman favorite for many after having completed 64.9% of his passes last year for 3919 yards and an amazing 32:7 TD-INT ratio. His superior field vision, accuracy, and pass rush elusion ability makes him the best QB in America and a future Top 5 draft choice. With WR duo supreme Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight back (not to mention Head Coach Charlie Weis) Quinn looks ready to lead one of the nation's premier pass attacks in the county.
Trent Edwards: The Senior Quarterback out of Stanford leads the high powered Cardinal attack which looks to mature into one of the best the Pac-10 will field this year. While Edwards went 168-268 (63.1%) last season with 1934 yards and a 17:7 TD-INT ratio, he was nevertheless bothered by several nagging injuries and without his premier target Evan Moore (who suffered a hip injury in the opener with Navy). Traditionally Walt Harris QB's have a boatload of success in their senior year, and an excellent Spring Game (203 yards, 3 TDs, 85% completion) could be the most improved QB in the country. With a fully healthy cast including Mark Badford (2 games out last year) Edwards could cause havoc for the Navy secondary.
Shuan Carney: Some readers may question this pick, but to be honest I nearly considered ranking Carney ahead of Paul Smith. Why? Because when it's all said and done Carney may be the best QB the Air Force Academy has ever scene. While he has been inconsistent over his first two seasons, the junior out Cleveland, Ohio still managed to put up some 1300 pass yards last year (64.2 %, 7:7 ratio) along with 832 rushing yards (11 TDs). At 5-10 he's not a big guy but has (at least for an option oriented offense) a surprisingly big arm. While he's thrown some fairly crappy passes (Keenan Little's end zone pick) he's still fairly young, and Air Force's rushing attack often allows him to spot one-on-one matchups on the outside. With a decent arm and great athleticism, Carney gives an inferior Air Force team the chance to win any day, including Oct. 7th against Navy.
Tyler Jones: The E. Michigan Sophomore shined in his only performance last year, going 19-26 for 245 yards (2:1 ratio) and rushing for 107 yards in a narrow loss against Miami of Ohio. He's an athletic quarterback with an accurate arm, but to judge one performance against a shaky MAC defense as an accurate indication of his abilities might be stretch. In other words Jones may do well and improve the Eagles this year, but his play shouldn't dazzle the Navy defense.
Zach Asack: Last year was a trying experience for the Duke Sophomore, who completed 50% of his passes for 966 yards and 5:8 ratio. Considering this came against a tough slat of ACC teams, I'm not going to sit here and say he's completely inept as a QB, but he certainly has a good deal of learning to do. He wasn't abysmal in his first start against the Midshipmen (16-27, 152 yards), but isn't exactly surrounded by a talented group of players. Still, Duke is not as bad as a lot of people think (mostly because of their schedule), and while the Mids should hold the Blue Devil attack at bay, look for improved play out of Mr. Asack.
David Pevoto: This will be the first year starting for Army's Junior QB, and at 6-5 229 he sure looks to have the size up a big-time QB. Because of his lack of experience, it's hard to put an exact ranking on Pevoto, who in his only action last year went 6-12 for 68. If he can't deliver, it could be a very trying year for the Black Knights.
Shane Kelly/Colin Clancy: One of these Temple Sophomores will take over for the departed Mike McGann, who somehow managed to pass for 3:13 TD-INT ratio with a 48.8 completion percentage. It's tough to automatically put Temple QB's at the bottom, since the team plays one of the most difficult schedules in the country and is so inept offensively, but this group is so inexperienced that little should be expected of them. Clancy went 10-19 last year for 121 yards and a TD, but Kelly has the biggest arm. If neither Kelly nor Clancy can pull out a win (and against Buffalo and Kent State there will be an opportunity) then look out for Freshmen Jarrett Dunston. The Hargrave product is mobile and has a good arm, and could start against navy if Temple has (and will have) nothing to lose.
You may have noticed that there was no assessment of the QB situation over at UMASS, Navy's only I-AA opponent this year. For ranking purposes, i felt it was best to leave the I-AA QB's out of the equation, but check back later this month for a preseason preview of UMAAS.
5 comments:
"Because when it's all said and done Carney may be the best QB the Air Force Academy has ever scene"
No chance in hell.
Phat-I knew you were going to say something along those lines. Do you think you could elaborate?
Even though I admittedly think Carney is very overrated, my comments are more a reflection of the tremendous quarterbacks that Air Force has had over the last 30 years rather than a knock on Carney. I know he still has two years left, but to this point I haven't seen anything that would make me think he'll be up there with the Thiessens and Morgans of the world.
As for your list, I like the respect you give to Paul Smith. I think that you have Carney & the UConn duo too high and Teel & Pinckney too low. Maybe Asack too. Everyone else is too tough to tell.
I would be remiss, Phat, if I didn’t mention that the latest Phil Steele had Carney as the 36th best QB in the country and, (are you sitting down?), a darkhorse for the Heisman. To be perfectly honest actually being able to go over Carney’s numbers, especially his rushing numbers, and to hear it from an expert convinced me to put him ahead of a Teel or a Pickney. I can’t speak for his performances on a large scale because I’ve only seen him play against Navy (which will be changing with the addition of CSTV to my household), but felt like he brought more experience then Teel, the UCONN guys, and the others. Pickney was a tough pick, but because the system is set up as it is in East Carolina, I have to think that it wasn’t all him.
Anyways, the first two are obvious, but everyone else is fairly difficult to place with the disparity between conferences, lack of me actually seeing them play, and for some, lack of game experience.
I wish I could find a tape of the Morgan brothers for you to watch. After about ten minutes of that you'd be saying to yourself, "who the @#$% is this Carney kid?" All the hype surrounding Carney seems to be based on the idea that if he's starting as a freshman at Air Force, he must be really good. But that isn't the case. Air Force fans won't admit it, but he started as a freshman because others were lacking and not because he was all that great. And by the end of both of the last two seasons he was benched. There is potential there, I guess, but eventually potential becomes a bad word. His rushing stats aren't all THAT great. I don't know how you could dismiss Pinkney's numbers as being a product of the system and not say the same thing about Carney. Carney's are probably even more so. In fact, if you polled AF fans about what they think Carney's weakness is, about half would say his running ability.
Pinkney isn't as good as the ECU fans were making him out to be, but he is pretty good. At the very least you should have him ahead of the UConn guys. I'd bet that the UConn staff would love to have a returning starter who completed 60% of his passes the year before.
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