From: crs@milton.u.washington.edu (Cliff Slaughterbeck)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Elvis!!! was Re: Michigan RB's Was: Re: Heisman Poll Update
Date: 29 Jul 92 20:58:24 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

billms@eecs.umich.edu (William Mangione-Smith) writes:
>
>Ok, I pulled up the stats that I could find.  Here are the top 12 qbs (I went
>to twelve so Billy Joe could be included) based on last seasons qb rating (a
>very questionable stat, in my mind, but the best we have if you want a good
>single metric for comparision).  First column is the qb (ok, you could have
>figured that out yourself, second is the interception percent, and the third
>is the rating.  The first table is ordered by qb rating, and the second by
>the interception percentage.
>
>Sorted by rating
>================
>Elvis Grbac             2.19    169
>Ty Detmer               2.98    168.5
>Jeff Garcia             3.13    160.1
>Matt Blundin            0.0     159.6
>Troy Kopp               3.56    151.8
>Steve Stenstrom         3.55    150.2
>Tony Sacca              1.71    149.8
>Rick Mirer              4.27    149.2
>Shane Matthews          4.99    148.8
>Keithen McCant          4.76    146.5
>Casey Weldon            2.56    146.3
>Billy_Joe Hobert        3.51    146.1
>

[Second table deleted, Elvis fell to third...]

>What do you know.  I stand corrected.  Elvis did suck with his accuracy.  His
>ranking dropped all the way from #1 to #3.
>
>I don't have a national table for stats, but I do know that the Michigan line
>gave up a grand total of 12 sacks last year, though I don't know if Elvis
>cought them all.
>
>Sorry for some of the sarcasm, but Elvis has been dissed once or twice by
>Washington guys who don't seem to have seen him much or know what he has
>done.  I'm not saying that you were dissing him here, because all you said
>was that you thought he was slow and probably not Heisman caliber.
>Personally, I disagree a bit on the first, and agree a bit on the second.  He
>could win the Heisman, but I certainly wouldn't put money on it.  I think
>there are maybe 3 other guys who have a better chance, but mostly because of
>the systems or schools they play for.  I don't think that Elvis towers over
>the best, but then I don't see anybody towering over him either.
>
>In any case, he may indeed be a water buffalo.  But he didn't look that bad
>to me, and i seem to remember this Moeller quote about him running very well.
>And the stats certainly don't seem to indicate that his running and
>scrambling abilities have hurt the team at all.

[Mario vs. Desmond stuff deleted as already to heavily discussed and w/o
merit...]

The reason why Elvis was rated so highly last year (and probably will be
again this year is simple.  You stated it yourself--the offensive line.
With the exception of the Washington game, Elvis had hours to throw the 
ball, and some pretty good targets to hit as well.  During the Washington
game, Elvis had no time to throw and sucked--end of story.  Most decent
QB's will have outstanding ratings if they are given all day to throw.  The
real measure of a QB is how well he does when the pressure is on.  John
Elway is a superstar because he makes plays when everything around him goes
to hell, ditto Randall Cunningham, and the other top notch QB's in the NFL.
There are many QB's who play major college division I-A football who could
complete passes to Howard and company if they were given Michigan's offensive
line to hide behind.  The facts are that it is damn hard to complete a pass
when you are lying on your back, and that doesn't happen to Grbac much.
Even football writers are not so stupid as to miss this (OK, they are, but
we can dream can't we?).  For that reason, I doubt Grbac will win the 
Heisman, unless there are just no other candidates.

One final note about what I said about the measure of a true star QB being
what he does under pressure:  I don't reccomend trying to find out that
you have a superstar QB.  You win more games with a good OL than a star QB.

****************************************************************************
Cliff Slaughterbeck           * 
Dept. of Physics, FM-15       *   Truth is a statue, and you are all just 
University of Washington      *   a bunch of pigeons. 
Seattle, WA 98195             *
****************************************************************************