Sporting News Top 10 College QB's of All Time

#2
#2
I’d actually put Peyton higher in the NFL ranks than I would college. Leinart might be a bit high, maybe....He was really freaking good though .

If VY doesn’t beat USC then he’s not even top 10.
If DeShaun Watson played for a more storied program at the time he’s top 4.

I don’t think Elway was ever above .500 in college and he played before I was born at Stanford so I guess he was just that good.

I don’t really have a problem with Tebow up there. Certainly not the most talented, but the perfect fit. If Cam would’ve had more longevity and less controversy at Auburn I’d say he belongs on that list.
 
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#14
#14
Mtnvol80 said:
Well I wasn't alive 150 years ago but in my lifetime those are up there. Don't see anybody else throwing out names so give your list
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Probably because system QBs abound everywhere in college football and have for almost forever. Also, overwhelming team talent has led to many Heisman winners, like, Miami's Gino Torretta, or Oklahoma's Jason White. For every Andrew Luck, there's a system guy like Robert Griffin III soaking up all the stats and trophies. Griffin didn't have to read defenses and didn't have to get his team into a presnap position. And when he got to the NFL was exposed as so many college "greats" are. Then there is the unwashed and unkempt of the sports media who for generations willingly allow themselves to become prisoners of the moment. Like ESPN, they never saw a stat they didn't love.

You can easily venture out with your personal opinion but you end up swimming in these types of murky waters.
 
#15
#15
YankeeVol said:
Peyton is WAY too high.
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This will be considered blasphemy here, but people don't realize/have forgotten that Peyton is as well-known as he is because of his NFL career, not his college career. In college (and until he won his first Super Bowl, actually) Peyton was known as a guy who put up a ton of stats but was something of a choke artist. 0-4 against Florida, that inexplicable 1996 loss to Memphis, destroyed by Nebraska in his final college game. He was very good against Alabama though and did win an SECCG in his final season. He didn't become the figure he's known as today until the middle of his NFL career though.
 
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#17
#17
TUSKtimes said:
Probably because system QBs abound everywhere in college football and have for almost forever. Also, overwhelming team talent has led to many Heisman winners, like, Miami's Gino Torretta, or Oklahoma's Jason White. For every Andrew Luck, there's a system guy like Robert Griffin III soaking up all the stats and trophies. Griffin didn't have to read defenses and didn't have to get his team into a presnap position. And when he got to the NFL was exposed as so many college "greats" are. Then there is the unwashed and unkempt of the sports media who for generations willingly allow themselves to become prisoners of the moment. Like ESPN, they never saw a stat they didn't love.

You can easily venture out with your personal opinion but you end up swimming in these types of murky waters.
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RGIII might be as bad as an example as you could find for your argument. Yikes.
 
#19
#19
TUSKtimes said:
There's an opinion. Do you want to explain?
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Sure the Briles offense is a scheming nightmare, but RGIII was an athletic freak that allowed for things no other offense could do, or frankly, have done since. He lit it up his rookie season in the NFL. Only thing that stopped him was the knee injuries.
 
#22
#22
bamawriter said:
Probably because that dominant season was his only season.
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Right, but he was still a college QB which seems to be the only qualifier. Tebow had far more help at UF than Cam had at Auburn. Imo he was the most dominant QB in recent memory. The fact he made Chizik a championship winning coach proves that.
 
#23
#23
Atlanta917 said:
Right, but he was still a college QB which seems to be the only qualifier. Tebow had far more help at UF than Cam had at Auburn. Imo he was the most dominant QB in recent memory. The fact he made Chizik a championship winning coach proves that.
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Cam was great. But he wasn't the "most dominant". Far from it. He only threw for 204 yards per game, and Auburn won several games by the skin of their teeth. What Newton was great at was coming up big when his team needed him. He was more "clutch" than "dominant."

But again, the biggest issue is trying to compare guys who each played 25+ games to a guy who only played 14.
 
#24
#24
volfanbill said:
Sure the Briles offense is a scheming nightmare, but RGIII was an athletic freak that allowed for things no other offense could do, or frankly, have done since. He lit it up his rookie season in the NFL. Only thing that stopped him was the knee injuries.
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Baylor is one of the ultimate Universities of plug and play. They had a number of QBs go down and the next guy, including Jarett Stidham, came in and would score a ton of points.

When Griffin got to Washington, coach Shanahan was smart enough to keep him in the spread concepts he ran at Baylor and tried to turn him into the next Michael Vick. But just like at Baylor it was only a matter of time before his athleticism didn't save him from injury. The next season he wasn't listening to anyone about the offensive scheme. He decided he was the next Andrew Luck and wanted to sit in the pocket. Griffin started envisioning himself as a polished pocket passer and Shanahan couldn't tell him different. That was the official beginning of the end.

Griffin is another long line of super athletic players that could have been successful at most any skill position at any level. But he was never a pocket passer, he was never going to be an NFL QB good enough to read coverages, he struggled against the blitz and struggled throwing in tight coverages. That's pretty much the trifecta of playing NFL QB.
 
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