While neither Zach Wilson or Jaren Hall have done anything to lose their spot in the depth chart, has Baylor Romney done enough to make a jump?
Baylor Romney is 3-0 when playing in at least one half of a football game. Not bad when you consider that one of those wins was against a then Top 15 team and another one was against an in-state rival on the road.
While there are positives to go around for is performance, the one negative is, what happens next? Is Romney suddenly just the third string walk on quarterback again? Or has he done so much good he has made it a debate?
The initial reaction of most BYU fans will be the latter. After all, Zach Wilson and Jaren Hall were benched for injuries, not for a lack of talent. But when we jump into the numbers, maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly.
Let's take a quick blind resume test. Obviously, these numbers are not going to be perfectly reflective of what things actually are since the opponents are different, however, at the same time, numbers don't lie...that much.
These questions are based on quarterbacks that had an opportunity to win games. For example, Jaren Hall wasn't really put in a good position to win against Toledo.
Question 1: Choose a QBR:
A. 159.8
B. 151.3
C. 129.5
Question 2: Choose a TD/INT ratio:
A: 7:2
B: 1:0
C: 5:4
Question 3: Passing Yards per half
A: 149.6
B: 210
C: 131.2
Question 4: Completion Percentage
A: 63.5%
B: 67.4%
C: 61.7%
Question 5: Yards per Completion
A: 8.8
B: 9.1
C: 7.5
Question 6: Points per Half
A: 16
B: 14.6
C: 11.1
If each quarterback was given three points for the best stat, two for second and one point for the worst then here are the results:
Quarterback A: 15 Points
Quarterback B: 15 Points
Quarterback C: 6 Points
One could argue that perhaps quarterback "C" played in more difficult games, but in fact, each quarterback has played a pretty similar difficulty of schedule with an exception to Quarterback "B" who has had it a bit easier.
When looking at the numbers, it makes it tough to say who should be the starter going forward. On one hand, Quarterback "A" has the best QBR, TD ratio and points per half, however not a great completion percentage. Quarterback "B" is solid all around with the highest yards per half. Quarterback "C" seems to be struggling the most out of all of them, however has a solid completion percentage.
Quarterback A is Baylor Romney.
Quarterback B is Jaren Hall
Quarterback C is Zach Wilson
Now before you stop reading this and say "WELL WILSON PLAYED AGAINST THE FOUR POWER FIVES!" consider this: Wilson had his lowest completion percentages and QBR against Toledo. We were hoping he would light up the scoreboard and throw for 400 yards in that game, but it wasn't there. The passing yards were there, but everything else was down.
Now consider Baylor Romney. Romney has played against Boise State, and half of Utah State. I would consider those to be the equivalent of USC and Toledo as far as talent comparisons go. Romney was phenomenal in both of those games. There was never any question as to whether he was playing well because he didn't make mistakes.
Now, am I calling for Zach Wilson be benched once cleared? No. However, the numbers do suggest VERY STRONGLY that Baylor Romney shouldn't be automatically thrown back to the third string quarterback.
Again, I realize that Wilson had a tougher stretch of games then Romney, but the dominance of Romney in the statistics category is too much to overlook.
What do you think? Should Wilson be the starter uncontested or should the coaches give each player a chance to lead the team in the future?