I do think there is a big difference between a 19 year old who threw 7 passes as a freshman and a 24 year old who has seen action in 3 seasons of college football. That's why I pointed those out.
Great points on the quality of the defenses they faced. I know my data is a bit flawed, but the numbers are so far apart in terms of performance that I think you can at least make an argument with the data as is.
Huntley against Washington is one of the best cases I can give in his favor. It was a top 30 pass defense on the road and Huntley threw for over 290 at 70% with 2 TD and 1 INT. That same Washington defense at home gave up 93 yards to Rosen on 12/21 passing, 31 yards on 7/13 against Oregon, and 63% passing with 1 TD and 3 INT to Luke Falk.
And that game wasn't an outlier. It was in line with Huntley's other production. So what is Mangum's best game to look at? He just doesn't have the same quality performances or production that Huntley displayed. And I think it matters that he was 24 and playing his 3rd year of college football. You pretty much know what you have at that point. With Huntley, I think there is still substantial room for growth.