For example, I would take a healthy Riley over a Freshmen and Soph John Beck. Statistically you could argue he did even better than Jr John Beck, but I wouldn't go that far.
Not saying he was a BYU great, but he certainly did get the job done. Not sure why you are so anti-statistics. He was statistically the 11th best all time BYU QB in 2011, leading the team to a 10 win season (very likely could had been an 11 win season if he started the whole year) and it lead him to pre-season Davey O'Brien and Maxwell Award Watch lists.