Phil Steele Blog • February 29, 2016

 

2015 Top 50 True Freshman and their Impact on the Season.

Here is a look at the Top 50 2015 true freshman quarterback signees and how many of them made an impact in 2015. Also listed below them are my Top 50 rated quarterbacks for 2016.

Of the Top 50 quarterbacks a total of 16 of them earned passing stats during their true freshman season. It is no surprise to me that Josh Rosen had the most yards passing of the bunch as he was the PS#1 QB and I had him as the projected starter for UCLA. He threw for 3,668 yards. Boise St quarterback Brett Rypien who was PS#24 ended up #2 in passing yards at 3,353 and had an even better QBR than Rosen. Jake Browning (PS#10) won the starting job at Washington and threw for 2,955 yard and his QBR of 139.7 was 2nd best. Lamar Jackson only threw for 1,840 yards but rushed for 960 and had an incredible bowl game vs Texas A&M. Speaking of Texas A&M Kyler Murray had the 2nd most rush yards at 335 and threw for 686 but has moved on to Oklahoma.

You normally associate interceptions with freshman quarterbacks and the best ratio of any true frosh last year was Baylor quarterback Jarrett Stidham who had 12 TD's and just 2 interceptions for a 6-1 ratio. Drew Lock of Missouri had a 4-8 ratio to be at the other end of the spectrum.

The best completion percentage (over 10 passes) belonged to Jarrett Stidham of Baylor at 68.8% while Kyle Shurmur of Vanderbilt had the lowest % of those attempting 10 or more passes at 42.7%.

Overall the Top 50 true frosh quarterbacks from last year ended up throwing for 18,357 yards, completing 57.96% of their passes with 114 touchdowns and 74 interceptions. Of those true frosh quarterbacks that did not play last year, you can expect many of them to see action in 2016. Note for the BYU fans Tanner Magnum was PS#8 quarterback in 2012 (LDS Mission for 3 years).

Top Red Shirt =RS                    
50 INFO NAME TEAM Att COM PCT YDS TD INT QBR Other Stats
1    Josh Rosen Ucla 487 292 60 3668 23 11 134.3 Rush 37-16-0.4-2
2 Trans to Oklahoma  Kyler Murray Texas A&M 121 72 59.5 686 5 7 109.2 Rush 53-335-6.3-1
3 RS  Blake Barnett Alabama 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
4 RS/also time at WR  Torrance Gibson Ohio St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
5  Jarrett Stidham Baylor 109 75 68.8 1265 12 2 199 Rush 36-70-1.9-2
6 RS/Trans to Ark  Ricky Town  Usc 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
7  Brandon Wimbush Notre Dame 5 3 60 17 0 0 88.6 Rush 7-96-13.7-1
8 RS  Brady White Arizona St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
9 RS  Deondre Francois Florida St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
10  Jake Browning Washington 368 233 63.3 2955 16 10 139.7 Rush 65-35-0.5-1
11 RS  Travis Jonsen Oregon 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
12 RS  Sam Darnold Usc 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
13  Drew Lock Missouri 263 129 49 1332 4 8 90.5 Rush 52-28-0.5-1
14 RS  Zach Gentry Michigan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
15 RS  John Kolar Oklahoma St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
16 RS  Alex Malzone Michigan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
17 RS  Ty Storey Arkansas 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
18  Dwayne Lawson Virginia Tech 9 3 33.3 51 0 0 80.9 Rush 14-55-3.9-1
19  Quinten Dormady Tennessee 22 13 59.1 209 1 0 153.9 Rush 10-5-0.5-0
20 RS  Kai Locksley Texas 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
21 RS  Sheriron Jones Tennessee 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
22 Moved to WR  Juan Jennings Tennessee 2 1 50 58 1 0 458.6 Rush 7-15-2.1-0
23  Chad President Tulsa 3 0 0 0 0 0 0  
24  Brett Rypien Boise St 429 273 63.6 3353 20 8 140.9 Rush 40-(-72)-(-6.5)-1
25 Trans to JC  De'Andre Johnson Florida St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
26  Lorenzo Nunez South Carolina 52 32 61.5 376 3 3 129.9 Rush 59-375-6.4-2
27  Kelly Bryant Clemson 9 7 77.8 27 0 1 80.8 Rush 23-156-6.8-2
28 RS  Brian Lewerke Michigan St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
29  Lamar Jackson Louisville 247 135 54.7 1840 12 8 126.8 Rush 163-960-5.9-11
30 RS  Tyler Hilinski Wash St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
31 RS  Joe Burrow  Ohio St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
32 Saw time at WR  David Sills West Virginia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
33 RS  Kyle Kearns Wake Forest 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
34 RS  Anthony Ratliff-Williams North Carolina 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
35 RS  Jason Pellerin  Mississippi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
36  Chason Virgil  Fresno St 56 31 55.4 298 3 3 107 Rush 9-53-5.9-0
37 RS  Ross Bowers California 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
38 RS/Trans to Nevada  Austin Kafentzis Wisconsin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
39 RS  Tyler Queen Auburn 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
40  Kyle Shurmur Vanderbilt 103 44 42.7 503 5 3 93.9 Rush 14-(-33)-(-2.4)-0
41 RS  Bryce Perkins Arizona St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
42 RS  Tommy Stevens Penn St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
43 RS  James Morgan  Bowling Green 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
44 RS  Elijah Sindelar Purdue 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
45 RS  Ross Trail Cincinnati 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
46 RS  Nick Johns Virginia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
47 RS  Ben Hicks Smu 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
48 OFY (inj), 2 gms  Alex Delton Kansas St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
49 RS  Michael Dare Rutgers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
50    Ryan Willis Kansas 315 164 52.1 1719 9 10 101 Rush 59-(-79)-(-1.3)-0
Total 2600 1507 57.96% 18357 114 74

Here are the Top 50 rated freshman quarterbacks for 2016.

2016    
Top 50 Player Team
1 Jacob Eason Georgia
2 Shea Patterson Mississippi
3 Malik Henry Florida State
4 KJ Costello (Kevin) Stanford
5 Feleipe Franks Florida
6 Dwayne Haskins Jr. Ohio State
7 Jawon Pass Louisville
8 Brandon Peters Michigan
9 Jarrett Guarantano Tennessee
10 Brandon McIlwain South Carolina
11 Jack Allison Miami (FL)
12 Shane Buechele Texas
13 Austin Kendall Oklahoma
14 Xavier Gaines Marshall
15 Khalil Tate Arizona
16 Jalen Hurts Alabama
17 Patrick O'Brien Nebraska
18 Chazz Surratt North Carolina
19 Messiah deWeaver Michigan State
20 Devon Modster UCLA
21 Dillon Sterling-Cole Arizona State
22 Seth Green Minnesota
23 Max Gilliam California
24 Zach Smith Baylor
25 Jake Zembiec Penn State
26 Tristen Wallace Oregon
27 Zerrick Cooper Clemson
28 Matt Fink USC
29 Woody Barrett (Ervin) Auburn
30 Skylar Thompson Kansas State
31 D'Eriq King Houston
32 Matt Lynch UCLA
33 Logan Byrd North Carolina
34 Thomas MacVittie Pittsburgh
35 Ian Book Notre Dame
36 Lindsey Scott Jr. LSU
37 Anthony Brown Boston College
38 Rex Culpepper Syracuse
39 Nick Starkel Texas A&M
40 Joshua Jackson Virginia Tech
41 Keaton Torre Unisigned
42 Victor Viramontes California
43 Brennen Wooten TCU
44 Gunnar Hoak Kentucky
45 Jett Duffey Texas Tech
46 Avery McCall Coastal Carolina
47 Jamie Newman Wake Forest
48 Tony Poljan Central Michigan
49 Armani Rogers UNLV
50 Keon Howard Southern Miss