Interesting breakdown of Va Tech QBs

Comparing Sean Glennon to Other First-Year Starters


Obviously one of the biggest topics on the TSL message boards since the conclusion of the Chick-fil-A Bowl has been the play of first-year starting quarterback Sean Glennon. After gradually winning over much of the fan base down the stretch in the regular season, Glennon now finds himself back in the doghouse amongst many Tech fans following his four turnovers in the fourth quarter against Georgia.

When the season began, everyone knew the offense would struggle. The offensive line was not going to be very good, and Glennon would be a downgrade from Marcus Vick. Glennon looked good at times (Wake Forest) and very bad at times (Georgia).

Glennon is the ninth first-year, full-time starter under Frank Beamer. How does he stack up to the previous eight?

Virginia Tech First-Year Starters at Quarterback
Name Year Comp. Att. Pct Yards TDs INTs Record
Furrer 1988 128 279 45.9% 1384 6 16 3-8
DeShazo 1992 101 215 47.0% 1504 12 11 2-8-1
Druckenmiller 1995 151 294 51.4% 2103 14 11 10-2
Clark 1997 110 192 57.3% 1476 10 3 7-5
Mi Vick 1999 90 152 59.2% 1840 12 5 11-1
Noel 2001 146 254 57.5% 1826 16 11 8-4
Randall 2002 158 248 63.7% 2134 12 11 10-4
Ma Vick 2005 177 289 61.2% 2393 17 10 11-2
Glennon 2006 170 302 56.3% 2191 11 11 10-3
Average 136.8 247.2 55.5% 1872.3 12.2 9.9


Interesting stats, and in some cases, surprising. For example, Sean Glennon threw 302 passes, the most of any other first-year starter. Granted only Randall and Marcus Vick also played in 13 games in their first year as a starter (bowl games were not counted in final stats until the 2002 season), but Maurice DeShazo, Al Clark and Michael Mick wouldn't have reached that number with a couple of extra games, and Grant Noel probably wouldn't have either.

Glennon's completion percentage is also slightly higher than the average for first-year starters. But that average is held down by Will Furrer, Maurice DeShazo and Jim Druckenmiller, who had very low completion percentages in their first seasons starting. Glennon's 56.3% completion percentage is the lowest since Jim Druckenmiller's 51.4% in 1995.

It appears that amongst VT's first-year starters, 11 is the magic number. Five of the nine players on the list above have thrown 11 interceptions in their first year as a starter. From that standpoint, Glennon actually did a pretty good job. 11 picks is not an extremely high number, and he threw more passes than any other player on the list above. So from an interception standpoint, Glennon did a pretty good job this season, except for the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

One thing Glennon did not do is generate a lot of touchdowns. His 11 touchdown passes were the fewest since Al Clark in 1997, and Clark spent a good portion of that season hurt. Clark also countered his low number of touchdowns by throwing just three interceptions.

It's a matter of opinion as to how to rank these quarterbacks as first-year starters. In case you're having trouble deciding, here's a mathematical formula that could help you decide. Each quarterback is ranked in completion percentage, yards per attempt, attempts per touchdown, attempts per interception, winning percentage and touchdown to interception ration. Players are not ranked based on total passing yards, total touchdowns and total interceptions because not all players played in the same amount of games.

Rating the First-Year Starters
Name Pct.
Rank Yds/Att. Att/ TD Att/INT Winning
Pct. TD/INT
Ratio Average
Rank
Michael Vick
3 1 1 2 1 2 1.67
Marcus Vick
2 3 3 3 2 3 2.67
Al Clark
5 4 5 1 7 1 3.83
Bryan Randall
1 2 6 7 5 6 4.50
Grant Noel
4 6 2 6 6 4 4.67
Jim Druckenmiller
7 7 7 5 3 5 5.67
Sean Glenoon
6 5 8 4 4 8 5.83
Maurice DeShazo
8 8 4 8 9 6 7.17
Will Furrer
9 9 9 9 8 9 8.83

As expected, Michael Vick finds himself at the top of the list. Vick had the top yards per attempt, as well as attempts per touchdown and winning percentage. He ranked in at least the top three in every category. His brother Marcus, who finished second, also ranked in the top three in each category, but didn't finish first in anything.

Perhaps the two biggest surprises of the group are Al Clark and Jim Druckenmiller. Clark wasn't the most talented guy in the world, but he didn't turn the ball over and had a pretty solid yards per attempt average. Druckenmiller helped Tech to a Sugar Bowl win in his first season as a starter, but he barely completed 50% of his passes, which gave him a low yards per attempt average. His attempts per touchdown average was also low. The main thing that he had going for him, from a statistical standpoint, is winning percentage.

Grant Noel's ranking could also be somewhat of a surprise for those who only remember the five-turnover 2001 Miami game, but Noel held the Tech record for most touchdown passes by a first-year starter until Marcus Vick broke it by one touchdown in 2005. And Marcus Vick had 13 games counting towards his stats, while Noel had just 11. Noel threw for a touchdown and 269 yards against Florida State in the 2001 Gator Bowl, which do not count towards his final statistics.

here's how i break em down

Michael Vick - great
Marcus Vick - good, potential to be great
Al Clark - solid
Bryan Randall - leader, solid
Grant Noel - sucks
Jim Druckenmiller - strong arm, solid
Maurice DeShazo - solid
Will Furrer - solid
Sean Glennon - sucks beyond all belief

go ahead and add Ike Whitaker (if he makes it back) or Tyrod Taylor to this list of first year starters...VT will not go through another season with Glennon and an inexperienced OLine

One other thing that Glennon had that gave him an advantage over other VT QB's is by far the most talented group of receivers to ever play at VT.

I hate that for those receivers though...they're not gonna get any recognition in any preseason stuff next year for their Sr year, all b/c no one could get them the ballwe've got 2 receivers right now better than any Michael Vick had, and 3 more who couldve been the #2 receiver on that 1999 team

I gotta disagree with you. Glennon has not been that good, no question, but you also have to look at the cats in front of him (3 linemen drafted last year (counting TE as line), 1 the year before, 1 the year before that), thats not to mention any who graduated who didn't get drafted. That being said, there has to be a reason they are trying to throw more (good receivers), but he doesn't turn the ball over that much on picks, but doesn't make enough plays IMO. Honestly I don't know how DeShazo or Noel or even Furrer (who someone hung around the NFL a few years....) is not viewed worse.

right now Noel is worse...Glennon is just more fresh on the mind [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

both DeShazo and Furrer went on to have good careers, both were young, this is Glennon's third year in the system and the other two years he was the guy gettin reps as the 2nd string QB, and his problems are STILL that he looks off receivers too early and simply is too jittery in the pocket...dont get me wrong his OLine is not doing him any favors, but the OLine doesnt make the Godawful decisions that Glennon makes

DeShazo was horrid in his first year, but he was really young and learned from his mistakes, with basically the same OLine coming back, it doesnt suit Glennon's skill set, VT needs a mobile QB to take some pressure off the OLine and make Def. Coordinators change their gameplan, instead of an all out blitz and make Glennon make quick reads which is what happened in all 3 losses this year

I'd take Randall over any of them.

I think Tyrod can be the type of leader Randall was...but I'd still take Mike over Randall, you just can't duplicate what he did on the field...not Tyrod, not Marcus not Brent Schaeffer or whoever the next black qb who will be called the "next Michael Vick"

I just always liked Randall. He played his azzz off, had alot of heart, and was a real leader. He just seemed like a pretty good person too.

oh yeah great guy and i loved havin him...he was one who played awful for 3 years then the light finally came on for him and he played extremely well (we dont get anywhere close to USC w/o him) and represented VT better than any other