Good eye, Spiny Norman! So the new top-10 Stanford QB performances (by QBR, majority of game played) in the Shaw era:
Hogan, UCLA 2014 (99.1)
Hogan, Oregon 2013 (99.1)
Hogan, USC #1 2015 (99.0)
Costello, Oregon 2018 (98.5)
Hogan, ASU #2 2013 (97.8)
Hogan, Cal 2013 (97.8)
Hogan, Colorado 2015 (97.6)
Hogan, Notre Dame 2015 (97.5)
Hogan, ASU #1 2013 (97.1)
Hogan, UCLA 2015 (96.9)
I think it was after the 2016 Rose Bowl win--Kevin Hogan's final game as a Cardinal--that Shaw said something about Hogan being on the Mount Rushmore of Stanford QBs, along with Plunkett, Elway and Luck. As Spiny Norman points out, adjusted QBR is not the final word on how well, or not, a QB played in a game. But consider these season rankings for Stanford QBs versus the rest of the FBS/conference since 2011:
2019 Mills 16th nationally (4th in Pac-12)
2018 Costello 6th (1st in Pac-12)
2017 no QBs played enough to qualify
2016 no QBs played enough to qualify
2015 Hogan 3rd (1st in Pac-12)
2014 Hogan 34th (5th in Pac-12)--remember this is the year that KH's dad died
2013 Hogan 15th (3rd in Pac-12)
2012 Nunes not in the top 50,(7th in Pac-12)--Hogan did not play enough to qualify
2011 Luck 3rd (1st in Pac-12)
I had really high hopes for Costello in 2019, but...I'd rather not talk about it.
Hogan, UCLA 2014 (99.1)
Hogan, Oregon 2013 (99.1)
Hogan, USC #1 2015 (99.0)
Costello, Oregon 2018 (98.5)
Hogan, ASU #2 2013 (97.8)
Hogan, Cal 2013 (97.8)
Hogan, Colorado 2015 (97.6)
Hogan, Notre Dame 2015 (97.5)
Hogan, ASU #1 2013 (97.1)
Hogan, UCLA 2015 (96.9)
I think it was after the 2016 Rose Bowl win--Kevin Hogan's final game as a Cardinal--that Shaw said something about Hogan being on the Mount Rushmore of Stanford QBs, along with Plunkett, Elway and Luck. As Spiny Norman points out, adjusted QBR is not the final word on how well, or not, a QB played in a game. But consider these season rankings for Stanford QBs versus the rest of the FBS/conference since 2011:
2019 Mills 16th nationally (4th in Pac-12)
2018 Costello 6th (1st in Pac-12)
2017 no QBs played enough to qualify
2016 no QBs played enough to qualify
2015 Hogan 3rd (1st in Pac-12)
2014 Hogan 34th (5th in Pac-12)--remember this is the year that KH's dad died
2013 Hogan 15th (3rd in Pac-12)
2012 Nunes not in the top 50,(7th in Pac-12)--Hogan did not play enough to qualify
2011 Luck 3rd (1st in Pac-12)
I had really high hopes for Costello in 2019, but...I'd rather not talk about it.
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)