10-25-2018, 02:36 PM
(10-25-2018, 01:00 PM)Austroturf Wrote: Yes, I have also been scratching my head about that. Minshew did not arrive in Pullman until May, then won the starting job and, so far, has been executing the air raid offense as if he had spent all five years at Wazzu. Contrast that with Stanford's QB development: Costello is now in his third full year with the program, and there is still talk about whether he has fully mastered the playbook and whether Shaw can fully entrust him with the keys to the offense. I wonder what kind of numbers Costello would have been putting up in Leach's system.
And yet, Costello's pass efficiency rating (152) is basically the same as Minshew's (151), and behind only future NFL first rounder Justin Herbert's (161). Minshew leads the league in yards per game, but that's because he throws 52 passes a game (compared to 30/game for Costello).
Costello's PER has improved 12 points from last year (152 vs. 140) and his completion percentage has improved by six percentage points (65% vs. 59%). Both Hogan and Luck improved over the course of their careers, though Hogan had a bit more of an up and down career. Still, generally speaking our QB's improve substantially between their (redshirt) freshman and senior years.
Luke Falk's PER was basically the same as a senior (137) as it was as a freshman (140), and his completion percentage improved marginally (64 to 67%). Looking at other WSU QB's (Connor Halliday, Jeff Tuel) since Leech became coach show similar patterns; his QB's don't really improve with experience.
To me that suggests that if you have a fairly inexperienced QB, you are better off in Leech's system, but once a QB has been around for a couple years, they are better off in the Shaw/Harbaugh system.
BC
