Here’s the question. If you were assembling a team to run your choice of offense, which qb do you take and why? I want Manziel - I want the quickness. Never seen a QB that quick
Who is the best QB in college football history
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Cam Newton, unfortunately. But yeah it's basically between him, Tebow and Johnny in a one-game or one-season scenario. They were borderline unstoppable. RG3, Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson up there too.
I loved his innovation and escapability, but a lot of his success was because he had 6'6" NFL All-Pro receiver Mike Evans to toss a hail mary to whenever he got in trouble and he had maturity issues.
The two correct answers are either Joe Burrow if you are running a pro style offense or Cam Newton if you are running the spread. Cam had some off the field issues, but on the field he was a professional...literally. Remember - the only difference between 2010 9-4 MSU and 14-0 national champs Auburn was Cam (and Nick Fairly to a lesser degree).
If it’s a pro style offense, give me Peyton Manning. Nobody has a better football mind than him.
Cam can run any offense at the college level. Burrow was great throwing the ball, but so was Cam and he was also an unstoppable runner due to size/speed. A lot of high schools just end up putting their best overall athlete at QB, but it's rare you can do that on the college level. And he almost did it in the pros.
These things tend to matter less on the pro level but in college? Dominating.
Burrow had a team loaded with the best players money could buy. He’s good but his numbers were bloated by being surrounded by NFL talent at literally every position.
Mike. Vick. Easiest question I’ve ever answered on here.
I would agree with you if Burrow didn’t just almost win the Super Bowl last year with a historically bad franchise and maybe the worst OL in the NFL. I think he is just that good.
Burrow is my pick. Yeah he benefited from having Jefferson and Chase (among others) but he was an elite elite QB.
His entire OL got drafted
Two TE’s Stephen Sullivan and Moss
Three first or second round WR’s and 1-2 others drafted
Clyde Edwards-Helaire
Year before, LSU was just above trash with Burrow at QB. Disagree with me if you want but you’re wrong.
You can say that about nearly every elite player/program. Teams don't compete for nattys with a team full of 2 stars.
Burrow put up video game numbers in a somewhat traditional offense which is even crazier. He wasn't running the Run and Shoot or the Air Raid which is predominately what you see with QBs at the top of the NCAA record books.
LSU had at least 100 yards rushing every game that season, except 1---MSU. And they had 11 games with at least 30 rushing attempts. Three games they had over 40 rushing attempts and Burrow still threw for over 300 in each of them. That is just pure craziness.
Chris Relf, the Rebel Killer
Just because you can say it doesn’t make it true. Alabama was the last one I remember having their entire OL drafted. And I believe that was 3-5 years ago or longer
I've always wondered what Vince Young would have look like in a Dan Mullen / Gus Malzahn type offense. I think his performance in that championship game is what set the tone for college offense in the years immediately after that. There's always been dual threat QBs - but he pretty much single handedly took down USC in that game. It was a legendary performance and everyone wanted a QB like that.
Cam Newton/Mike Vick…. Just think of what Mike Vick could have been in a spread of fence of today. (I ask the same question about what a backfield of Omar Conner, Jerious Norwood, and Nick Turner would have looked like had Mullen come along 5 years earlier)
And Alabama's QB also didn't lead the nation in passing. So what does that have to do with anything? Burrow torched the record books. Having an OLine keeping him standing played a SMALL part inth that, but it didn't have anything to do with the results that HIS arm produced.
Cam is my first pick, with Peyton following. But I have to float John Elway out there. Fun to watch that guy throw the ball.
Dan Marino with todays passing and offensive rules would have been hard to stop.
If you watch those games, his receivers did not drop anything even if the passes were over their heads, behind them, short, etc. Not a knock on Burrow at all, because he is obviously great. But your point is dead on the money.
Relative to the offense his team was running, Tommie Frazier was un17ing-believable. I think his record was something like 46-4 including 2-1 in national championship games.
You said the same can be said about any elite player or team. When is the last time that the 10 of 11 from an offense got drafted after one season? I think 9 out of 11 got drafted after 2019. Moss and Chase didn’t. Chase wasn’t eligible and then was the #5 overall the next year to the Bengals because they sucked after Burrow blew out his knee so they got a top 5 pick two years in a row.
Since stats are all that matter, I guess Bailey Zappe is the greatest since he had the greatest single season in NCAA history. Case Keenum had the best career. Neither of them had 10 other NFL players on their team. Any thing can be twisted to fit your narrative if you try hard enough.
Michael Henig, beat bama in tuscaloosa.
Vick's final season at VA Tech was sick. Would be between him and $180K Son of a Preacher Man.
Dan Marino, Pittsburgh. Jim Plunkett at Stanford was also great. These were back before most on this board were even born. Joe Namath at Alabama could score whenever he needed to, and Roger Staubach at Navy, too.
Dan Marino is my all time favorite QB. that being said, his college numbers were not great. 79 td's - 69 int's over his career as a 4 year starter... 54 td's - 46 int's his last two years... 57.6 career completion percentage. in my opinion, greatest college qb, no, greatest pro qb , yes.
Cam Newton was great, but Michael Vick was the cheat code. He ran a 4.33, could throw it 70 yards on a dime with a perfect spiral and would have been the best running back in college had he not been a QB. He also led Va Tech to a national championship game.
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