Chris Laviano now rated #2 qb in Big Ten by ESPN

[Kbee3]

behind only Connor Cook of Mich. St.
So, our game Saturday will feature the two top-rated quarterbacks in the league...as per ESPN.

 

[shields]

Need big game from Hicks.

 

[kapyoche]

Big Ten is definitely not a QB conference.
It's a RB and OL conference.

 

[RUfan121]

Oh God.

 

[cRURah]

That's probably why the spread is only RU +17.

 

[RUwoz]

Rettig would be #1 in the nation

 

[rutgers4life11]

These threads are hilarious. The stats conveniently ignore that Laviano has some awful teams in the RPI rankings:

Norfolk State: 211th
Washington St.: 87th
Penn St.: 55th
Kansas: 140th

Arguably, no other QB in a Power 5 conference has faced worse teams.

Or how about just the defensive statistic for TEAM OPPONENT PASSER RATING:

Norfolk St.: Not even ranked
Washington st: 112th
Penn St: 42nd
Kansas: 120th

 

[AreYouNUTS]

ESPN QB Rating Per Game for Laviano:

NFSU - 100
Wazzou - 46.6
PSU - 25.8
Kansas - 76.5

I find it hard to believe that puts him at #2 in the B1G.

 

[S.B. Crumb]

Where is this from, OP? I guess ESPN doesn't read it's own stats.

As per ESPN's own QB metric, QBR:

2015 Big Ten Conference Leaders
RK PLAYER PASS EPA RUN EPA SACK EPA PEN EPA TOTAL EPA ACT PLAYS RAW QBR TOTAL QBR
1 Connor Cook, MSU 23.4 1.5 -1.1 2.9 26.6 154 84.1 80.6
2 C.J. Beathard, IOWA 18.5 12.9 -6.0 -0.1 25.3 178 76.0 74.3
3 Nate Sudfeld, IND 25.1 -1.2 -1.7 3.0 25.3 187 71.7 69.4
4 Tommy Armstrong Jr., NEB 17.5 7.1 -5.2 -1.3 18.2 239 63.6 66.9
5 Jake Rudock, MICH 7.6 5.3 -3.8 -0.6 8.6 191 53.6 57.6
6 David Blough, PUR 10.7 -0.3 -2.9 1.0 8.4 106 61.8 56.2
7 Clayton Thorson, NW 9.4 4.0 -3.3 -0.4 9.7 168 54.3 55.0
8 Joel Stave, WIS 10.5 -3.7 -5.1 3.2 5.0 170 46.9 54.3
9 Chris Laviano, RUTG 10.8 -1.5 -1.4 -1.2 6.9 137 55.0 51.9
10 Mitch Leidner, MINN 11.6 -3.9 -6.7 -0.4 0.5 218 38.4 47.3
11 Cardale Jones, OSU 11.5 -4.4 -3.4 1.2 4.9 161 47.0 46.2
12 Wes Lunt, ILL 11.6 -3.8 -3.6 1.5 5.8 213 46.3 42.6
13 Christian Hackenberg, PSU 9.2 1.5 -7.7 0.3 3.2 170 43.3 39.0
14 Austin Appleby, PUR 3.3 -0.5 -4.2 2.4 0.9 156 39.5 39.0
15 Caleb Rowe, MD -7.7 -3.4 -0.5 -0.4 -11.9 109 12.3 20.7

Laviano is meh. And the rating is probably only going to go down as we are heading deep into B1G play after playing some of the absolute worst defenses in the nation 3 out of the 4 games.

inb4 "at least he's better than Cardale Jones and Hackenburg" lol.

 

[ArminRU]

We've gone through this already. Any QB can dink and dunk to get a decent rating. But the only stat that matters won't look as good....W/L

 

[Kbee3]

I'm having no luck linking the site.
All I did was go to the ESPN site, click on "NCAA football....stats", then on the right top where it says "conference statistics" I clicked and selected BIG TEN...and there it is.
And Laviano IS #2 behind the kid from Mich. St.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I'm having no luck linking the site.
All I did was go to the ESPN site, click on "NCAA football....stats", then on the right top where it says "conference statistics" I clicked and selected BIG TEN...and there it is.
And Laviano IS #2 behind the kid from Mich. St.

Probably passing yards.

 

[gringo]

Laviano is not the 2nd best QB in the B1G. He is just a product of the system he is in.

OFFENSIVE LEADERS

QUARTERBACK RATING RAT
1. Connor Cook, MSU 150.9
2. Chris Laviano, RUTG 148.5
3. Nate Sudfeld, IND 146.5
4. C.J. Beathard, IOWA 145.3
5. Joel Stave, WIS 134.3

*** Rettig RUTG 195.8

****NOTE: Laviano is #3 in the B1G for yards per attempt. (found this surprising given the dink and dunk perception. Guess I need to read my own stats.)

http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/statistics/_/id/5/big-ten-conference

 

[gringo]

We also have the 5th and 6th RB for yards per attempt.

YARDS PER RUSH ATTEMPT LEADERS - QUALIFIED
RK PLAYER TEAM ATT YDS YDS/A LONG TD
1 Saquon Barkley, RB PSU 42 373 8.9 54 3
2 Ezekiel Elliott, RB OSU 100 729 7.3 80 8
3 Markell Jones, RB PUR 60 405 6.8 68 5
4 LJ Scott, RB MSU 61 376 6.2 38 4
5 Robert Martin, RB RUTG 41 252 6.1 35 1
6 Josh Hicks, RB RUTG 62 371 6.0 31 4
7 Jordan Howard, RB IND 125 709 5.7 35 4
8 Terrell Newby, RB NEB 75 414 5.5 32 3
9 Brandon Ross, RB MD 73 402 5.5 55 2
10 Josh Ferguson, RB ILL 71 381 5.4 52 3

 

[S.B. Crumb]

Ah, it's the traditional passer rating. Fair enough, but that stat is well-known to give way too much weight to completion %.

From Wikipedia:

"Yet another criticism is that the formula overemphasizes Completion Percentage. While Completion % in and of itself makes up 25% of the rating's calculation, the use of Yards per Attempt rather than Yards per Completion adds to the weight of Completion %, since incomplete passes are penalized under yds/attempt. Thus, many critics feel that the Passer Rating formula automatically is skewed in favor of quarterbacks who play in a West Coast scheme that favors many high-percentage (but low-yardage) pass plays, e.g. Steve Young, who held the single-season record until 2004."

Sounds exactly like the counter-argument made many times on this very board to those who think Laviano is doing a good enough job. Laviano is our version of Alex Smith.

To his credit, that is definitely Laviano's strength as a QB. I don't think it's enough though to not at least share duties with Rettig in what's shaping up to be a down year.

 

[gringo]

I wish we had better players sitting on the bench who can play D where our major problem lies. QB is the lightening rod.

 

[rucoe89]

I wish we had better players sitting on the bench who can play D where our major problem lies. QB is the lightening rod.

We had them, but the are now starting because their predecessors were morons about how they handled themselves in life.

 

[NickKnight 1]

These threads are hilarious. The stats conveniently ignore that Laviano has some awful teams in the RPI rankings:

Norfolk State: 211th
Washington St.: 87th
Penn St.: 55th
Kansas: 140th

Arguably, no other QB in a Power 5 conference has faced worse teams.

Or how about just the defensive statistic for TEAM OPPONENT PASSER RATING:

Norfolk St.: Not even ranked
Washington st: 112th
Penn St: 42nd
Kansas: 120th

Maybe funny, but not really, What these threads are, are attention
getters, like, look at me mom. But these RU posters have learned from
best. So congradulations to you Rutgers AL!

 

[RU#1fan]

ESPN QB Rating Per Game for Laviano:

NFSU - 100
Wazzou - 46.6
PSU - 25.8
Kansas - 76.5

I find it hard to believe that puts him at #2 in the B1G.

Who knows where the OP get his ridiculous info from. We all see that CL is nowhere near a P5 QB at this point. Can he develop...lets hope so since Fudd is putting his cards on him. The Defenses CL will see over the next 5 weeks ( MSU, OSU, Wisky, Michigan ) are a slight upgrade from them Kansas, WSU, and NSU powerhouses.

 

[RobertG]

Who knows where the OP get his ridiculous info from. We all see that CL is nowhere near a P5 QB at this point. Can he develop...lets hope so since Fudd is putting his cards on him. The Defenses CL will see over the next 5 weeks ( MSU, OSU, Wisky, Michigan ) are a slight upgrade from them Kansas, WSU, and NSU powerhouses.

The OP got the stats from ESPN. Here's the link: QB Leaders

QUARTERBACK RATING LEADERS - QUALIFIED
RK PLAYER TEAM COMP ATT PCT YDS YDS/A LONG TD INT SACK RAT
1 Connor Cook, QB MSU 74 124 59.7 977 7.9 56 10 1 3 150.9
2 Chris Laviano, QB RUTG 72 100 72.0 794 7.9 56 6 5 6 148.5
3 Nate Sudfeld, QB IND 87 147 59.2 1277 8.7 71 7 1 3 146.5
4 C.J. Beathard, QB IOWA 84 131 64.1 1039 7.9 81 7 2 8 145.3
5 Joel Stave, QB WIS 93 147 63.3 1064 7.2 45 7 4 7 134.3
6 Cardale Jones, QB OSU 63 106 59.4 867 8.2 54 5 5 5 134.3
7 Tommy Armstrong Jr., QB NEB 99 182 54.4 1371 7.5 55 11 6 7 131.0
8 David Blough, QB PUR 47 78 60.3 487 6.2 62 3 2 6 120.3
9 Wes Lunt, QB ILL 111 191 58.1 1107 5.8 50 8 2 4 118.5
10 Christian Hackenberg, QB PSU 66 125 52.8 824 6.6 49 5 2 15 118.2
RK PLAYER TEAM COMP ATT PCT YDS YDS/A LONG TD INT SACK RAT
11 Jake Rudock, QB MICH 89 148 60.1 956 6.5 44 5 6 5 117.4
12 Clayton Thorson, QB NW 64 113 56.6 711 6.3 66 4 3 4 115.9
13 Mitch Leidner, QB MINN 91 159 57.2 950 6.0 38 4 3 6 112.0
14 Austin Appleby, QB PUR 60 110 54.5 669 6.1 57 5 6 5 109.7
15 Caleb Rowe, QB MD 40 91 44.0 428 4.7 70 4 12 1 71.6
Glossary

Looking at the stats Laviano is completing 72% of his passes for an average of 7.9 yrs per attempt, and is third in Average yards per attempt among all QBs. His major issues is Ints. So it would seem that Laviano is finding his open receivers 3.5 out of every 5 times he drops back.

 

[sherrane]

Ah, it's the traditional passer rating. Fair enough, but that stat is well-known to give way too much weight to completion %.

From Wikipedia:

"Yet another criticism is that the formula overemphasizes Completion Percentage. While Completion % in and of itself makes up 25% of the rating's calculation, the use of Yards per Attempt rather than Yards per Completion adds to the weight of Completion %, since incomplete passes are penalized under yds/attempt. Thus, many critics feel that the Passer Rating formula automatically is skewed in favor of quarterbacks who play in a West Coast scheme that favors many high-percentage (but low-yardage) pass plays, e.g. Steve Young, who held the single-season record until 2004."

Sounds exactly like the counter-argument made many times on this very board to those who think Laviano is doing a good enough job. Laviano is our version of Alex Smith.

To his credit, that is definitely Laviano's strength as a QB. I don't think it's enough though to not at least share duties with Rettig in what's shaping up to be a down year.

They are talking about the NFL passer rating instead of the college passer rating. Laviano's NFL Passer rating would be 94.3. The college rating puts an even higher emphasis on completion percentage than the NFL rating does whereas the NFL's has a higher emphasis on yards per attempt

College passer rating:
(8.4 * Yards + 330 * Touchdowns + 100 * Completions - 200 * Interceptions) / Attempts

Laviano has the 32nd best QB rating in FBS, which is led by Baylor's Seth Russell (218.7), followed by USC's Cody Kessler (201.2). Using the NFL's rating system Kessler would have a 143.35 rating while Russell's would be 125.8. Both QBs "maxed out" their TD component of the formula, which was adjusted down to 2.375. Their yardage component was similar using the college calculation whereas Russell nearly maxed out his YPA (2.359) in the NFL formula.

 

[WhiteBus]

Bravo to a starter who is 1-2. Wake me up when he completes a 20 yarder!

 

[S.B. Crumb]

@sherrane: Didn't know college and NFL had different calcs for their passer ratings. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Kbee3]

The OP got the stats from ESPN. Here's the link: QB Leaders

QUARTERBACK RATING LEADERS - QUALIFIED
RK PLAYER TEAM COMP ATT PCT YDS YDS/A LONG TD INT SACK RAT
1 Connor Cook, QB MSU 74 124 59.7 977 7.9 56 10 1 3 150.9
2 Chris Laviano, QB RUTG 72 100 72.0 794 7.9 56 6 5 6 148.5
3 Nate Sudfeld, QB IND 87 147 59.2 1277 8.7 71 7 1 3 146.5
4 C.J. Beathard, QB IOWA 84 131 64.1 1039 7.9 81 7 2 8 145.3
5 Joel Stave, QB WIS 93 147 63.3 1064 7.2 45 7 4 7 134.3
6 Cardale Jones, QB OSU 63 106 59.4 867 8.2 54 5 5 5 134.3
7 Tommy Armstrong Jr., QB NEB 99 182 54.4 1371 7.5 55 11 6 7 131.0
8 David Blough, QB PUR 47 78 60.3 487 6.2 62 3 2 6 120.3
9 Wes Lunt, QB ILL 111 191 58.1 1107 5.8 50 8 2 4 118.5
10 Christian Hackenberg, QB PSU 66 125 52.8 824 6.6 49 5 2 15 118.2
RK PLAYER TEAM COMP ATT PCT YDS YDS/A LONG TD INT SACK RAT
11 Jake Rudock, QB MICH 89 148 60.1 956 6.5 44 5 6 5 117.4
12 Clayton Thorson, QB NW 64 113 56.6 711 6.3 66 4 3 4 115.9
13 Mitch Leidner, QB MINN 91 159 57.2 950 6.0 38 4 3 6 112.0
14 Austin Appleby, QB PUR 60 110 54.5 669 6.1 57 5 6 5 109.7
15 Caleb Rowe, QB MD 40 91 44.0 428 4.7 70 4 12 1 71.6
Glossary

Looking at the stats Laviano is completing 72% of his passes for an average of 7.9 yrs per attempt, and is third in Average yards per attempt among all QBs. His major issues is Ints. So it would seem that Laviano is finding his open receivers 3.5 out of every 5 times he drops back.

Thanks, Robert. I'm not so good at this whole computer thing. I couldn't get the link thing to work.
BTW, it's amazing how far some Rutgers fans will go to knock players on "their" team. I'm not really a member of the Laviano Fan Club, but he's leading my team and he apparently earned a chance. I think the same group knocked Nova when I posted his ranking at the ESPN site last season.
Rutgers fans are SO special.

 

[StyleKnight]

ESPN QB Rating Per Game for Laviano:

NFSU - 100
Wazzou - 46.6
PSU - 25.8
Kansas - 76.5

I find it hard to believe that puts him at #2 in the B1G.

Do they count NFSU as a full game? He only played half so they should only count half the game towards the weighted average. But I wouldn't even count an FCS game anyway.

 

[RobertG]

Do they count NFSU as a full game? He only played half so they should only count half the game towards the weighted average. But I wouldn't even count an FCS game anyway.

Here are Laviano's stats per game: Rating in bold, td's in green, int's in purple, rating in red.

9/5 Norfolk State W 63-13 4 4 138 100.0 56 3 0 637.3 0 0 0.0 0 0 100.0 100.0
9/12 Washington State L 37-34 23 29 204 79.3 20 1 1 142.9 5 2 0.4 8 0 46.6 38.2
9/19 @Penn State L 28-3 27 42 251 64.3 30 0 2 105.0 9 -37 -4.1 7 0 28.5 49.9
9/26 Kansas W 27-14 18 25 201 72.0 25 2 2 149.9 8 44 5.5 14 0 76.5 57.1

if you click on each QB you can see the stats per game. And most of QBs have their stats padded by playing IAA teams.

 

[RU-05]

Thanks, Robert. I'm not so good at this whole computer thing. I couldn't get the link thing to work.
BTW, it's amazing how far some Rutgers fans will go to knock players on "their" team. I'm not really a member of the Laviano Fan Club, but he's leading my team and he apparently earned a chance. I think the same group knocked Nova when I posted his ranking at the ESPN site last season.
Rutgers fans are SO special.

Yeah, same, Laviano has been OK. Certainly not bad to the point that some seem to think.

 

[RM60]

Can we all agree that we'd prefer a lower passer rating if it meant more downfield attempts and completions? Even of the 15-25 yard variety.

But I'll add that we will need to see major improvement from our right tackle in pass protection. This kid is a serious liability, at least at this point.

 

[miketd1]

The Honda Accord of Big Ten QBs..?

 

[RobertG]

Can we all agree that we'd prefer a lower passer rating if it meant more downfield attempts and completions? Even of the 15-25 yard variety.

But I'll add that we will need to see major improvement from our right tackle in pass protection. This kid is a serious liability, at least at this point.

No we can't. I want to see less int's and more TDs from the QB, I don't give a crap how he gets there if he has to dink and dunk his way down the field fine. While the QB position has not been great it's behind DBs, DL and OL.

But more importantly I want to see less penalties, more protection from the offense line

And even more importantly I want to see pressure from the front 4 and better coverage from the secondary. Oh yea and this little tidbit: On D, DON"T LET THE RECEIVERS RUN FREE!

 

[AreYouNUTS]

Can we all agree that we'd prefer a lower passer rating if it meant more downfield attempts and completions? Even of the 15-25 yard variety.

But I'll add that we will need to see major improvement from our right tackle in pass protection. This kid is a serious liability, at least at this point.

No doubt and, unfortunately as others have mentioned, we've played some lousy D's thus far. Throwing downfield might only prove more difficult as the year moves along.

 

[Caliknight]

I would gladly trade a lower completion percentage and even more interceptions of the attacking variety instead of dink and dunk and end zone interceptions because there isn't enough arm strength to get it out of the end zone.

The latter isn't putting up points on anyone that matters.

 

[scarletrat]

no way Laviano is the # 2 QB in the B1G--numbers lie, and here reward dinking and dunking and against bad competition
what does the eye test tell you...he is in the lower half among other league QBs...
he supposedly knows the playbook and yet our playbook is Pop Warner level...

 

[Kbee3]

No doubt and, unfortunately as others have mentioned, we've played some lousy D's thus far. Throwing downfield might only prove more difficult as the year moves along.

Throwing downfield requires time. Has our O-line given you any indication that they can protect the quarterback well enough for him to stand back there and let a deep-pass play develop ? Such plays will only get us to find out how good our back-up qb is much sooner....due to injury to the starter.

 

[Caliknight]

Oline pass blocking isn't great, but there has been points in every game, including PSU, that Laviano had time to see receivers break open downfield and never even attempted a throw.

 

[realhoops2]

Ah, it's the traditional passer rating. Fair enough, but that stat is well-known to give way too much weight to completion %.

From Wikipedia:

"Yet another criticism is that the formula overemphasizes Completion Percentage. While Completion % in and of itself makes up 25% of the rating's calculation, the use of Yards per Attempt rather than Yards per Completion adds to the weight of Completion %, since incomplete passes are penalized under yds/attempt. Thus, many critics feel that the Passer Rating formula automatically is skewed in favor of quarterbacks who play in a West Coast scheme that favors many high-percentage (but low-yardage) pass plays, e.g. Steve Young, who held the single-season record until 2004."

Sounds exactly like the counter-argument made many times on this very board to those who think Laviano is doing a good enough job. Laviano is our version of Alex Smith.

To his credit, that is definitely Laviano's strength as a QB. I don't think it's enough though to not at least share duties with Rettig in what's shaping up to be a down year.

Chad Pennington, 2nd highest all-time NFL completion percentage. Almost exclusively short, safe throws. Never considered to be anything more than a serviceable QB.

 

[realhoops2]

Throwing downfield requires time. Has our O-line given you any indication that they can protect the quarterback well enough for him to stand back there and let a deep-pass play develop ? Such plays will only get us to find out how good our back-up qb is much sooner....due to injury to the starter.

Are you really trying to claim that with 100 pass attempts he has not once had time to stand in the pocket a throw the ball down field even 25 - 30 yards?!?!?!? That is ridiculous and everyone knows it! The pass protection has not been horrible and certainly not the worst ever. Not even an attempt downfield other that the Norfolk throw to Caroo and the hail mary against Kansas. Even without Caroo there are receivers that have a chance to make some big plays but only if the QB has the balls to take some shots downfield. The touchdown pass to Agudosi was against good coverage but he was able to out maneuver the defender and make the play. Unfortunately unless the receiver is WIDE open, Laviano will not even make an attempt

 

[realhoops2]

I would gladly trade a lower completion percentage and even more interceptions of the attacking variety instead of dink and dunk and end zone interceptions because there isn't enough arm strength to get it out of the end zone.

The latter isn't putting up points on anyone that matters.

You are so right. Anyone that knows anything about football understands that a big part of being offensively effective is keeping the defense off balance. Even if you send receivers down the sideline a few time each game and throw it out of bounds you are making the DB have to guard against the deep ball. That will force the DB's to be less aggressive which will lead to more room for the receivers to operate on short and intermediate routes. In addition, the DB's will not be able to support against the run as quickly. The current RU attack requiring them to sustain several long drives utilizing the rushing attack and short passing game can be very effective if they can keep the defense on it heels by mixing in more intermediate and some deep throws.

 

[Sir ScarletKnight]

Here's the problem. See Look at this throw, at :38, from Nova.
Laviano can't do that. That's all there is to it.