I watched some of their game against the East Carolina Mike Houstons the other day and there is an example of a team that showed improvement during the course of the season. They lost 4 out of their last 5 but three of them were one score games.
Young Warner is leaps and bounds ahead of Gavin right now. They were actually fun to watch. Drayton has done a nice job there. If we played them today, I think we lose.
Of course he is leaps and bounds ahead. Experience matters. He started and played in
12 full games.
443 passing attempts.
Gavin started
4 games.
145 passing attempts, that is 1/3 as many as EJ Warner.
If you compare Warner's first six games (excluding cupcake Lafayette):
Rutgers 19/32 215 yards 59.4% 1 TD/1 INT
UMass 11/22 173 yards 50% 2 TD/2 INT
Memphis 18/37 245 yards 48.6% 0 TD/3 INT
UCF 24/43 234 yards 44.8% 1 TD/0 INT
TLSA 23/48 196 yards, 47.9% 1 TD/1 INT
NAVY 24/48 245 yards, 50% 1 TD and 2 INTs-
TOTALS:
119/230
51.7%, 6 TD/9 INT
With Gavin's:
65/145,
44.8% 5 TD/7 INT
EJ Warner really turned the corner
in his last 4 games with completion percentages in a range of 70-75% and 10 TDs and 2 INTs. In one of his last 4 games, he had a real stinker against Cincinnati, one of the toughest in the American, and earlier in the year, against Memphis. So how would EJ Warner fare against Minnesota, Michigan State, Penn State and Maryland? Not as well as against the competition he faced in the American.
The conclusion that could be drawn is that perhaps if Gavin did not get hurt and started in all 12 games, he MAY have performed better in his last 4 games, however, he was running for his life against Penn State and Maryland, because our OL past protection could not contain the pass rush in those games.
I don't really care about if the game was replayed what would happen. If EJ Warner and Gavin are both at their current schools next year (and that is a big IF), we shall see. But for Temple, their #1 receiver Barbon is a senior, and so is their #3 receiver. It also looks like they will lose 2 or 3 OL.