StevensTechU wrote:Even prior to reading this,
http://fishduck.com/2015/10/a-recruitin ... n-herbert/ , I wanted to compare Oregon's current QB commit Justin Herbert to a player just a few years ahead of him at Sheldon, Taylor Alie. Thanks to the era we live in, we can watch them play in virtually every high school game they've been in via HUDL, and jump over to MaxPreps to see how they're doing statistically.
One of the initial critiques of Herbert was that he plays in a system where just about any QB can look good. Sheldon seems to produce highly productive passers every year, so it's hard to tell who is a high D-1 talent (Alex Brink, arguably Jordan Johnson) from who isn't (Taylor Alie). Alie, who we've seen in a Ducks jersey, had a similar career to what Herbert is experiencing; a position player who emerged as the full-time starter at QB as a senior, running one of the best teams in the state.
At this point in the season, Justin Herbert has played 7 games with a good mixture of competition ranging from Jesuit (very good), to South Medford/Tigard (pretty good) to Thurston (very bad). Going forward, we're likely going to see his stats look even better before evening out against stiffer competition in the playoffs. So overall, his performance in the remaining portion of the schedule will probably look a lot like his performance to date.
So without further ado, here's a comparison of each player's performance, shown two different ways
Justin Herbert (all games):
Record: 6-1
Points/Gm: 46.9 (excludes OT)
C%: 68.3%
Yds/Completion: 17.1
Yds/Attempt: 11.7
TD: 23
INT: 2
Rush Yds/Att: 5.3
Taylor Alie (all games):
Record: 14-0
Points/Gm: 42.4
C%: 68.6%
Yds/Completion: 12.9
Yds/Attempt: 8.8
TD: 35
INT: 9
Rush Yds/Att: 4.0
Now, this part was a pain in the ass, but it's something I feel is very important. Specifically, how does the QB perform when the going gets tough and they play the best (playoff caliber) teams?
Justin Herbert (Jesuit, Grants Pass, Tigard):
Record: 2-1
Points/Gm: 42.3 (excludes OT)
C%: 64.2%
Yds/Completion: 16.0
Yds/Attempt: 10.3
TD: 12
INT: 2
Rush Yds/Att: 2.8
Taylor Alie (Lake Oswego, Jesuit, Southridge 2x, Central Catholic):
Record: 4-0
Points/Gm: 35.6
C%: 69.2%
Yds/Completion: 10.5
Yds/Attempt: 7.2
TD: 10
INT: 5
Rush Yds/Att: 2.9
So I have two takeaways from this- First, you see that stiffer competition had a more significant effect on Alie- completion percentage actually goes up slightly but yards/completion, which were low to begin with, drop to essentially only dump-offs in big games. With Herbert, at 16 yds/completion, the numbers show he's still pushing the ball downfield. TD-to-INT ratio, a proxy for mistakes, also shows Herbert's superiority in big games.
And secondly, this reminds me a lot of comparing Mariota's numbers with Darron Thomas. Thomas was nice, no doubt, and he was very effective in the offense. But Mariota, if you go back and look at each's college statistics, was surpassing Thomas as a downfield passer with Yds/completion that show how much better an arm Mariota has, and having an even better TD-to-INT than Thomas did.