Ending the Riley Nelson is a "good QB" debate

[Brayden Green]

I'm tired of this debate. It has gone on for 3 years now.

I don't want to hear another quarterback mentioned in this thread. This is RN only. I have taken his numbers while starting against top 100 defenses over the last 3 years and calculated his PER as a quarterback.

The results against top 100 ranked defenses?

Read on.

Here is the data: Riley has started against 8 defenses ranked in the top 100 (Washington, Air Force, FSU, Oregon St., TCU, Tulsa, Utah, and BSU)

If you just take his PERs and average them you get a PER of 88.75

If you painstakingly extrapolate all of the data game from game, and add up all the numbers, you get a PER of 108.72.

The win loss record? 5 losses and 3 wins.

Riley is not a good quarterback versus any team that has a top 100 defense or better. We have 3 years' worth of data now. I'd like to see what responses you have, and please remember to not bring up any other quarterbacks in this. This is a "Riley Nelson only" thread. This is why I expect that he won't do much over the rest of this year, until we get to November, if he even makes it that far.

He hasn't ever done anything to show that he has what it takes against even average teams, but I would love to see something different, although I really doubt it will happen at this point.

[Y12]

I remember Riley playing pretty well against two of those teams.

Washington 11-17, 131, 2 TD
Oregon State 17-27, 217, 3 TD, 1 Int.

I know it is not popular to defend Nelson's play against TCU, but he did put points on the board and moved the ball pretty well. I find it hard to fault him for the loss.

[frdbtr]

I remember Riley playing pretty well against two of those teams.

Washington 11-17, 131, 2 TD
Oregon State 17-27, 217, 3 TD, 1 Int.

I know it is not popular to defend Nelson's play against TCU, but he did put points on the board and moved the ball pretty well. I find it hard to fault him for the loss.

without 28 points given up by special teams BYU wins TCU. Riley was the only reason we were in that game. We won the Tulsa game on a play called at the line of scrimmage by Riley, I don't give a rats a$$ what the rest of his stats were in that game, we won. Riley played exactly 2 series in the FSU game with a broken hand, that game shouldn't even be in this debate, take his per from that one out. If you are going to give Max Hall credit for beating utah in 09 after having a horrible game you can't bag on Riley for beating Tulsa after having a bad game. The double standard on this board against Riley is ridiculous.

[SpiffCoug]

Top 100 what? defense? Passing? Rushing? Total? Passing Efficiency?

[frdbtr]

Was Max Hall a good QB in 2008? That was his Jr season. Here are his stats.

.............C-Att-Int Yards Y/A Lng TD PER
Max Hall 330-477-14 3957 8.3 76 35 157.21


Here are Riley's stats for his Jr year last year:

.................C-Att-Int Yards Y/A Lng TD PER
Riley Nelson 116-202-7 1717 8.5 57 19 152.93

Pretty comparable if you ask me.

[frdbtr]

How did max hall do against top defenses, mind you I don't know what these defenses were ranked in 08 but I am assuming that they were good defenses.

New Mexico:

C-Att-Int Yards Y/A Lng TD Sack Effic
Max Hall 22-34-0 258 7.6 58 3 0 157.56

Was Rocky Long still coaching NM, I can't remember.

TCU:

C-Att-Int Yards Y/A Lng TD Sack Effic
Max Hall 22-42-2 274 6.5 49 0 6 97.66

Air Force:

C-Att-Int Yards Y/A Lng TD Sack Effic
Max Hall 28-37-1 354 9.6 45 2 3 168.48

utah:

C-Att-Int Yards Y/A Lng TD Sack Effic
Max Hall 21-41-5 205 5.0 30 0 0 68.83

Arizona:

C-Att-Int Yards Y/A Lng TD Sack Effic
Max Hall 30-46-1 328 7.1 36 1 2 127.94

[frdbtr]

You said, "lets not bring any other QB's into this debate". The bottom line is, you have to bring other qb's into any debate on whether a qb is any good or not. You have to compare him to other qb's to decide whether his performances are comparable to other guys that either played well or badly. Max hall was one of BYU's best, he won more games than any other and Riley Nelson's jr year stats are comparable to his. Riley is a good qb, no matter what you haters want to believe. ALL qb's struggle against good defenses because that is why good defenses are good.

[jonnylingo]

Riley is better than Jake Heaps!! Sorry I had to after your introduction.

but seriously. rilye is a walking turnover. what makes him good is also what makes him a turnover machine. it is why he beats crappy teams and has no signature victory.

[jonnylingo]

You said, "lets not bring any other QB's into this debate". The bottom line is, you have to bring other qb's into any debate on whether a qb is any good or not. You have to compare him to other qb's to decide whether his performances are comparable to other guys that either played well or badly. Max hall was one of BYU's best, he won more games than any other and Riley Nelson's jr year stats are comparable to his. Riley is a good qb, no matter what you haters want to believe. ALL qb's struggle against good defenses because that is why good defenses are good.

To even think about comparing hall to riley is RIDICULOUS and shows you are losing this debate.

[birdie702]

Riley is better than Jake Heaps!! Sorry I had to after your introduction.

but seriously. rilye is a walking turnover. what makes him good is also what makes him a turnover machine. it is why he beats crappy teams and has no signature victory.

Exactly! His signature victory was against a WAC team - USU when he took over for Heaps (sorry Blue...I had to mention Heaps).