Ranking all 138 FBS QB situations

[MADHAT1]

I'd say ranking fair to RU, since DL is new to the program

Down the list at 15, but not at the bottom​

Tier 25: Better than all but .00002% (18 players)​

>Temple (Jaxon Smolik, Ajani Sheppard)

Tier 15: Everyone gets lucky sometimes (seven players)​

Ranking all 138 FBS QB situations ahead of the 2026 season

Just three months from the 2026 season, David Hale ranks all 138 FBS programs' quarterback rooms into tiers.

www.espn.com

 

[koleszar]

Yeah, and every Nebraska QB is going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, until they're back to using a bread knife again. Just another spit balling list, but they're fun to bash.

 

[Rutgers Chris]

I'd say ranking fair to RU, since DL is new to the program

Down the list at 15, but not at the bottom​

Tier 25: Better than all but .00002% (18 players)​

>Temple (Jaxon Smolik, Ajani Sheppard)

Tier 15: Everyone gets lucky sometimes (seven players)​

Ranking all 138 FBS QB situations ahead of the 2026 season

Just three months from the 2026 season, David Hale ranks all 138 FBS programs' quarterback rooms into tiers.

www.espn.com

Ranking may make sense, commentary/grouping does not. Our quarterback play wasn’t bad at all last year, quite the opposite. Not putting Surace in there also doesn’t make sense. Typical lazy ESPN work

 

[Rutgers Chris]

Funny to check their work last year-
Mendoza in tier 7, Simpson/Moore in 5 with two Ole Miss qb’s not named Chambliss.

Ranking all 136 FBS QB situations into tiers ahead of the 2025 season

From Clemson to Kennesaw State, David Hale ranks all 136 FBS school quarterbacks into tiers.

www.espn.com

 

[DJ Spanky]

Sloppy, lazy reporting.

Well, the good news for folks at Rutgers, Iowa, Wisconsin or Boston College is that there's really nowhere to go for the offense but up. It was bad last year. It has been bad for a while. The options for 2026 aren't markedly worse than the options in each of the past few years.

Ummmmmmm........actually, no, it wasn't. The problem last year wasn't offense by a long shot.

 

[MADHAT1]

Funny to check their work last year-
Mendoza in tier 7, Simpson/Moore in 5 with two Ole Miss qb’s not named Chambliss.

Ranking all 136 FBS QB situations into tiers ahead of the 2025 season

From Clemson to Kennesaw State, David Hale ranks all 136 FBS school quarterbacks into tiers.

www.espn.com

They have DL at 12 with BC and considering he threw only 8 passes in the previous 2 years, that seems better than it should have been in my opinion.
But that rating might be because the other BC QB listed ,Grayson James, had experience
AK was rated lower but that might have been because the other RU QBs listed had very little experience and the ratings were on position depth , not star quality

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Sloppy, lazy reporting.



Ummmmmmm........actually, no, it wasn't. The problem last year wasn't offense by a long shot.

This - for sure. And not only that Lonergan is in a QB battle and they don’t even list AJ as part of the equation


I will say this though and maybe it really ought to be its own thread. If Lonergan didnt come here with an expectation of being the likely starter, then wow. We have way more money than I thought. I finally got around to watching the season of BC throws from Lonergan.

There is no planet where this guy isn’t a surefire lock to be the starting QB at plenty of G5 FBS programs. Yeah - I get it, 2-12 ACC team. I get it, but I don’t give a crap. We started a QB who averaged only a 47% completion rate! Lonergan didn’t throw for under 50% once all season. He was 62.5% or better in all but 2 games. I don’t understand it. Fordham his only “win”, yes but he absolutely looked the part vs. Stanford, Georgia Tech, Michigan State, and Cal (outside of throwing a pick in the end zone at the end of the game with a chance to win after driving the length). If you watch his film he’s more than solid IMO.

 

[RUTGERS95]

I'd say ranking fair to RU, since DL is new to the program

Down the list at 15, but not at the bottom​

Tier 25: Better than all but .00002% (18 players)​

>Temple (Jaxon Smolik, Ajani Sheppard)

Tier 15: Everyone gets lucky sometimes (seven players)​

Ranking all 138 FBS QB situations ahead of the 2026 season

Just three months from the 2026 season, David Hale ranks all 138 FBS programs' quarterback rooms into tiers.

www.espn.com

what an awful list
AK had better numbers than Arch last year

 

[Anon1754923206]

Ahhhh the off season with its inevitable and desperate articles because there’s not much to talk about.

 

[Knight Shift]

Sloppy, lazy reporting.



Ummmmmmm........actually, no, it wasn't. The problem last year wasn't offense by a long shot.

Looks like the mergerator missed my Original Post on this topic, which got a lot of replies.

ESPN Writer Ranks Every FBS QB Situation for 2026 - Forums

Epic fail here on Rutgers: Tier 15: Everyone gets lucky sometimes (seven players) " Arkansas (KJ Jackson, AJ Hill) Boston College (Mason McKenzie) Iowa (Jeremy Hecklinski, Hank Brown) Rutgers (Dylan Lonergan) Wisconsin (Colton Joseph) Well, the good news for folks at Rutgers, Iowa, Wisconsin...

www.on3.com

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Since this came up and there’s not much football talk going on (I’m not into the recruiting stuff - don’t care until the commitments are truly locked in), I watched the film on Lonergan and looked at his profile closely for the first time. When we picked him up, TKR seemed to frame it as more of an insurance policy type pick up, and I just assumed Surace would end up being the guy.

But now that I’ve watched his film, seems to me the advanced metrics are pretty unfairly pounding our incoming QB. I know nothing about QBR ratings or the related ones, but I don’t see how anyone could watch the BC film and conclude Lonergan’s film isn’t a) better than Athan’s film was from Minn when he transferred in. b) better than a highlight video you could put together for any other starting RU QB under Greg - Noah, Simon, Wimsatt. Seems to me he was pretty damn solid but for a few untimely mistakes. I think I sort of dismissed his team as 2-10 and didn’t pay much initial attention to what he produced thinking it was probably a lot of garbage time fluff but the opposite seems to be true. BC’s 2-10 was nothing like, say, Agee’s San Jose’s team’s losses. Many of BC’s games were heartbreaking losses that came down to the final minutes.

Curious if I’m missing something, and what others views are? He seems to have good variety on his throws, I love his natural ability to fake one way and throw the other. He’s not a runner but also not afraid to take off.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Since this came up and there’s not much football talk going on (I’m not into the recruiting stuff - don’t care until the commitments are truly locked in), I watched the film on Lonergan and looked at his profile closely for the first time. When we picked him up, TKR seemed to frame it as more of an insurance policy type pick up, and I just assumed Surace would end up being the guy.

But now that I’ve watched his film, seems to me the advanced metrics are pretty unfairly pounding our incoming QB. I know nothing about QBR ratings or the related ones, but I don’t see how anyone could watch the BC film and conclude Lonergan’s film isn’t a) better than Athan’s film was from Minn when he transferred in. b) better than a highlight video you could put together for any other starting RU QB under Greg - Noah, Simon, Wimsatt. Seems to me he was pretty damn solid but for a few untimely mistakes. I think I sort of dismissed his team as 2-10 and didn’t pay much initial attention to what he produced thinking it was probably a lot of garbage time fluff but the opposite seems to be true. BC’s 2-10 was nothing like, say, Agee’s San Jose’s team’s losses. Many of BC’s games were heartbreaking losses that came down to the final minutes.

Curious if I’m missing something, and what others views are? He seems to have good variety on his throws, I love his natural ability to fake one way and throw the other. He’s not a runner but also not afraid to take off.

your not
as soon as we got him, I came right out and said finally as he can play and more importantly, he can play for us with what we want
he has ability, played on a poor team, had some issues with the staff


you can thank Duff for him when he's slinging it!

problem is the board has been spoon fed nonsense on AJ so any deviation from him being the starter will elicit gag reflexes from the hive. AJs only advantage is he knows the playbook but Duff saw enough to want QB insurance. let that sink in....none of this is new, I told everyone this before we lost Strong. I don't think it matters who starts, I think it matters who is playing by 4th game and Krik has said it takes years to get his system (which we saw the big upswing in AK once he felt comfortable).

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

your not
as soon as we got him, I came right out and said finally as he can play and more importantly, he can play for us with what we want
he has ability, played on a poor team, had some issues with the staff


you can thank Duff for him when he's slinging it!

problem is the board has been spoon fed nonsense on AJ so any deviation from him being the starter will elicit gag reflexes from the hive. AJs only advantage is he knows the playbook but Duff saw enough to want QB insurance. let that sink in....none of this is new, I told everyone this before we lost Strong. I don't think it matters who starts, I think it matters who is playing by 4th game and Krik has said it takes years to get his system (which we saw the big upswing in AK once he felt comfortable).

Interesting perspective. I have no inside information at all, but if you refer back to Greg’s most recent presser on the QB battle, he made it a point to emphasize how quickly Lonergan learned the playbook. Take that for what it’s worth.

I have nothing against AJ and have barely even seen him play, but the narrative that this was always his battle to lose - and yet we somehow convinced and could afford to pay a player of Lonergan’s profile to come here under that pretense makes no sense to me. Putting it in perspective - I believe one could count on one hand the TOTAL number of high major portal players in men’s football and basketball Rutgers was able to land - correct? The count is 2 for basketball. I’m not sure we have anyone outside of deep reserves for football? In hoops - Buca was a deep role player Christian Gurdak clearly transferred to RU with the expectation of starting - but even he only played 17 of 40 minutes for VTech basketball. And yet somehow - we convinced Lonergan to come here after throwing 284 passes for an ACC team and easily finishing with a completion rate that ranked top 25 nationally amongst QBs who took the majority of snaps for their teams (had to at 67%) - just in case AJ didn’t cut it? Even after history suggests that Greg and RU tend to give incumbents the benefit of the doubt ala allowing them to start an entire season while completing less than half their passes? I’m not sure which thing seems less likely. 1) Rutgers agreeing to shell out top dollar for a player we plan to ride the bench (and Lonergan is 100% good enough to be a virtual guarantee to start at the G5 level which means he ain’t cheap). Or 2) Lonergan even entertaining the possibility of coming here unless he was told he’d have a darn good chance of earning the starting role.

Again - I hadn’t been following this QB battle at all but now I’m rather intrigued by it.

 

[Knight Shift]

Interesting perspective. I have no inside information at all, but if you refer back to Greg’s most recent presser on the QB battle, he made it a point to emphasize how quickly Lonergan learned the playbook. Take that for what it’s worth.

I have nothing against AJ and have barely even seen him play, but the narrative that this was always his battle to lose - and yet we somehow convinced and could afford to pay a player of Lonergan’s profile to come here under that pretense makes no sense to me. Putting it in perspective - I believe one could count on one hand the TOTAL number of high major portal players in men’s football and basketball Rutgers was able to land - correct? The count is 2 for basketball. I’m not sure we have anyone outside of deep reserves for football? In hoops - Buca was a deep role player Christian Gurdak clearly transferred to RU with the expectation of starting - but even he only played 17 of 40 minutes for VTech basketball. And yet somehow - we convinced Lonergan to come here after throwing 284 passes for an ACC team and easily finishing with a completion rate that ranked top 25 nationally amongst QBs who took the majority of snaps for their teams (had to at 67%) - just in case AJ didn’t cut it? Even after history suggests that Greg and RU tend to give incumbents the benefit of the doubt ala allowing them to start an entire season while completing less than half their passes? I’m not sure which thing seems less likely. 1) Rutgers agreeing to shell out top dollar for a player we plan to ride the bench (and Lonergan is 100% good enough to be a virtual guarantee to start at the G5 level which means he ain’t cheap). Or 2) Lonergan even entertaining the possibility of coming here unless he was told he’d have a darn good chance of earning the starting role.

Again - I hadn’t been following this QB battle at all but now I’m rather intrigued by it.

Good discussion between you two. Something sorely needed on this board-a Rutgers football board.
Two things.
BC was god awful last year, and it was not a quarterback problem.
Iron sharpen iron-may the best QB win- and when I say win- win games for the team!

 

[RUTGERS95]

Interesting perspective. I have no inside information at all, but if you refer back to Greg’s most recent presser on the QB battle, he made it a point to emphasize how quickly Lonergan learned the playbook. Take that for what it’s worth.

I have nothing against AJ and have barely even seen him play, but the narrative that this was always his battle to lose - and yet we somehow convinced and could afford to pay a player of Lonergan’s profile to come here under that pretense makes no sense to me. Putting it in perspective - I believe one could count on one hand the TOTAL number of high major portal players in men’s football and basketball Rutgers was able to land - correct? The count is 2 for basketball. I’m not sure we have anyone outside of deep reserves for football? In hoops - Buca was a deep role player Christian Gurdak clearly transferred to RU with the expectation of starting - but even he only played 17 of 40 minutes for VTech basketball. And yet somehow - we convinced Lonergan to come here after throwing 284 passes for an ACC team and easily finishing with a completion rate that ranked top 25 nationally amongst QBs who took the majority of snaps for their teams (had to at 67%) - just in case AJ didn’t cut it? Even after history suggests that Greg and RU tend to give incumbents the benefit of the doubt ala allowing them to start an entire season while completing less than half their passes? I’m not sure which thing seems less likely. 1) Rutgers agreeing to shell out top dollar for a player we plan to ride the bench (and Lonergan is 100% good enough to be a virtual guarantee to start at the G5 level which means he ain’t cheap). Or 2) Lonergan even entertaining the possibility of coming here unless he was told he’d have a darn good chance of earning the starting role.

Again - I hadn’t been following this QB battle at all but now I’m rather intrigued by it.

Same, I just want the best kid in.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Good discussion between you two. Something sorely needed on this board-a Rutgers football board.
Two things.
BC was god awful last year, and it was not a quarterback problem.
Iron sharpen iron-may the best QB win- and when I say win- win games for the team!

Agree!!!! Competition is good and needs to be heavily encouraged. I want Jimmy Johnsons approach!!!

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Good discussion between you two. Something sorely needed on this board-a Rutgers football board.
Two things.
BC was god awful last year, and it was not a quarterback problem.
Iron sharpen iron-may the best QB win- and when I say win- win games for the team!

Yes, absolutely. If AJ is “that good” and it’s simply a matter of Duff insisting that we pay the massive price for insurance in case of injury, then cool.

In terms of BC being horrible, I assumed that too, and hadn’t even watched the footage of Lonergan for this reason because I sort of assumed his metrics had to be distorted by garbage time passes against 2nd and 3rd team defenses.

The way I see it, he played about as perfect of games as could be asked for vs Michigan State and Georgia Tech - vs Mich St - his team rushed for 25 total yards - and his running back fumbled what should’ve been a TD pass in the end zone that was instead a touch back. Should’ve won that game in regulation. And in the next 2 games, he played excellent outside of a handful of gut wrenching mistakes which he would never be in the position to make under Gregory Schiano:

1) End of 2nd quarter @ Stanford. With 2.5 min until halftime on the road with the ball in the red zone up 17-6, there’s a better chance of a snow blizzard in July than Greg lining up shot gun for a pass play. Defense gets to Lonergan and he fumbles as he’s about to be sacked after scrambling backwards for a loss of 7.

2) Same game - now 1.5 min to go until half, score now 17-13 at own 17, there’s even less of a chance Greg is letting his QB throw up the middle. Brutal pick six thrown there by Lonergan. Credit him for moving the ball next possession 62 yards to get a FG to tie it back up right after that before halftime. In the 3rd quarter, he moves the ball all the way to the Stanford 1 yard line only to have his RB (same one who blew the Mich St game) fumble it away.

3) vs Cal up 17-14 in 4th quarter with ball at own 6 yard line on 2nd down. Same theme as above. For better or worse, Greg isn’t greenlighting a throw up the middle there into traffic. Not with a late lead. Lonergan throws a pick up the middle that gets returned to the 2 (basically another pick 6). Add - even then, Lonergan leads BC all the way down the field needing a TD to win down 28-24 (he threw a pick in the end zone with a couple seconds to go - I don’t consider that one a major error since the D knew he had to throw and he deserves all the credit for driving the length).

So yeah - 3 gut wrenching mistakes that cost him 2 wins, but outside of those 3 errors he was otherwise awesome through the first 4 games of the season despite a 1-3 record to show for it.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Let me summarize another way.

Dare I say, it seems that we’ve brought in a QB whose play style near perfectly validates Greg’s philosophies on ball protection? Give Lonergan a reliable RB like Raymond to allow for more conservative play in the red zone and backed deep in end zone. Based on his film - it seems to me Lonergan could be pretty damn good. This is not to take anything away from AJ. He’s a complete unknown while Lonergan’s film is representative of our floor in terms of QB play. It’s a lot better than I thought it would be.

 

[patk89]

Have to say that if AJ beats out Lonergan, he must have some major skills. Some people thought Gregory would favor Wimsatt over AK but AK was head and shoulders better (and had a prior relationship with the OC). Lonergan has done it already at BC. Can AJ do it at this level? Remains to be seen. But if he wins this battle, he has the tools to be successful.

 

[LotusAggressor_rivals]

Ahhhh the off season with its inevitable and desperate articles because there’s not much to talk about.

Lack of news is no excuse for lazy, sloppy content.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Have to say that if AJ beats out Lonergan, he must have some major skills. Some people thought Gregory would favor Wimsatt over AK but AK was head and shoulders better (and had a prior relationship with the OC). Lonergan has done it already at BC. Can AJ do it at this level? Remains to be seen. But if he wins this battle, he has the tools to be successful.

AJ has the advantage as he knows the playbook that Kirk said takes till yr 3 to master. I think the comp is much closer between AJ and Lonergan but my take is well referenced on the round table. No one, no one that watched Gav could argue he should be a starting BIG QB.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

AJ has the advantage as he knows the playbook that Kirk said takes till yr 3 to master. I think the comp is much closer between AJ and Lonergan but my take is well referenced on the round table. No one, no one that watched Gav could argue he should be a starting BIG QB.

Yeah, I have to agree with that. He wasn’t even good enough by his senior year to start in Conf USA - lost the job.

The year 3 playbook thing again just doesn’t make sense though. If an OC is really being so vocal about how important that is, why would a guy like Lonergan choose RU? I just can’t see why he would come here if he wasn’t convinced he was going to be our starter this season. Now that doesn’t mean AJ didn’t take major strides and unexpectedly challenge him more than he thought. But I can’t see a scenerio like with Gavin where it was clear to all parties that AJ is the frontrunner to win this thing here and whoever came in would most likely be the back up unless he imploded. Greg can’t afford to do that again.

 

[RUTGERS95]

Yeah, I have to agree with that. He wasn’t even good enough by his senior year to start in Conf USA - lost the job.

The year 3 playbook thing again just doesn’t make sense though. If an OC is really being so vocal about how important that is, why would a guy like Lonergan choose RU? I just can’t see why he would come here if he wasn’t convinced he was going to be our starter this season. Now that doesn’t mean AJ didn’t take major strides and unexpectedly challenge him more than he thought. But I can’t see a scenerio like with Gavin where it was clear to all parties that AJ is the frontrunner to win this thing here and whoever came in would most likely be the back up unless he imploded. Greg can’t afford to do that again.

I've argued the same points, in today's game a playbook shouldn't take that long. But that is from Kirk's own mouth and our defense (Greg's defense) is 2yrs.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I've argued the same points, in today's game a playbook shouldn't take that long. But that is from Kirk's own mouth and our defense (Greg's defense) is 2yrs.

I’m not even questioning what Kirk thinks. I can’t understand why Lonergan would’ve chosen to come here if not told there was very good chance he would be our starter. BC was 2-10 but his personal numbers outside of 2 fumbles and 3 picks that couldn’t have happened at worse situational times weren’t just okay - they were very good. Normally, coaches don’t put QBs in that situation - especially after getting burned once, but BC’s main RB sported a collection of red zone fumbles all his own. Even the best QBs throw a handful of picks and occasionally drop the ball when pressured. He had to have plenty of options that were better than the possibility of being our back up.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

The more I think about it, there should really be more dedicated discussion to Lonergan. It almost seems like he’s an afterthought and penciled in as back up in the minds of our fans…

Why isn’t our fan base more excited about having a QB on the roster from the ACC who completed 67% of his passes last season on only 5 INTs (284 throws going for over 2K yards)? I guess I know the answer as I myself saw the 2-10 record and figured Lonergan must be trash. But I don’t see how anyone could watch his season film and not be excited. There’s very little negative to point to. He did have 3 fumbles - but one of them was simple a bad snap that he mishandled. The other 2 (one very untimely) were simply a trade off of what otherwise appears in the film to be pretty solid scrambling skills (he only took 15 sacks on the season, and BC did not have good pass protection). It doesn’t make any sense.

 

[Knight Shift]

The more I think about it, there should really be more dedicated discussion to Lonergan. It almost seems like he’s an afterthought and penciled in as back up in the minds of our fans…

Why isn’t our fan base more excited about having a QB on the roster from the ACC who completed 67% of his passes last season on only 5 INTs (284 throws going for over 2K yards)? I guess I know the answer as I myself saw the 2-10 record and figured Lonergan must be trash. But I don’t see how anyone could watch his season film and not be excited. There’s very little negative to point to. He did have 3 fumbles - but one of them was simple a bad snap that he mishandled. The other 2 (one very untimely) were simply a trade off of what otherwise appears in the film to be pretty solid scrambling skills (he only took 15 sacks on the season, and BC did not have good pass protection). It doesn’t make any sense.

 

[RUTGERS95]

The more I think about it, there should really be more dedicated discussion to Lonergan. It almost seems like he’s an afterthought and penciled in as back up in the minds of our fans…

Why isn’t our fan base more excited about having a QB on the roster from the ACC who completed 67% of his passes last season on only 5 INTs (284 throws going for over 2K yards)? I guess I know the answer as I myself saw the 2-10 record and figured Lonergan must be trash. But I don’t see how anyone could watch his season film and not be excited. There’s very little negative to point to. He did have 3 fumbles - but one of them was simple a bad snap that he mishandled. The other 2 (one very untimely) were simply a trade off of what otherwise appears in the film to be pretty solid scrambling skills (he only took 15 sacks on the season, and BC did not have good pass protection). It doesn’t make any sense.

there has been discussion on the two on the round table however, the two boards are quite opposite on many topics from the free board.

you can ask Richie to chime in here and he can you give what he is hearing etc..

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

there has been discussion on the two on the round table however, the two boards are quite opposite on many topics from the free board.

you can ask Richie to chime in here and he can you give what he is hearing etc..

I wasn’t talking about the scoop now. Just in general. From the time he committed. Have we ever had a QB with accuracy numbers like Lonergan’s?

 

[Knight Shift]

I wasn’t talking about the scoop now. Just in general. From the time he committed. Have we ever had a QB with accuracy numbers like Lonergan’s?

Smaller sample size, but Noah Vedral came to RU with a 72.5% completion percentage. . . . .

Not arguing, just adding facts. And it looks like from the clips I viewed, Lonergan threw a lot of short and swing passes to guys like Turbo who made a lot of YAC.

Noah Vedral Career Stats - NCAAF - ESPN

Complete career NCAAF stats for Rutgers Scarlet Knights Quarterback Noah Vedral on ESPN. Includes scoring, rushing, defensive and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

 

[RUTGERS95]

I wasn’t talking about the scoop now. Just in general. From the time he committed. Have we ever had a QB with accuracy numbers like Lonergan’s?

I don't know but I do like him and expect him to be starting BIG play. I differ from many on the round table in this regard

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Smaller sample size, but Noah Vedral came to RU with a 72.5% completion percentage. . . . .

Not arguing, just adding facts. And it looks like from the clips I viewed, Lonergan threw a lot of short and swing passes to guys like Turbo who made a lot of YAC.

Noah Vedral Career Stats - NCAAF - ESPN

Complete career NCAAF stats for Rutgers Scarlet Knights Quarterback Noah Vedral on ESPN. Includes scoring, rushing, defensive and receiving stats.

www.espn.com

For the avoidance of doubt - I was talking about throwing 67% over the course of a season at RU. But since you brought it up, it should be noted that your blending 3 seasons worth of data (mostly garbage time) and only included 4 total games against high majors and only 2 where he threw more than 5 passes. Of those games - he had one single game where he performed really well (vs Indiana) that is heavily skewing the overall picture. It should also be noted that over the course of those 3 seasons, that Indiana game was the only time he ever threw for over 135 yards in any game (201 vs Indiana). Lonergan, by the way, completed 7 of 8 passes as a reserve at Alabama, but just as Noah’s 75% as UCF’s back up is meaningless so was that.

In terms of Turbo - did you watch the TKR clip that combined all of Lonergan’s throws or something else? Not only does he do a good job mixing it up (wide outs, TEs and RBs) but he naturally incorporates a lot of fakes in his game - and he seems very comfortable moving on from his first, second even third read based on what the D gives. I wouldn’t say RU went out of its way to throw to Raymond - would you? He netted more pass yards on his 18 receptions than Turbo did on his 30 catches BTW (and all 30 of those passes probably didn’t even come from Lonergan since he wasn’t the only QB who played).

I know your just trying to find a perspective (beyond how bad BC’s results were) that explains why this pick up has gotten such little attention, but if these are the best things anyone can come up with, it makes even less sense. Bringing up Turbo (who stinks) actually makes the opposite statement about Lonergan’s numbers. BC netted less total rush yards than all but 7 FBS schools. For him to be that accurate on a team that had basically no run game is pretty impressive.

 

[Bueller]

Yeah, I have to agree with that. He wasn’t even good enough by his senior year to start in Conf USA - lost the job.

The year 3 playbook thing again just doesn’t make sense though. If an OC is really being so vocal about how important that is, why would a guy like Lonergan choose RU? I just can’t see why he would come here if he wasn’t convinced he was going to be our starter this season. Now that doesn’t mean AJ didn’t take major strides and unexpectedly challenge him more than he thought. But I can’t see a scenerio like with Gavin where it was clear to all parties that AJ is the frontrunner to win this thing here and whoever came in would most likely be the back up unless he imploded. Greg can’t afford to do that again.

The "3 years to mastery" thing can apply to all positions. With QB it helps to have the same OC each season and not a new OC 3 yrs in a row like Wimsatt (who was really a Pat White spread type - he had over 1000 yards rushing every year with 56 rushing TDs.). Be aware AK passed/ran for 24 reg season TDs and Wim had 20 with decent run OL but flea market WRs.

Whoever starts this year it will probably be a year with no red zone. Schiano began as a DC who first coached in a system where defense had to make turnovers to win. No turnovers is in GS's football DNA (thus the condom offense). Like a lot of DC who head coach he cant get offense in gear. Run up the field with sideline passes and die in the RZ with a 90s play philosophy.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

The "3 years to mastery" thing can apply to all positions. With QB it helps to have the same OC each season and not a new OC 3 yrs in a row like Wimsatt (who was really a Pat White spread type - he had over 1000 yards rushing every year with 56 rushing TDs.). Be aware AK passed/ran for 24 reg season TDs and Wim had 20 with decent run OL but flea market WRs.

Whoever starts this year it will probably be a year with no red zone. Schiano began as a DC who first coached in a system where defense had to make turnovers to win. No turnovers is in GS's football DNA (thus the condom offense). Like a lot of DC who head coach he cant get offense in gear. Run up the field with sideline passes and die in the RZ with a 90s play philosophy.

Please stop on Gavin Wimsatt’s 11 rush TDs (including 2 against Wagner) on a team with excellent run blocking (in large part thanks to Kyle who obviously also had to be accounted for in the run game, which BC was terrible at).

Apples and oranges to compare TD count. But even at that, GW took nearly every snap in 13 games. Lonergan DNP in 2 of 12 games and only took a handful of snaps in the Syracuse and ND games (one series in each maybe?).On a prorated basis, they likely scored a similar number of TDs per series.

 

[DJ Spanky]

The more I think about it, there should really be more dedicated discussion to Lonergan. It almost seems like he’s an afterthought and penciled in as back up in the minds of our fans…

Why isn’t our fan base more excited about having a QB on the roster from the ACC who completed 67% of his passes last season on only 5 INTs (284 throws going for over 2K yards)? I guess I know the answer as I myself saw the 2-10 record and figured Lonergan must be trash. But I don’t see how anyone could watch his season film and not be excited. There’s very little negative to point to. He did have 3 fumbles - but one of them was simple a bad snap that he mishandled. The other 2 (one very untimely) were simply a trade off of what otherwise appears in the film to be pretty solid scrambling skills (he only took 15 sacks on the season, and BC did not have good pass protection). It doesn’t make any sense.

I've addressed this elsewhere, but wanted to post some of the stats surrounding Lonergan. In the 8 games he played in last year against FBS competition (removing his stats against Our Sister Mary's School For The Blind, er, Fordham), this was his stat line:

Total: 164/250, 65.6%, 1757 yards, 8 TD's, 5 INT's, 13 sacks, 3 fumbles, pulled from 2 games

Here are the individual game tallies:

11/29 @Syracuse (3-9) - suffered a game-ending thumb injury on the 1st drive after going 2/2 for 8 yards
11/15 Georgia Tech (9-4) - 26/40, 362 yards, 2 TD's, 0 INT's, 1 sack
11/08 SMU (9-4) - 25/37, 232 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 4 sacks
11/01 ND (10-2) - 5/8, 29 yards, 0 TD's, 1 INT - pulled after INT on 3rd drive
10/11 Clemson (7-6) - 12/19, 117 yards, 0 TD's, 0 INT's, 3 sacks, 1 lost fumble
10/04 @Pitt (8-5) - 9/18, 89 yards, 0 TD's, 0 INT's, 2 sacks, 1 lost fumble - pulled in the 3rd quarter
09/27 Cal (7-6) - 21/37, 197 yards, 0 TD's, 2 INT's, 1 sack
09/13 @Stanford (4-8) - 30/44, 333 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 sacks, 1 lost fumble
09/06 @Michigan State (4-8) - 34/45, 390 yards, 4 TD's, 0 INT's, 0 sacks

I realize that BC was putrid last year, but his stats aren't incredibly overwhelming.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I've addressed this elsewhere, but wanted to post some of the stats surrounding Lonergan. In the 8 games he played in last year against FBS competition (removing his stats against Our Sister Mary's School For The Blind, er, Fordham), this was his stat line:

Total: 164/250, 65.6%, 1757 yards, 8 TD's, 5 INT's, 13 sacks, 3 fumbles, pulled from 2 games

Here are the individual game tallies:

11/29 @Syracuse (3-9) - suffered a game-ending thumb injury on the 1st drive after going 2/2 for 8 yards
11/15 Georgia Tech (9-4) - 26/40, 362 yards, 2 TD's, 0 INT's, 1 sack
11/08 SMU (9-4) - 25/37, 232 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 4 sacks
11/01 ND (10-2) - 5/8, 29 yards, 0 TD's, 1 INT - pulled after INT on 3rd drive
10/11 Clemson (7-6) - 12/19, 117 yards, 0 TD's, 0 INT's, 3 sacks, 1 lost fumble
10/04 @Pitt (8-5) - 9/18, 89 yards, 0 TD's, 0 INT's, 2 sacks, 1 lost fumble - pulled in the 3rd quarter
09/27 Cal (7-6) - 21/37, 197 yards, 0 TD's, 2 INT's, 1 sack
09/13 @Stanford (4-8) - 30/44, 333 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 2 sacks, 1 lost fumble
09/06 @Michigan State (4-8) - 34/45, 390 yards, 4 TD's, 0 INT's, 0 sacks

I realize that BC was putrid last year, but his stats aren't incredibly overwhelming.

Thanks. A few things.

1) It doesn’t impact his numbers all that much anyway, but considering the context of my question (comparing his completion rate to QBs in RU history) it seems unfair to pull out the Fordham data unless we’re also planning to pull out the stats from the cupcake games that RU played which is a pain to do and of course not worth the trouble. Instead - let’s just note that virtually every QBs metrics go down when you strip those games out and yes, every team schedules at least one of those types of games, often more.

2) Did you watch the TKR video Richie put together of all his throws on the season in one sitting or are you just making a case that wasn’t spectacular based on the paper numbers (which by the way - aren’t bad overall, but the film is better). After watching the games as the season unfolded throw by throw - I don’t see how anyone could take away that he isn’t an above average QB. Yes, he made some costly mistakes in a couple heart breaking losses, but otherwise he was solid. No QB is going to have success in a game where his team only manages 27 rushing yards.

 

[DJ Spanky]

1) It doesn’t impact his numbers all that much anyway, but considering the context of my question (comparing his completion rate to QBs in RU history) it seems unfair to pull out the Fordham data unless we’re also planning to pull out the stats from the cupcake games that RU played which is a pain to do and of course not worth the trouble. Instead - let’s just note that virtually every QBs metrics go down when you strip those games out and yes, every team schedules at least one of those types of games, often more.

Way ahead of you, I already crunched all of those numbers for AK for 2025:

2025 cmp/att pct yds TDs INTs sacks
Ohio - 18/23 78.3% 252 2 0 1
Miami of Ohio - 26/36 72.2% 259 4 0 3
Norfolk State - 18/26 69.2% 309 1 0 1
Iowa - 24/40 60.0% 330 0 1 3
@minnesota - 21/34 61.8% 249 2 1 7
@Washington - 31/50 62.0% 386 2 1 3
Oregon - 8/25 32% 79 0 1 3
@purdue - 19/27 70.4 359 1 0 5
@Illinois - 25/45 55.6 253 1 0 2
Maryland - 13/20 65.0% 229 4 2 1
@Ohio State - 10/20 50.0% 81 0 0 4
State Penn - 16/22 72.7% 338 3 0 3
===========================
Total - 229/368 62.2% 3124 20 7 36
W/O FCS - 211/342 61.7% 2815 19 6 25

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Way ahead of you, I already crunched all of those numbers for AK for 2025:

2025 cmp/att pct yds TDs INTs sacks
Ohio - 18/23 78.3% 252 2 0 1
Miami of Ohio - 26/36 72.2% 259 4 0 3
Norfolk State - 18/26 69.2% 309 1 0 1
Iowa - 24/40 60.0% 330 0 1 3
@minnesota - 21/34 61.8% 249 2 1 7
@Washington - 31/50 62.0% 386 2 1 3
Oregon - 8/25 32% 79 0 1 3
@purdue - 19/27 70.4 359 1 0 5
@Illinois - 25/45 55.6 253 1 0 2
Maryland - 13/20 65.0% 229 4 2 1
@Ohio State - 10/20 50.0% 81 0 0 4
State Penn - 16/22 72.7% 338 3 0 3
===========================
Total - 229/368 62.2% 3124 20 7 36
W/O FCS - 211/342 61.7% 2815 19 6 25

Okay - I guess. But what’s your point? Athan’s profile above was good enough to get him drafted into the NFL. Your comparing his senior season at RU (where his surrounding cast was much better than what Lonergan had at BC across the board, OL, receivers, running game, etc.) to Lonergan’s junior year. And Lonergan was still more accurate. In terms of interception rate - Athan didn’t throw a pick against Howard. Their rates are actually an identical 2% of their passes thrown based on your denominators. Athan threw more TDs, but he also played 11 entire games to get those 19 (including 6 TDs against MAC teams). Lonergan only played ACC teams and Michigan St (outside of Fordham which were excluding) - 7 games plus 10 throws against Syracuse and ND to get his 8 TDs. Lonergan took way less sacks and that certainly wasn’t attributable to better pass protection.

All this aside - Athan isn’t a part of our QB battle. He’s off to the NFL. If we were to compare his numbers as a junior returning for his senior year, Lonergan wins hands down.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Okay - I guess. But what’s your point?

I was replying to this:

but considering the context of my question (comparing his completion rate to QBs in RU history) it seems unfair to pull out the Fordham data unless we’re also planning to pull out the stats from the cupcake games that RU played which is a pain to do and of course not worth the trouble.

So I'm just supplying some context.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I was replying to this:



So I'm just supplying some context.

Fair enough. You said above Lonergan’s stats aren’t overwhelming - while they are not Heisman worthy or anything, they do stack up pretty well against virtually any RU QB anyone could point to (and now that I think about it, we should, in theory, be looking at Junior seasons). I get that our QB history isn’t fantastic, but it just seems to me when there’s talk about our portal class, Lonergan is not even on the radar of discussion. As if he’s here just in case Surace doesn’t work out and the likelihood of him playing is slim. Lonergan’s profile seems way too good for that. And so far, any data points anyone’s pointed to try to explain it seem to make the argument worse. I feel like something is missing. Is it possible that thumb injury has a questionable recovery path? I didn’t realize that’s why he left the last game.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Is it possible that thumb injury has a questionable recovery path? I didn’t realize that’s why he left the last game.

It sure screwed Vedral up in, what was it, 2022?