I've talked about football very little since Ruff was fired. Some of the only times since were to point out some absurd members of the ECU fanbase who wanted to bench Holton Ahlers, compared him to Paul Troth, or said he was the worst QB in 15 years, etc. Listening to the call-in show last week after the Temple loss there are still elements of the fanbase that want him gone as ridiculous and insane as that sounds to say out loud. This is a player that could have left Greenville many times but returned respectability to the program. He has to be one of the most underappreciated players I have ever seen in any sport by some.
This thread pretty much sums it up.
It’s the coaching! (247sports.com)
I already did this in a way early last season when the shovels were out ready to put dirt on Ahlers career and bench him. Ahlers wasn't playing well that first month (122 passer rating) but as expected and I pointed out, he progressed to the mean so to speak the rest of that season and since that day has been a 140+ passer rating stud by ECU standards.
Now that he has all but one game finished as a pirate, I think it's time to rank him in the pantheon of Pirate QB's. I've listed every credible passing season in ECU modern history from 1983 on.
As you can see Ahlers has 4 of the top 12 efficiency seasons ever, and James Summers probably shouldn't even count as low attempts as it was. The SOS is 69th this year by teamrankings vs 104th Carden's top season is the only one that was more efficient passing. Unfortunately, it doesn't go back to 1991, but 69th is very much in the range Garrard was playing against.
Ahlers also has a season with the most rushing yards by a QB by a mile. 119 carries 592 yards, 5.0ypc and 6 TD's. Garrard best season was only 493 and 3.6 ypc. Kevin Ingram 464, 4.0ypc are the next closest. He's ran for 1398 yards 3.0ypc and 24 TD's, he's even caught 2 TD passes.
It's not just his standing in the ECU record books, it's the NCAA record books. While it's true he got the extra covid year, they had 5 games canceled by covid. He's really only played 5 more games than most players would have been allowed since they went to 12 games. (he's also never played in a bowl) With the new redshirt rule allowing 4 games, that's essentially a wash moving forward. BTW can we point out the toughness you have to have to make it through this many seasons healthy enough to even play. There is a reason most players don't have this kind of resume.
NCAA Ranks All Time
Passing Yards 11th
Total Yards 7th
How can you be 7th all-time in the history of college football in total yards, and some ECU fans are ready for you to be gone. It's insanity. Clearly, he's on Mt Rushmore and what he's done for ECU can't be understated. He's had multiple great seasons where he's top 15 in some of the top NCAA value stats. I think you could certainly make a great case for him having the best career ever. He's at least right there with Jeff Blake, Carden, and Garrard on Rushmore.
This is where stats can lie a little. Phillip Nelson and Blake Kemp did not have 2 of the top 10 seasons in modern ECU QB history, and if I were to put all stock in that Marcus Crandell is the worst multi year starting QB ECU has ever had. In big moments Holton had a tendency to make the big mistake, and his W/L record as a QB overall stinks. Had we competed for a conference title this year like we absolutely should have I'd entertain the argument of putting him in the top 5, but I'd still have him behind Blake, Garrard, Crandell, and Carden.
ReplyDeleteNelson was a starter in the Big Ten as a Fr/So. I don't know why it's so hard to believe he was actually pretty good individually as a Sr here. He had zero control over the defense and could only control his position. He had MASSIVE games vs NCSU, #16 Virginia Tech, South Carolina, and UCF where he threw for 296+ yards in each. All bowl teams, including beating NC State.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, he was great in an offense that even made Gardner Minshew look like shit that same season in 200+ passes. 124 passer rating for the future Johnny Unitas #1 QB in College Football/NFL starter, with the same offense and same personnel around him. Minshew wasn't young either his 3rd year.
Crandell's numbers don't even hold up even in his era. Sorry, they just don't. People overate the nostalgia and Logan's offense. Danny Gonzales came in for him his sr year and ECU never missed him. To be a mobile QB, he wasn't even that impressive on the ground.
Kemp may have been more a product of a system, which was amazing to get what they did out of him, but the guy had some massive games at Florida and BYU. If you throw for 325 and 383 good teams like that on the road you don't suck that bad even if you have Air Raid geniuses squeezing every drop of talent out of you. He still did it and had a great individual season completing almost 70% of his passes.
Best (most talented) QB to play here was Dominique Davis
DeleteI can believe he was the most talented physically, but he did throw a disappointing number of interceptions, and didn't do as much with those attributes running as you'd like. Also for all the love Steve Logan's offense still gets around here, Davs was terrible under him at BC (99 passer rating). That's not saying much though when Logan coached Matt Ryan his senior year and only had a 127 passer rating. Those type of numbers were normal under Logan even as late as 2008 with talents like that.
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