Six years ago, a guy named Adam Russell wrote something called "Which College Is Quarterback U?
(NOTE: Because of when this was written, it does not include Brady Quinn or Jimmy Clausen or Andrew Luck.)
It was kind of fun to read, with 25 colleges ranked.
Notre Dame was graded at #2, with Stanford being acclaimed #1.
Hogwash!
He listed these QB’s from ND:
Montana; Lamonica; Theismann; Hanratty; Huarte; Beuerlein; Guglielmi; Clements; Kiel; Ratterman; Lisch; and Mirer
He limited himself to player’s performance in the NFL (which excludes fine college QB’s Tony Rice, Kevin McDougal, and Ron Powlus). He also limited himself to players after 1960 (which eliminates Lujack and Bertelli, who won Heisman’s as QB’s). He left out Frank Tripucka, who was the first pro QB to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a season (and did it after 1960) and George Izo. He also left out Kent Graham, who first played at ND before transferring to Ohio State.
For Stanford, he listed:
Elway; Plunkett; Brodie; And wrote, “Need I say more?”!!! He then added……Dils; Schonert; Stenstrom; Benjamin; and Hutchinson
There’s a million ways to evaluate pro QB’s, but for the purpose of this rebuttal, I’m going to list only two numbers: NFL games started and TD’s. Both of these statistics indicate value in the NFL.
I have a hard time seeing how the Stanford QB’s are superior to the ND QB’s. And, if their college performance were included, ND wins in a rout, with stars like Huarte, Hanratty, Clements, Mirer, and Quinn having been outstanding winners in college despite less success in the NFL. Clements ranks as one of the All-Time Greats in the CFL.
Perhaps others have also critiqued this list, but I wanted to share my feelings with some of my friends.
Montana 164 273
Lamonica 88 164
Theismann 124 160
Hanratty 18 24
Huarte 1 1
Beuerlein 102 147
Guglielmi 26 24
Clements 0 0
Kiel 3 8
Ratterman* 18 39 *doesn’t include his numbers with the AAFC
Lisch 1 1
Mirer 68 50
(Tripucka 52 69)
(Izo 6 12)
Elway 231 300
Plunkett 144 164
Brodie 159 214
Dils 27 27
Schonert 12 11
Stenstrom 10 4
Benjamin 0 3
Hutchinson 14 11