Zac Taylor input about QB play

[Big Red Cornspiracy]

 

Zac Taylor was a good QB for us. But, by chance, I came across a Bleacher Report guy(I know, Bleacher Report, bleh) who was ranking NU's Top 10 all time QBs and put ZT @ ~#4, ahead of guys like Humm and Ferragamo and Steve Taylor. Yikes! I am not even sure if I would've put ZT in the top 10!

 

Thoughts?

I love Zac but 4th is a bit steep when you can go all the way back to Devaney days and think about all the QBs that played here. I think it's a combination of two things, recent memory, and style of play. He was the first QB in recent memory to set a bunch of passing records and since he played in this millennium he sprang to mind quickly.

 

Agreed. Well I was a bit inflationary here re ZT. Here's the list, I revisitied the page

 

Honorable Mention: Gerry Gdwoski, Brook Berringer, no mention for Jeff Quinn

10--Ganz

9)--Humm

8)--Ferragamo

7)--Zac Taylor

6)--Eric Crouch

5)--Scott Frost

4)--Steve Taylor

3)--Tagge

2)--Gill

1)--Frazier

 

Honestly, I'm not sure I would put ZT above any of the above mentioned QBs. So I guess I have him below Jeff Quinn, who had us finish @ #9 I think, his senior season. Gdowski put us #11 1 year. Etc.

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/447397-top-10-husker-quarterbacks-of-all-time

[junior4949]

Our only Hypseman winning QB comes in at #6?

[Big Red Cornspiracy]

Our only Hypseman winning QB comes in at #6?

It's Bleacher Repore, nuff said. But I def put S Taylor, well, I don't know where I'd put him, maybe back behind Humm. Crouch therefore moves up a notch.

[Guy Chamberlin]

Our only Hypseman winning QB comes in at #6?

 

The #1 and #2 leaders in career total offense at Nebraska don't even crack the list.

[Guy Chamberlin]

We made a lot of Humm because he was an NFL style QB who came to Nebraska from Las Vegas. He had his best year as a Sophomore, then faded a bit. A career 55% passer with 42 TDs and 40 interceptions. Joe Ganz and Zac Taylor were both better QBs than Humm. I remember liking Steve Taylor --- he looked like Turner Gill 2.0. Surprised to see he ended up a 45% career passer -- completed only 41% his Junior year -- with an INT/TD ratio worse than Tommy Armstrong. Leadership counts for a lot, and some of these guys were just great leaders of well-stocked teams. Comparing Devaney and Osborne era QBs is tough, because those vintage Husker defenses made a huge difference in the offenses we could run and the games we won. Nobody would be talking about the hitch in Taylor Martinez's throwing motion if you swapped the '95 defense for Taylor's '12 defense. Tommy Armstrong would have set fewer records on Osborne teams, but won more games and ended up more beloved.

 

Jerry Gdowski might have been the best QB in the bunch, but he only had one year.

[lo country]

Back to the thread and Zac's comments. He was probably the most physically abused QB I have seen play at NU. He took unbelievable hits and kept going. His attitude, needs to be a mantra for the whole team. "Toughness". OL, DL, RB's, everyone.....

[84HuskerLaw]

We made a lot of Humm because he was an NFL style QB who came to Nebraska from Las Vegas. He had his best year as a Sophomore, then faded a bit. A career 55% passer with 42 TDs and 40 interceptions. Joe Ganz and Zac Taylor were both better QBs than Humm. I remember liking Steve Taylor --- he looked like Turner Gill 2.0. Surprised to see he ended up a 45% career passer -- completed only 41% his Junior year -- with an INT/TD ratio worse than Tommy Armstrong. Leadership counts for a lot, and some of these guys were just great leaders of well-stocked teams. Comparing Devaney and Osborne era QBs is tough, because those vintage Husker defenses made a huge difference in the offenses we could run and the games we won. Nobody would be talking about the hitch in Taylor Martinez's throwing motion if you swapped the '95 defense for Taylor's '12 defense. Tommy Armstrong would have set fewer records on Osborne teams, but won more games and ended up more beloved.

 

Jerry Gdowski might have been the best QB in the bunch, but he only had one year.

Humm was a very fine passer. I believe he may have had Johnny Rodgers to throw to and that would aid any QB numbers. Gdowski is one of my favorites and I too would include him in the top tier. I would not put Ferragamo in my top twenty although he certainly was quite successful in the pros by comparison. Steve Taylor was a fine player as well. But Turner Gill gets the nod as our best ever in my book. No matter what the stats are Tommie Frazier was the most successful QB and was a superstar no matter how you want to look at it. He was a great great football player, period, that happened to play QB on some of the greatest, most talented teams of all time! He made other players better but they made him better. Brook Berringer was a fine QB as well. Another of our very best QBs was Bobby Newcomb who, unfortunately, blew out a knee early in his career. He was likely the fastest, most athletically gifted and graceful runners every at Nebraska. He was like Taylor Martinez as a freshman - unbelievably fast and most defenses simply underestimated his pure speed. If Taylor Martinez had not been so seriously injured (it must have been bad because he was never the same after), he would have had a chance to win a heisman, much like Eric Crouch.

 

Both Gill and Frazier were more deserving of the Heisman than Crouch in my view but voters weren't going to select them because they didn't have prolific arms to match their legs.

[Big Red Cornspiracy]

We made a lot of Humm because he was an NFL style QB who came to Nebraska from Las Vegas. He had his best year as a Sophomore, then faded a bit. A career 55% passer with 42 TDs and 40 interceptions. Joe Ganz and Zac Taylor were both better QBs than Humm. I remember liking Steve Taylor --- he looked like Turner Gill 2.0. Surprised to see he ended up a 45% career passer -- completed only 41% his Junior year -- with an INT/TD ratio worse than Tommy Armstrong. Leadership counts for a lot, and some of these guys were just great leaders of well-stocked teams. Comparing Devaney and Osborne era QBs is tough, because those vintage Husker defenses made a huge difference in the offenses we could run and the games we won. Nobody would be talking about the hitch in Taylor Martinez's throwing motion if you swapped the '95 defense for Taylor's '12 defense. Tommy Armstrong would have set fewer records on Osborne teams, but won more games and ended up more beloved.

 

Jerry Gdowski might have been the best QB in the bunch, but he only had one year.

S Taylor was mostly an option running QB, and he was good at it, better than TA for sure. And NU ran the ball like 80% of the time, ave ~400 yds per game rushing. Those were the good old days.

 

As I recall, Ferragamo was better than Humm @ NU. Fans seemed to like him better, anyway. Took the Rams to the Super Bowl.

[Big Red Cornspiracy]

Back to the thread and Zac's comments. He was probably the most physically abused QB I have seen play at NU. He took unbelievable hits and kept going. His attitude, needs to be a mantra for the whole team. "Toughness". OL, DL, RB's, everyone.....

Thats for damn sure, I dont know how he survived it.

[Big Red Cornspiracy]

 

We made a lot of Humm because he was an NFL style QB who came to Nebraska from Las Vegas. He had his best year as a Sophomore, then faded a bit. A career 55% passer with 42 TDs and 40 interceptions. Joe Ganz and Zac Taylor were both better QBs than Humm. I remember liking Steve Taylor --- he looked like Turner Gill 2.0. Surprised to see he ended up a 45% career passer -- completed only 41% his Junior year -- with an INT/TD ratio worse than Tommy Armstrong. Leadership counts for a lot, and some of these guys were just great leaders of well-stocked teams. Comparing Devaney and Osborne era QBs is tough, because those vintage Husker defenses made a huge difference in the offenses we could run and the games we won. Nobody would be talking about the hitch in Taylor Martinez's throwing motion if you swapped the '95 defense for Taylor's '12 defense. Tommy Armstrong would have set fewer records on Osborne teams, but won more games and ended up more beloved.

 

Jerry Gdowski might have been the best QB in the bunch, but he only had one year.

Humm was a very fine passer. I believe he may have had Johnny Rodgers to throw to and that would aid any QB numbers. Gdowski is one of my favorites and I too would include him in the top tier. I would not put Ferragamo in my top twenty although he certainly was quite successful in the pros by comparison. Steve Taylor was a fine player as well. But Turner Gill gets the nod as our best ever in my book. No matter what the stats are Tommie Frazier was the most successful QB and was a superstar no matter how you want to look at it. He was a great great football player, period, that happened to play QB on some of the greatest, most talented teams of all time! He made other players better but they made him better. Brook Berringer was a fine QB as well. Another of our very best QBs was Bobby Newcomb who, unfortunately, blew out a knee early in his career. He was likely the fastest, most athletically gifted and graceful runners every at Nebraska. He was like Taylor Martinez as a freshman - unbelievably fast and most defenses simply underestimated his pure speed. If Taylor Martinez had not been so seriously injured (it must have been bad because he was never the same after), he would have had a chance to win a heisman, much like Eric Crouch.

 

Both Gill and Frazier were more deserving of the Heisman than Crouch in my view but voters weren't going to select them because they didn't have prolific arms to match their legs.

 

Tommie Frazier had "IT", like Michael Jordan level. That's what separates him from the pack, the moment he took the field as a frosh it was "WOW". Turner in the 2 spot for me.

[Guy Chamberlin]

 

Both Gill and Frazier were more deserving of the Heisman than Crouch in my view but voters weren't going to select them because they didn't have prolific arms to match their legs.

 

 

Gill came in fourth in Heisman balloting his Senior year. That's not bad considering Doug Flutie was #3, Steve Young was #2, and his own teammate Mike Rozier won the thing.

 

I can't say Eddie George was better than Tommie Frazier in '95, but it's still impressive that Tommie finished a strong #2 without the traditional stat line. Tommie Frazier was never under-rated.

 

Eric Crouch just had to split a lot of tepid votes between himself, Rex Grossman and Ken Dorsey.

[lo country]

 

 

Both Gill and Frazier were more deserving of the Heisman than Crouch in my view but voters weren't going to select them because they didn't have prolific arms to match their legs.

 

 

Gill came in fourth in Heisman balloting his Senior year. That's not bad considering Doug Flutie was #3, Steve Young was #2, and his own teammate Mike Rozier won the thing.

 

I can't say Eddie George was better than Tommie Frazier in '95, but it's still impressive that Tommie finished a strong #2 without the traditional stat line. Tommie Frazier was never under-rated.

 

Eric Crouch just had to split a lot of tepid votes between himself, Rex Grossman and Ken Dorsey.

 

You look at who Turner and Tommie were up against and where they ended up at the next level. Those guys were solid. Not knocking Eric at all, phenomenal athlete who carried the team IMHO, but his "competition" was less as you mentioned with the "hmm" other choices. I still thought he was the clear winner and very deserving. I thought then and still do that Tommie was robbed!

[Big Red Cornspiracy]

Tommie robbed, yep, as per iOSU media bias.

[Landlord]

Our only Hypseman winning QB comes in at #6?

 

 

You just completely defeated your argument by referring to it as the Hypesman, since it obviously isn't accurately indicative of greatness

 

Not to mention the 2001 Heisman race was one of the 3 worst of the last 30-40 years.

[dvdcrr]

Zac Taylor gets a lot of respect from me. Came from Norman Oklahoma to play QB at NU. Played his guts out forBig Red. All you need to know.