Pac-12 blogger Ted Miller pointed me to a Cal fan blog that takes a new look at how to rate quarterbacks.
The blog uses a formula founded by Utah State sports economist David Berri that is designed to improve upon the the standard passer efficiency rating. Berri's formula is called "QB Score" and it has the following equation: QB Score = Total Yards - (3 x Plays) - (50 x Turnovers).
As the blog explains:
"The traditional passer efficiency rating tends to take on a 'more is better' approach: if players throw a bunch of TDs and hundreds of yards, they can get away with a fairly high turnover rate. Berri's measure has a different philosophy: if you generate yards and avoid turnovers, you will be rewarded."
I like this, because one of a quarterback's main jobs is to avoid turning the ball over, and some guys rack up stats when their team is hopelessly behind and they need to pass all the time.
Anyway, the site lists the QB score for every FBS quarterback last season, along with their passer efficiency rating. Let's take a look at the Big East results.
According to the QB Score rating, West Virginia's Geno Smith had the best season of Big East quarterbacks, with a 496 score. That jibes with my opinion that Smith was the best quarterback in the league last year.
In second place, somewhat surprisingly, was Louisville's Adam Froman at 346. But Froman did a good job of managing games and posted an 11-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio before getting injured.
Pittsburgh's Tino Sunseri was third with a 133 score. And then after that, every Big East quarterback had a negative score, which tells you again about how lackluster the league offenses were in 2010.
Zach Collaros, whom the coaches picked as the conference's first-team quarterback, finished 10th in QB Score, behind Zach Frazer, Bobby Eveld and Tom Savage. Collaros did have the highest passer efficiency rating, but he also threw 14 interceptions.
Not surprisingly, given the weight QB Score puts on turnovers, South Florida's B.J. Daniels finished last among the 12 quarterbacks ranked in this formula.
What do you think? Is this a useful tool to judge quarterback play?