Originally Posted by
Prediction? Pain.
Better, but not great.
In an SPS thread yesterday, MsState7 posted Fitz' QBR ranks -- ESPN's advanced QB stat that takes running numbers into account along with passing -- among SEC QBs the last three years. He was top 5 in 2016 and 2017, but at or near the bottom of the conference now. 7 made a good point about how Fitz' running ability likely propped up his numbers, so I looked it up to learn more. Here's what I found, which I posted on the SPS thread yesterday:
I'm not all that familiar with the ins and outs of the QBR "points added" system, but I think you're right to point out how Fitz' exceptional running game boosts his numbers.
If you break his QBR down into passing and rushing, the stats for each of his years here tell the same story:
National/SEC rank in Rushing EPA
2016 - No. 2 / No. 1
2017 - No. 5 / No. 1
2018 - No. 11 / No. 1
National / SEC rank in Passing EPA
2016 - No. 100 / No. 12
2017 - No. 100 / No. 10
2018 - No. 131 / No. 14
And if you go back and look at his passing "points added" stats for individual games, you'll see that his numbers are propped up some by games against non-conference cupcakes and bad SEC defenses. That was especially true vs. UMass and Samford in 2016, where his Passing EPA numbers were more than twice as good as his next-best SEC games (vs. Arkansas and in the Egg Bowl). (Though oddly enough, in 2017, he had negative Passing EPA numbers against UMass.)
So even when the offense flourished, he was one of the worst passing QBs in the SEC while also being the best rushing QB in the league. The bummer this year is that for whatever reason -- first year in an all-new system, new starting receivers also learning a new system, passing offense being poorly tailored to fit his/our receivers' capabilities, etc. -- his passing game is even worse than it already was.
The thing is, though, there's still time for Fitz to revert to his norm against lesser defenses in the homestretch. Our SEC games so far have been against defenses ranked 3rd, 4th, 10th, ad 19th nationally in S&P+ rankings. Our remaining conference games are against defenses ranked 20th (Bama), 25th (Texas A&M), 57th (Ark.), and 110th (U. Miss.). And then we'll also have La Tech's 78th ranked D sandwiched in there. Throwing out the Bama game from those last five, if Moorhead can get Fitz to improve slightly to where he was in 2016 and 2017 -- which may be difficult at this point in the season and given that Fitz was putting up the numbers he was after having 2 or 3 years in Mullen's system -- the offense as a whole should improve quite a bit.