If you are unaware of the ANY/A metric “An advanced statistic in football that quantifies the contributions of a quarterback’s passing game by including five key passing statistics; passing yards, passing touchdowns, interceptions thrown, times sacked and yards lost to being sacked. This measure rewards passers for scoring with a multiplier on touchdowns and punishes a passer on throwing interceptions. This is all combined into a value on a per pass attempt basis.”
Here are the top 10 performances from Week 0 of the CFB season out of 22 qualifying performances.
*Note – The total on the bottom is the tally of all QBs that attempted at least 10 passes this past weekend.
College football is back! We had an 11-game slate on WK0 weekend. UNLV’s Doug Brumfield was the top performer on the weekend. He completed his passes for a whopping 14.2 YPA to go along with 4 TD passes against FCS Idaho State. FAU’s N’Kosi Perry had a big day against Charlotte. The 6th year QB has a chance to be a top-half G5 QB in 2022. Logan Bonner played very well against what seems to be an improved UConn team. Bonner was 8 of 12 on balls traveling 10+ YDs in the air and tossed 4 “Big Time Throws” on those 12 attempts. rFR Drake Maye tossed 5 TDs in his starting debut against FCS Florida A&M. Maye’s 7.7 YPA wasn’t the most impressive of WK0 but he got the job done by finishing drives in the end zone. Maye was 9 of 14 on passes 10+ YDs in the air. I thought heading into the weekend that Jacolby Criswell would get his shot at stealing the starting gig, but after this performance, I don’t think that’s the case anytime soon.
NMSU’s Diego Pavia had a brutal debut against Nevada and was the least valuable QB on the weekend. He finished 9 of 20 with 3 INTs on the night. Pavis completed more passes to Wolfpack defends on passes 10+ YDs downfield than his own Aggie receiver (2 INTs to 1 Comp). UConn’s Zion Turner came in relief of the injured Taquan Roberson and struggled mightily. Wyoming’s Andrew Peasley might have had the worst weekend of all the QBs. Completing just 5 of 20 attempts. Peasley was 0 of 8 on passes over 10 yards and lead the weekend with 3 “Turnover Worthy Passes” on those 8 attempts. He also had a weekend worse 1.5 YPA. UTEP’s Gavin Hardison was hit and miss on Saturday Night. He attempted a WK0 high of 25 attempts over 10 YDs downfield. He only completed 8 of his 25 attempts, but all 8 were graded as “Big Time Throws” by PFF. This included 4 dropped passes which tied Casey Thompson for the most on the weekend (on passes over 10 YDs).
Austin Reed made his FBS debut against Austin Peay and didn’t exactly light it up. His ANY/A finished at 9.42, heavily aided by his 4 TDs passes. Reed did finish with the 3rd highest Average Depth of Throw on the weekend. While it is a very small sample size, Reed threw downfield on 46% of his attempts compared to Bailey Zappe’s 38% in 2021.
Casey Thompson had an up-and-down ‘Husker debut. Thompson completed 10 of 22 downfield passes, but that included 4 dropped passes. The Thompson and Mark Whipple pairing was very aggressive through the air. Thompson had the 2nd highest aDOT on the weekend. 55% of his aimed targets traveled over 10 YDs downfield. Highest of all QBs from this past weekend with at least 15 attempts.
