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As we wade into our massive pool of College Football Focus data, we’ll be sharing with you some of the highlights from our Signature Stats in position-by-position looks.

So, over the next couple weeks you can expect daily dives into the best and worst that the full FBS schedule produced in all of the same categories you’ve come to know from our NFL coverage.

We start, of course, with the quarterbacks and here’s a selection of the standouts in key areas:

Deep Passing


While this deep passing chart is sorted by accuracy percentage, it should be noted that deep passing stats are often about the wide receiver and the coverage, or lack thereof, rather than a quarterback’s accuracy. The further the ball is thrown down the field, the more the wide receiver is responsible for winning his battle against the defender by either beating the coverage, adjusting to the pass, or winning contested catches. While our quarterback grading takes all of these things into consideration, the accuracy percentage stat is just that, a stat, and while it does a good job of showing which quarterbacks were able to take advantage of deep ball opportunities most frequently, it’s not necessarily a perfect reflection of deep pass “accuracy” as it relates to ball location.

With that in mind, some notes from the accuracy percentage leaders on deep balls in the 2015 draft class:

– Jake Waters tops the list with an accuracy percentage of 61.8%, well above second-place finisher Garrett Grayson. WR Tyler Lockett was on the receiving end of 16 of Waters’ 36 deep ball completions, ranking third among wide receivers in the draft class catching 53.3% of his deep pass targets.
– Grayson’s favorite target was WR Rashard Higgins who tied for second in the nation with 17 receptions on deep ball targets. Higgins is not draft eligible, but his explosiveness should have NFL scouts intrigued in the coming years.
– Marshall’s Rakeem Cato attempted over a quarter of his passes beyond 20 yards in the air, and that aggressive style led to a nation-leading 1495 yards on deep passes.
– Baylor’s Bryce Petty led the nation and the draft class with 20 touchdowns on deep passes while Marcus Mariota ranked second with 18.

Under Pressure


Play Action



Time to throw
Shortest time to throw

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The Dude

looks good for Marriota. Nice to have those stats when you have half as much time to throw as the other guys

voodooido

Waters, Grayson and Petty are my top 3. Grayson would be a 5th, Petty would be a 3rd pick and Waters probably would be a 7th.

voodooido

Pete Thomas from ULM would be a good FA pickup.

Mardigras9

And why again did Rapeston win the Hiesman?

Euphoria

I am really curious how this draft class of QB is going to be drafted and who is going to pan out. There really hasn't been much talk about any of them except for the UCLA QB that I have seen or heard of.

I wouldn't mind us landing one of the top 5 QB as a back up to see if they can be groomed or not. Getting one now and kicking tires to see what we can get is better than waiting until Brees is done and we have zero options.

Jamessr

WOT...

Rugby Saint II

Too much information.........brain overload. We don't need a QB in this or maybe even the next draft.

hagan714

pass on the lot this year. Conner Cook in 2016

QBREES9

I'm a big fan of Conner Cook. Bring in Petty