Yahoo Sports blogger Matt Hinton rustled up quarterback hurry totals for each NCAA team yesterday, so I thought I'd look to see how Boise State did compared to its conference competition and oh my goodness what is wrong with this statistic?
Quarterback Hurries
- Idaho .... 39
- Boise State ... 6
Whaaaaa?
As Hinton points out and every football fan with a brain can recognize, the quarterback hurry stat is deeply, horribly flawed. Individual teams chart their own quarterback hurries, cfbstats.com compiles, and the Internet is left to deal with the fallout. Idaho with six times the quarterback pressure as the No. 1 all-time defense in the WAC? Incorrect.
WAC hurry leaders by team
- Idaho ... 39
- Hawaii ... 35
- Utah State ... 16
- San Jose State ... 15
- New Mexico State ... 10
- Fresno State ... 6
- Boise State ... 6
- Nevada ... 4
WAC sack leaders by team
- Boise State ... 48
- Fresno State ... 35
- Nevada ... 34
- Idaho ... 31
- Hawaii ... 30
- Louisiana Tech ... 24
- San Jose State ... 24
- Utah State ... 13
- New Mexico State ... 9
As a charting rule of thumb, QB hits are when a defender knocks a quarterback to the ground, QB hurries are when a quarterback is forced to throw early or move in the pocket. BIFFF counted 12 hurries in one game alone last year for the Broncos. Why is the Boise State scorekeeper being so stingy? Why is the Idaho scorekeeper blind?
Let this serve as a warning that not all statistics are created equally ... unless they show good on the Broncos, in which case they are gold.