I got OWNED

Don't you love it when you've been away for a couple of days and come home to check your email only to find out that you've been "owned"? Geez I hate that.

I've been put in my place by a law student... I can live with that. And to be perfectly honest, Graham from The Rivalry, Esq. was absolutely right. His response to the post was right on the money. I wasn't very objective, I didn't back up my opinion, or really even share my opinion. I could go into the excuses (it was late, I was a few beers deep, I'm a homer...), but you get the idea. As you have likely come to expect from me, it was an emotional response (I'm trying to cut down on that. In my defense, this response wasn't necessarily the homer in me talking. I don't actually think Weber is the best QB in the Big10, but more on that later.)

Graham said that his rankings were arbitrary, that he doesn't trust just stats. My argument, then, would be that he should have mentioned that in the post on the QB rankings. If those things had been mentioned, I probably wouldn't have responded at all. If we are going on gut, then everybody is going to have a different opinion. In pointing out the stats that I did in the previous post, I was reaching for something tangible to show that, although I don't believe that Weber is the best QB in the conference, my opinion is that he certainly isn't the 6th best either.

So then, the suggestion was made "If you believe Weber’s stats make him so damn good, give him a rating."

Will do. Here then are my Big10 QB rankings. This will be, to the best of my homer-ish abilities, a combination of gut feeling and a response to stats.

1. Daryll Clark, Penn State- A very good passer and always a threat to run. Has played unbelievably well against some tough competition and has the PSU offense looking unstoppable. Most importantly, Penn State is absolutey ROLLING over their opponents, and Clark is their leader.

2. Juice Williams, Illinois - Juice has a tendency to make a few bad decisions (6 INT's), but he has also faced some tough defenses so far and makes a lot of big plays to compensate for those picks. On the other side of the INT coin is that he's thrown 9 TD's already this year, and has rushed for 2 more.

3. Chris Painter, Purdue - This might have something to do with the fact that Painter gives the Gophers trouble, but he is a consistent performer, and, in my opinion, the best pocket passer in the Big10 (when Todd Boeckman isn't playing) even though he doesn't always perform well in big games. However, he threw for 359 yards and 2 TD's on the national stage last week @ Notre Dame.

4. Adam Weber, Minnesota - Tends to force the ball to Decker and doesn't do well when defenses get in his face, but is starting to prove himself as a leader, and consistently puts up good numbers.

5. C.J. Bacher, Northwestern - A decent pocket passer who is sometimes eratic, inconsistent and prone to lots of INT's, but Bacher has learned how to win, and was a huge reason NW was able to come back and beat Iowa at Kinnick Stadium.

6. Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State - Although he hasn't played much yet, it's clear that Pryor is the real deal, and could easily top this list by the end of this season or next. He's an accurate passer who finds the open man, but he really gives you fits with his legs. Perhaps the most telling stat of how good he is, and how good he can be... Todd Boeckman was 13-3 as a starter, and he was replaced by Pryor.

7. Kellen Lewis, Indiana - Another Big10 QB who can make it happen with his legs if he can't find anything open with his arm. He's got 3 TD's rushing, but passing he's got as many picks as he does TD's. He's mistake prone, and he doesn't have any weapons to work with.

8-11. (in no particular order) Ricky Stanzi, Iowa; Brian Hoyer, Michigan State; Allen Evridge, Wisconsin; Steve Threet, Michigan - How can you really rank these guys? They are the same 4 guys right now aren't they?
Four guys who have thrown no more than 4 TD's each, who all have exactly 1 more TD than INT, who don't have a lot of confidence from their coaches (except maybe that Threet is starting to gain the RichRod's trust), and who mostly exist to hand the ball off.

There you have it, my rankings. I will now accept my beatings.