So let's break down those numbers, starting with quarterbacks.

As you may have noticed, it's a little tough to see in the chart I know, the QB's are sorted by yards per attempt. This helps gives us an idea the real value of a quarterback. Somebody who is piling up tons of yards just because of a hugh amount of attempts (cough) Kliff Kingsbury (cough), is exposed by this stat. What does a player do on the average pass play?

Ryan Dimwiddie has put up spectacular numbers. OK, he plays in a lousy conference and he missed four games due to injury, but he at least earns a mention in the Heisman race. Not even an invite, just a mention. Besides, we can now compare our other mid-major QB, Byron Leftwich, to Dimwiddie. So let's see, similar completion percentage, lower yds/attempt but he played most of the year, and 3 less TD's and 5 more INT's. That's huge. For a mid-major guy to win the award, his numbers need to jump off the page. And Leftwich isn't as impressive as Dimwiddie. It's close, but if Dimwiddie's not a Heisman candidate, neither is Leftwich. Besides, what about Brian Jones? He has them beat on just about every metric, including a stunning 70% completion percentage. If I'm taking anyone from the mid-majors, it's Jones.

I put Kingsbury on the chart to show how unimpressive his 4642 yards of passing really is. He's thrown the ball 669 times, he better have that many yards. A 6.94 yards/attempt puts him in the company of guys like Jared Lorenzen. It's not even as good as Chris Simms. Does that mean I'd vote for Simms over Kingsbury? No. Yards/attempt is a guide, it's not the Holy Grail. Kingsbury has a 66.8% completion percentage and a TD-INT ratio of nearly 4-to-1. Simms ain't even in that ballpark. So Kingsbury makes the finals list due to his other numbers, which are outstanding, and the fact that 4642 yards is still a lot of real estate.

Now Carson Palmer and Ken Dorsey are in another boat. Both have the edge of Kingsbury in yards/attempt, but they don't have his total yards or effeceincy. OK, Palmer is close, but Dorsey isn't even 56% passer, and that's not good. Both have TD-INT ratios of about 3-to-1, Palmer on the high side, Dorsey on the low. It's pretty close, but on raw numbers, I'd go with Palmer.

I put Philip Rivers on there just to show that he's had a pretty good year all things considered. Sure, the season went down the toilet, but Rivers had a very good year, though he really needs to cut back on the picks. Also, there's the forgotten Jason Gesser. 3000 yards, 60% completion, 3-to-1 TD-INT ratio. Those are great numbers, though he can't hang his hat on just one. But why do some QB's get bonus points for getting hurt and then watching their team lose, but not Gesser? And for all of the talk about Palmer, Gesser's been the best QB in the Pac-10.

Which leaves us with our solid Big Ten quarterbacks. I'm not stumping him for the Heisman, but did you realize how good a year Craig Krenzel was having? I certainly didn't. Very effeceint performance. As you can see, this has been build up to Brad Banks.

His yards/attempt are off the charts. I can't get across how good 9.2 is. He completes just over 60% of his passes, which is real good, and he's tossed 25 TD's and only 4 picks. That's obscene. 25 TD passes is good for 10th in the nation. And I can't verify it, but 4 interceptions and just 11 sacks leads the nation among starters. His 166.1 passer rating tops everyone but Dimwiddie. On top of that, he rushed for 387 yards and five scores. The fact that this guys isn't a runaway Heisman favorite is just dumbfounding.

So here's a preliminary ranking of the quarterbacks:


1 Banks


2 Gesser


3 Palmer


4 Dorsey


5 Kingsbury

With an honorable mention to Dimwiddie. Running backs to come.