Colt Brennan, the record smashing quarterback from the University of Hawaii has a legion of loyal fans.  But Brennan also has his doubters--those who don't believe he has what it takes to succeed in the NFL.

Bill Walsh, known in football circles as “The Genius”, and arguably one of the best, if not THE best NFL coach of all time—drafted, mentored and coached the legendary Joe Montana, as well as Steve Young, both Hall of Famers. He also liked Tom Brady.

So with less than 1 day before the 2008 draft, and considering the multitude of mixed opinions out there regarding Colt Brennan, I have to wonder what Walsh would say about him. Sadly, Walsh passed away last year, and we can’t ask him, but he did leave behind a legacy of coaching philosophy that has helped shape the last 20 years of football.

Former Redskins offensive coordinator Al Saunders had this to say when applying some of that philosophy to Colt Brennan: “'Bill Walsh used to say the most important attributes for a quarterback are accuracy, courage and intelligence. Those things all override a strong arm, and this kid has them.'”

Okay, so let’s break it down:

First, let’s look at ACCURACY:

During an interview at the Senior Bowl, 49er Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz said that technique and mechanics can be coached—accuracy is God-given; it’s something that can’t be coached.

Brennan set an efficiency rating record in ’06 with 185.96; in ’07, it was 159.85. His pass completion rate in ’06 was 72.5%, and 70.4% in ’07. These statistics are computed with yards, completions, TD’s and interceptions in relation to total passes attempted for each quarterback—so they are quite useful in comparing the accuracy and efficiency of one quarterback against others’.

 Former UH Coach June Jones had this to say “’He can make every throw. He completed close to 70 percent of his passes. I would say 50 percent of the quarterbacks playing in the NFL can't do that against air. He did it in games. He throws them all. He's accurate on the deep balls, the intermediate routes, the short throws.’” If you compare Brennan’s statistics that measure accuracy, to any other quarterback, they are remarkable. However, there seems to be a large population of fans who don’t understand basic statistics, and attribute Brennan’s superior statistics simply to the fact that he threw more passes.

So for simplicity’s sake, let’s compare apples to apples: the Combine was the perfect setting to compare QB prospects under the same conditions. Unfortunately, Matt Ryan

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