Matthew Stafford's Improvement as QB Is Key to Georgia's '08 Season

So, Matthew Stafford isn't quite David Greene, but he doesn't have to be to lead Georgia to a conference title and more. He must improve significantly this offseason though, since I doubt that completing 56% of his passes will be enough against Georgia's tough schedule. Opponents will be keying on the run and daring him to beat them.

The good news for Georgia fans is that good quarterbacks traditionally make the jump from average to great as a junior. Plus, Mark Richt has had a good track record with grooming quarterbacks throughout his career. Those two elements will need to work in concert in order for Georgia to live up to its national title aspirations and the expectations of some like those at Scout.com and Rivals.com who believe that Stafford will be a top ten pick in 2009's NFL draft.

If you've spent any time at FoxSports.com, you've probably seen Peter Schrager's article on whether Stafford or Tim Tebow is the better quarterback. The main argument in Stafford's favor is that he won more games as a starter last year, ignoring the disparity in Florida and Georgia's running games and defenses. He also conveniently ignores Tebow's shoulder injury when discussing their performances against each other. He finally mentions that draft guru Rob Rang believes Stafford will be a better NFL QB because of coming from a pro-style offense and his "better accuracy."

I'm not exactly sure of what Rang means by better accuracy, considering the stats above and Tebow's 66.37% completion rate.  Tebow showed all year that he is a better passer than Stafford, as his performance in both raw and relative numbers beat Stafford's in every category:

These are just Tebow's passing stats; they don't even account for his performance running the ball. You may also notice that his number of attempts was about the same as Stafford's, so you can't argue that the difference had to do with Florida having a more pass-friendly offense. Tebow's year-long performance also beats Stafford's second half in all of the rates and ratios except yards per completion.

Will Stafford blossom into an elite quarterback in 2008? History says the conditions are right, though it's not clear how much of the offensive burden he'll be asked to shoulder. The real measuring stick in 2008 will be the rates and ratios since he won't have as many attempts as other top QBs. He basically was slightly above average in 2007, but how much of that was him and how much of that was the team's rising tide lifting him is unclear.

Now that opposing defensive coordinators have had a whole offseason to work on the Knowshon Moreno problem, it will be up to Stafford to play well enough to keep defenses from stacking the line. His play will determine whether the 2008 Bulldogs will be merely great or one of the elite teams in the NCAA.

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