SEC Football Q&A: Who's the Better QB, Blake Sims or Nick Marshall?
It seems like only yesterday when votes were cast in Hoover, Alabama, for the predicted order of finish in the SEC, but here we are with just over a month left in the season.
Time flies when you're having fun, and the SEC West has been having a lot of fun so far in 2014. Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Alabama and Auburn all find themselves among the top of the Associated Press Top 25, with College Football Playoff berths in their sights.
In College Station, however, things have gone south. The Texas A&M Aggies have lost three straight and were just shut out 59-0 by Alabama, marking the first time in head coach Kevin Sumlin's head coaching career that he has been shut out.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
How do the quarterbacks in the state of Alabama match up? What's wrong with the Aggies? Can Georgia make some noise?
Those questions are answered in this week's SEC Q&A.
Both are incredibly underrated, but give me Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall over Alabama's Blake Sims simply because Marshall has done it longer.
Since the two systems are vastly different, there's really no way to compare the two statistically. Of course Marshall will have more success on the ground and of course Sims will have a higher passer rating. Who will have the longer career in the NFL is a non-factor for me as well, because that's not what we're discussing here.
I've seen Marshall succeed as a college quarterback on every single stage he's been on. He's led his team to an SEC title, accounted for three touchdowns in the national title game and made clutch throw after clutch throw in tight spots throughout his career, including a 39-yarder to Duke Williams on 3rd-and-9 vs. Kansas State to win a big game on the road.
Sims doesn't have anything close to that on his resume.
Sure, he has some big games against lesser competition like Florida and Texas A&M, but didn't make the big throws in a 14-13 win over Arkansas and was picked off in the end zone late by Ole Miss on what would likely have been the game-winning touchdown. That pick wasn't his fault. He dropped it in the bucket for O.J. Howard, who had it bounce off his hands. It didn't happen though, and that's the one trump card Marshall has over him.
I'd still take them both on my team, though. Each runs his respective offense very well, and have each school in the state of Alabama in the thick of the College Football Playoff hunt.
As you see in the video above, benching quarterback Kenny Hill in favor of Kyle Allen isn't it.
A good start would be on defense, where the Aggies have been the punch line to a really bad joke for going on two years now. Defensive coordinator Mark Snyder's crew is poorly-coached, lacks fundamentals and, at this point, the preparation of the defense has to be questioned as well.
This tweet last season after A&M's loss to Auburn has stuck in my mind for the last year:
The quick huddle was absolutely not something new for Auburn for that game, and has been a staple of Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn's offense since he became a college assistant in 2006.
The preparation hasn't looked better since and, fundamentally, they're still all over the place. Either simplify the defense or move on, but it's clear that something needs to be done.
Offensively, it seems like head coach Kevin Sumlin and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital maybe fell in love with Hill's press-clippings early in the season, and tried to turn him into somebody he isn't. When you have a stable of running backs like the Aggies have, you use them. So far this season, they've run only 249 running plays and 359 passing plays.
Even if you're striving for balance, that number is way too skewed. Sixty passes in a win over South Carolina is great but probably unnecessary. Forty-two in the blowout of Lamar seems a bit extreme and 37 against SMU is probably 36 too many.
Get back to the ground game, wear down opposing defenses and get Hill more involved as a true dual-threat quarterback. That's how he can live up to his "Kenny Trill" billing.
| Winning by 15+ | 89 | 57 | 780 | 7 |
| Winning by 8-14 | 20 | 14 | 237 | 3 |
| Winning by 1-7 | 43 | 33 | 402 | 5 |
| Tied | 53 | 34 | 406 | 3 |
| Losing by 1-7 | 26 | 15 | 193 | 2 |
| Losing by 8-14 | 21 | 12 | 158 | 1 |
| Losing by 15+ | 107 | 72 | 737 | 5 |
Yes, because that definition changes based on the specific team.
Is Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall? Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas? LSU quarterback—gasp—Jordan Jefferson?
All of those players started in the BCS National Championships Game, so why can't Georgia quarterback Hutson Mason be a playoff-caliber quarterback? He's been a solid game manger in trying times without running back Todd Gurley over the last two weeks, tossing three touchdowns and no picks in two straight road wins.
He has a running back in freshman Nick Chubb who he trusts, the possibility of getting Gurley—the best player in college football—back at some point and the probability of fellow running backs Sony Michel and Keith Marshall returning soon.
He has a veteran wide receiving corps and, suddenly, a defense that can put his offense in good field position. The Bulldogs have forced six interceptions over the last two games and 10 on the season—three more than it had all of last season.
If Mason continues to do what he has done the last two weeks, that's all Georgia needs to make a playoff run.
Don't sleep on that being a possibility, either. At 6-1 and with the No. 9 ranking, Georgia still controls its playoff destiny. Win out—which would include a win over Auburn and a top-tier SEC West foe in Atlanta—and not only would Georgia be in the playoff, it'd likely be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed depending on what happens elsewhere.
Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a co-host of the CFB Hangover on Bleacher Report Radio (Sundays, 9-11 a.m. ET) on Sirius 93, XM 208.
Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All stats are courtesy of cfbstats.com, and all recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
