The College Football Quarterback Under the Most Pressure in 2015

The quarterback position is always under an intense microscope, but which college football signal-caller actually faces the most pressure in 2015?

Is it Tyrone Swoopes at Texas? What about Everett Golson at his new home at Florida State? There's a sense of urgency with both of those players, but the Longhorns are still in rebuilding mode, and Golson may not even win the starting job with the Seminoles. 

When it comes to expectations, both individually and with the team, no one is facing more scrutiny than Missouri's Maty Mauk. 

Mauk is an unlikely candidate to be the quarterback under the most pressure, to be sure. However, he's now one of the SEC's more veteran signal-callers. And, right now, the perception of the SEC's quarterbacks is low.

Mauk earned four starts as a redshirt freshman in 2013 while James Franklin sat with injuries. Mauk became an All-SEC Freshman Team selection and looked like the future face of the program. His performance as a reliever against Oklahoma State in the 2014 Cotton Bowl (105 total yards of offense, one touchdown) provided a spark for the Tigers. 

It also set the bar high for Mauk in 2014, but he never quite lived up to the expectations. In his first full season as a starter, Mauk completed 53.4 percent of his passes and was downright dreadful at times. Against Georgia, he threw four picks in a 34-0 shutout. Making the situation worse was a shoulder injury that plagued him throughout the second half of the season. 

Still, it's easy to question whether Mauk really faces the most pressure of any quarterback in the country. Others might say Mauk isn't even facing the most pressure in the SEC. 

Jake Coker at Alabama, for instance, is approaching now-or-never territory in his quest to earn the starting job. Still, Coker has been a career backup to date at Florida State and Alabama; his pressure is rooted in what he could do but hasn't. Furthermore, two of the Tide's three national championship runs have been made with first-year starting quarterbacks. The point being, quarterback hasn't been a guiding force for head coach Nick Saban's success. 

John Bazemore/Associated Press

Mauk, on the other hand, could be the player who has to lead his team to the top of the divisional standings. If for no other reason, the Tigers defense may be in rebuilding mode. 

Consider how head coach Gary Pinkel has altered Mizzou's philosophy in recent years. As a member of the Big 12, the Tigers won a lot of games because of their offensive firepower. However, the days of Chase Daniel, Chase Coffman and Jeremy Maclin have been gone for some time.

In the SEC, Missouri has won back-to-back divisional titles because of its defense. Specifically, Mizzou has led the SEC in sacks in each of the last two years (41 in 2013 and 42 in '14). Kony Ealy, Michael Sam, Markus Golden and Shane Ray have been some of the top pass-rushers not just in the SEC but in all of college football. 

When Mizzou had those kinds of difference-makers on defense, it could afford to win games in spite of its offense. That was the case in 2014, when the Tigers ranked 12th in the SEC in points per game (27.8) and yards per pass attempt (6.4). 

That may not be the case this season. In fact, it probably won't be. 

Already, Mizzou is down one edge-rusher. Sophomore Marcus Loud, who was projected to fill one of the defensive end spots, was dismissed last week. Unless other unknown defensive players step up quickly—junior college defensive end Marcell Frazier should see playing time—defense might not be Mizzou's calling card in '15. 

That puts a lot more pressure on Mauk to live up to expectations. For Missouri to get back to a third straight SEC championship game, Mauk might have to exceed them as well.

"Right now, I want to do whatever I can do to step my game up to the next level, but at the same time, I gotta do whatever I can do to help Mizzou win football games," said Mauk to Edward Aschoff of ESPN.com in April. 

Mauk has always been a superb athlete. That gives Mizzou's offense an extra dimension that can be difficult to prepare for. But Mauk's development as a passer has held the Tigers back from having a truly potent offense. 

In addition to his personal improvement, Mauk has to compensate for turnover in the passing game. Mizzou loses its top three pass-catchers from a year ago: Bud Sasser, Jimmie Hunt and Darius White. Tight end Sean Culkin is a big-bodied target who figures to catch plenty of passes, but the true receiving corps is brutally young. 

Mauk has to be the leader to bring those players along, and even then, there can be issues. Young receivers can run the wrong routes, or the timing can be off. Those are instances when interceptions or sacks are "team stats" and not necessarily the fault of the quarterback or offensive line, respectively. 

Pinkel addressed this earlier this month during the SEC coaches teleconference (h/t Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch): 

"

Maty’s a great teammate. I always ask my players when they come into my office … I always ask them up front, "Are you a great teammate?" Because that’s what we all want to do. He’s a guy who loves playing football. I know (after) our second or third scrimmage, on Sunday he had all the freshman receivers, because we have a lot of young receivers, he had them all in our indoor facility and worked for about an hour and a half and did that on his own. And he did it in a very caring way in terms of being positive and "let’s work to get better."

I think he’s done a lot of good things here. The efficiency of our pass offense is not just him. It’s protection. It’s throwing. It’s coaching. It’s catching. It’s all those things. That’s what we want to see improve.

"

Improvement needs to happen across the board, but 2015 is also the year when Mauk has to show this is his team. 

The SEC East is still a wide-open division. Tennessee is gaining a lot of momentum after last year's 7-6 effort, and Georgia will again be an early favorite. But Pinkel has built Missouri into a consistent winner over the past two seasons, and he's done so using different tactics. 

The one that will get the Tigers back to the SEC championship game for a third straight year involves Mauk becoming one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC. That's no small matter. 

 

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com.