College Football 2011: The 17 Quarterbacks Who Will Throw the Most Interceptions
There are few moments more deflating for a football team and their fans than when their quarterback tosses a costly interception.
Possession and momentum instantly and resoundingly change, often deciding the fate of the game.
While the reasons behind an interception are rarely as simple as a bad throw—the coverage, pass-rush, blocking, weather, wide receivers running the wrong routes and dropped balls can all be to blame—in the end, it is the quarterback who gets the interception on his stat line.
As such, there were many quarterbacks in the nation in 2010 whose interception tallies were high enough that they clearly went from the "bad luck" category to "clearly their fault."
With many of 2010’s top culprits—such as the aptly named "Boo" Jackson—now gone, who will sit atop this perch of infamy come season’s end?
Follow me on Twitter @ASU_Examiner for the latest updates and analysis on college football
Stephen Garcia, South Carolina
1 of 17
On the plus side, Stephen Garcia is routinely mentioned among the nation's top quarterbacks.
On the other hand, he's also mentioned among the most dysfunctional players in the nation.
Garcia recently served his fifth—yes, fifth—suspension in his Gamecock career. His troubles haven't limited themselves to off-the-field transgressions either.
During his 2010 season, Garcia tossed 14 interceptions, just four off the national "lead." Those picks came in 83 less pass attempts than he had in 2009, when he had 10.
The Gamecocks come into 2011 full of BCS hopes, but with their meltdown-in-waiting under center and the always brutal SEC schedule in front of them, don't expect Garcia to suddenly turn into a caretaker.
Bryant Moniz, Hawaii
2 of 17
When you play quarterback for Hawaii, you're going to throw. A lot.
In 2010, the Warriors did just that—555 times, to be precise.
Of those attempts, Warriors' quarterback Bryant Moniz completed 65 percent, a very good figure considering the sheer number of passes. That Costco-like total aided Moniz as he accumulated 5,040 yards and 39 touchdowns.
On the downside though, it also led to 15 interceptions.
Moniz is a skilled quarterback, but in an offensive system predicated so heavily on the pass, there will be plenty of chances for the defense to make the interception.
Making his job more difficult, he loses his top two receivers and running backs, and the Warriors will have major questions along the offensive line.
All of the above factors lead one to believe that yards and attempts are not the only passing categories where Moniz will be near the top.
Sean Renfree, Duke
3 of 17
No one thinks Duke football will ever come close to matching their Blue Devil brethren's prowess on the hardwood, but some seasons it appears they aren't even trying.
Duke is coming off another terrible season, this time a 3-9 campaign that once again placed them near the bottom of the ACC. One of the primary reasons for last season's struggles was the uneven play of quarterback Sean Renfree. Then a sophomore, Renfree threw 17 interceptions, one shy of the national lead.
The Blue Devils' offense is based on the pass, and Duke has ranked ninth and 22nd in the nation over the last two seasons in passing yards. Their defense is atrocious, meaning their games will be shootouts with a lot of passes on both sides.
For Duke fans, it may be pretty to watch, yet ultimately painful.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Jerry Davis, Buffalo
4 of 17
As if a 2-10 record wasn't bad enough, Buffalo also had the indignity of posting the very worst scoring offense in the country in 2010, averaging a laughable 14.2 points per game.
At the helm of this Bulls' "attack" was sophomore quarterback Jerry Davis.
On the bright side, he did throw 16 touchdowns.
Conversely, he also threw 16 interceptions and completed a meager 47.7 percent of his passes, both deeply troubling figures. The interception statistic is further amplified when it's noted that Davis missed two games during the season.
The cupboard is bare in Buffalo, so there is little reason to expect major strides for Davis and the Bulls. One thing working in Davis' favor though is an offensive line that returns many players who gained valuable experience last season.
That means he'll have more time in the pocket to make the wrong read.
John Brantley, Florida
5 of 17
Replacing a legend like Tim Tebow is never easy. When your on-field performance is poor and it results in an 8-5 record, it gets disastrous if you are a Florida Gator.
John Brantley's performance left more than a few Gator faithful pining for the days of Chris Leak, as Brantley posted a 9-10 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Brantley will be welcoming new head coach Will Muschamp and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis to Gainesville. Their grace period ended as soon as they entered their offices, and their first major project is getting Brantley to become a serviceable quarterback.
It will be a tough chore. Of the 2010 season's final 10 games, Brantley threw an interception in all but the Vanderbilt contest.
With four new starters on the offensive line and the brutal SEC schedule upon them, their task is all the more daunting.
B.J. Daniels, South Florida
6 of 17
No one is going to confuse B.J. Daniels with an accurate passer who can consistently thread the needle.
After a successful 2009, many thought the Bulls quarterback would take the next step and lead USF back to upper tier bowl contention.
That did not happen.
Daniels was markedly inconsistent in 2010. Take a look at some of his completion percentages throughout the season: 68.2, 25.0, 81.3, 39.1.
Those figures illustrate a talented quarterback who is regressing, not developing. In the end, he posted a negative touchdown-to-interception ratio (10-13).
His task on improving his game and that of USF's 105th ranked offense will be made all the more difficult with three major losses on the offensive line.
E.J. Manuel, Florida State
7 of 17
The time is now for E.J. Manuel.
He arrived in Tallahassee with much fanfare in 2008, but has only thrown 199 passes since, with six touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
With Christian Ponder now a Minnesota Viking, Manuel will now head into 2011 as the starter.
While there is no debate on his physical tool set, there remains many questions about his ability to make the decisions necessary to be an effective quarterback.
He also will be working with an underachieving receiving corps that had a severe battle with drops a season ago.
Ryan Radcliff, Central Michigan
8 of 17
Dan Enos had a rough first year as the Chippewas head coach.
Central Michigan underperformed en route to an ugly 3-9 record. One of the primary reasons for this disappointment was an inconsistent offense, plagued by interceptions and a nonexistent running game.
Ryan Radcliff had some positives in his first year as starter, notably 17 touchdowns and eclipsing 3,300 yards passing. However, those numbers were offset by his 17 interceptions, just one off the national high.
Included in that mark was an ugly set of games against Miami of Ohio and Northern Illinois, where Radcliff threw six interceptions.
With no help from the running game, the pressure will once again be on Radcliff to lead the Chippewas with his arm. Whether his decision-making is up to the task remains in great doubt.
Jordan Jefferson, LSU
9 of 17
Can a team win the national championship in spite of their quarterback?
LSU just may.
Like several others, Jordan Jefferson failed to live up to a promising 2009 season in 2010. After posting an excellent 17-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio, that figure plummeted to 7-10 last season. Most troubling was the rise in interceptions in 87 less attempts.
While LSU is certainly a run-first offense, winning games over power teams when your quarterback goes 10 of 22 for 75 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions (as LSU did in their 20-14 win over West Virginia) is not sustainable.
In fact, coach Les Miles' confidence in Jefferson wavered to the point that he utilized a two-quarterback system at times, such as in the Tennessee game where Jefferson went 3-for-10 for 30 yards, two interceptions and no touchdowns.
If the Tigers are going to rise to the level they think they can be, they will need a quarterback who can make plays and avoid turnovers. Thus far, Jefferson has not proven to be that player.
Alex Gillett, Eastern Michigan
10 of 17
If you are 2-10, chances are your quarterback play was awful as well.
So it was with Eastern Michigan and Alex Gillett.
A capable runner (766 yards, 5 touchdowns), Gillett continues to struggle in the passing game. In 2010, he completed just 55.5 percent of his passes with an unimpressive 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Included in that mark was a string of three straight multi-interception games that was only broken by his 4-for-9 performance in EMU's 71-3 season-ending loss to Northern Illinois.
Head coach Ron English is feeling the pressure this season after posting a 2-22 mark in his first two seasons in Ypslianti. He will rely more than ever on Gillett to compensate for one of the worst defenses in the nation.
Giving Gillett that many chances will surely result in more big plays—both positive and negative.
Tyler Bray, Tennessee
11 of 17
The Tennessee program continues to tread the waters of mediocrity, waiting for their next Peyton Manning to bring them ashore.
The latest contender is Tyler Bray.
After seeing spot duty behind Matt Simms last season, Bray was thrust into the starting lineup Nov. 6 against Memphis and promptly threw five touchdowns. He added three more the next week against Ole Miss.
The freshman then found things more difficult, as he tossed seven picks over his final three games, including three in the Music City Bowl loss to North Carolina.
With the running game not offering much help, a lot of the pressure for success will fall on Bray's large shoulders. With a murderous October stretch (Georgia, LSU, at Alabama and South Carolina), Bray will face some of the best defenses in the nation—far better than those of Memphis and Ole Miss that he feasted upon in 2010.
Garrett Gilbert, Texas
12 of 17
Texas went 5-7 in 2010.
Think about that for a moment.
Seven losses...for Texas...not over the span of an entire class, but rather in a single season.
That simply doesn't happen. Yet it did last season, the first without a bowl game for the Longhorns since 1997.
Long gone are the days of Colt McCoy's completion of more than 70 percent and his touchdown-to-interception ratios of 4-1.
In its place are Garrett Gilbert and his 10-17 mark, with his interception total only one off the national high.
His biggest failing was his decision-making, which Scout.com beautifully labeled, "the Beavis & Butthead episode of the 2010 college football season. Even when things were going well there was always one bad decision that meant he wasn’t going to score."
There are questions abound on the offensive side of the ball, especially along line, that don't show any real signs of improvement in 2011.
Patrick Nicely, Akron
13 of 17
Akron fans sure hope that it's how you finish that counts.
If so, their Zips ended 2010 on a one-game winning streak in which quarterback Patrick Nicely tossed three touchdowns and no interceptions.
But if they look at the entire season, they'll notice an 11-game losing streak prior to that win. Nicely completed barely 49 percent of his passes with just seven touchdowns and 13 interceptions during that stretch. They'll also notice an offense that ranked next-to-last in yards.
To make Nicely's efforts at improvement all the more difficult, he'll be losing his top two rushers and receivers from last season, although some may argue that is addition by subtraction.
In this day and age, a 60 percent completion rate is standard, with the lower half of the 50's being bad. Nicely didn't even manage that, at 49.4.
While that number may improve, his interception total figures to remain well north of the one-pregame level.
Keith Wenning, Ball State
14 of 17
New head coach Pete Lembo comes over from Elon with a high-powered passing attack. At the helm will be Keith Wenning, coming off a very uneven performance in 2010.
While Wenning did throw 14 touchdowns, he also threw 14 interceptions, much too high for a successful quarterback over a season—especially one where he only threw 235 passes.
Add to that a three-game stretch where Wenning tossed three interceptions in each contest, with the only win in that span coming over the eventual 1-11 Akron Zips.
With his extremely high interception rate now coming into Lembo's pass-heavy offensive system, look for more crooked numbers in Wenning's interception column come fall.
Matt Schilz, Bowling Green
15 of 17
This article's recent trend of mid-major teams with shaky quarterbacks continues with Bowling Green's Matt Schilz.
The true freshman had little help in 2010, as Bowling Green had the nation's worst running attack by a large margin—a staggeringly putrid 62.8 yards per game. This forced the game on Schilz, who did what he could and did post a respectable completion percentage of 60.5 percent.
However, it was his ball control that was his—and the 2-10 Falcons'—undoing. He only threw eight touchdowns, which were not enough to offset his 14 interceptions, numbers made all the more glaring by Schilz only playing in 10 games.
The BGSU line figures to be bad once again, which along with the total lack of a running threat, puts the onus of the Falcon offense squarely on the talented Schilz. Look for all his numbers, especially interceptions, to grow in 2011
Jacory Harris, Miami
16 of 17
Another example of what a difference a year can make.
Coming off a nine-win season where he eclipsed 3,300 yards and 24 touchdowns (albeit with 17 interceptions), things were looking promising for Miami's quarterback Jacory Harris.
That enthusiasm took all of two weeks to dissipate in 2010.
Harris' four interceptions proved to be the factor in Miami's Week 2 loss to Ohio State, and picks kept coming.
Two against Pitt. Two against Clemson.
It bottomed out in the Sun Bowl loss to Notre Dame; Harris threw three interceptions in only seven attempts.
The interception issue went beyond Harris as well, with the Hurricanes' roster accounting for 27 total picks.
New coach Al Golden has demonstrated that his regime will be a meritocracy, yet many expect Harris to regain his starting spot—which is exactly what ACC defensive backs want to hear.
Braxton Miller, Ohio State
17 of 17
With the Tressel-Pryor era in Columbus having ravaged the landscape, the time for rebuilding is upon the Buckeyes.
Had Terrelle Pryor remained in school, senior Joe Bauserman may have been the choice to ride out the five-game suspension period. But with the program in a full-on rebuilding mode, look for talented true freshman Braxton Miller to take the reigns. Bauserman's shaky showing in the spring game also did him no favors.
Miller's challenge will be daunting. Though talented, true freshman quarterbacks can be counted on to take their lumps in their first season, especially in the always brutal Big Ten.
He will be without several key offensive pieces during the five-game suspension period and will then be facing the meat of their conference schedule. Coupled with the air of chaos and uncertainty that has enveloped the program, it will be a very trying debut season for the talented Miller.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
