Arizona State Football: Is the Sun Devil's Brock Osweiler a BCS Quarterback?

The Arizona State Sun Devils are having one of their best seasons in a very long time. For one, the team is being led by its great defense. The success is also due to junior quarterback Brock Osweiler.

So far this season, Osweiler has racked up wins over Missouri and USC. At the time, those teams were ranked, so they were big wins for the Sun Devils.

With the Devils at 4-1 heading into Week 6 and ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll, the question is if Osweiler can be considered a BCS quarterback.

Osweiler is not a household name like others, but there is no reason to eliminate him. Compared to the "elite" quarterbacks, Osweiler doesn't seem to fit the picture. One has to remember, though, that stats are only half the story. Here are Osweiler's numbers compared to the cream of the crop quarterbacks:

	TD	Yards	Yards/GM	Ints	Comp %
Brock Osweiler	10	1352	270.4	6	68
Landry Jones	10	1447	361.75	5	71.6
Kellen Moore	14	1137	284.25	4	73.9
Tyler Wilson	10	1517	303.4	3	64.5
Andrew Luck	11	1013	253.25	1	71.4

So as one can see, Osweiler's numbers stack up to the competition pretty well. Now, I am not going to take anything away from the competition, but let's take other things into consideration here.

First of all, Osweiler has played thus far USC, Missouri, Illinois, Oregon State and UC Davis. The latter two are not much of competition, but the first three are in no way easy opponents. Osweiler had his two worst games against Illinois and Oregon State. Against USC and Missouri, he was extremely effective.

Osweiler had his best game against Missouri, where he completed 24-of-32 passes for 353 yards. He also threw three touchdown passes that game with zero interceptions, as well as a rushing touchdown.

Osweiler also didn't throw an interception against USC. He threw for 223 yards including two touchdowns. They weren't flashy numbers, but with a completion percentage of 78.1 percent certainly was efficient. 

Still, Osweiler's four-turnover performance (three being interceptions) against 0-4 Oregon State damages his reputation that he has built thus far this season. Osweiler had a chance to pad his stats nicely against arguably their worst FBS opponent of the year, but he just couldn't come through.

Some of his competition though has had much easier schedules. This isn't the players' fault, but it could be reason for their inflated numbers. Landry Jones has had the toughest schedule of the four outside of Osweiler.

No. 3 Oklahoma and Jones so far have taken on Tulsa, Florida State, Missouri and Ball State. The two tough games were sandwiched by two pretty easy games. Jones has 10 touchdowns on the season, but five of those came against Ball State alone, including an additional rushing TD.

In tougher games, such as Florida State, Jones threw only for 199 yards with one touchdown while throwing two interceptions. Jones' has a big game against Texas this weekend, so perhaps he will carry over his success from Ball State, or he will show up like he did against Florida State.

As for No. 5 Boise State's Kellen Moore, he so far has only taken on Georgia, Toledo, Tulsa and Nevada. Not very impressive. Taking a look at Moore's numbers initially are impressive, but then if you look at his individual performances, one would notice that 455 passing yards and five touchdowns came against Toledo.

Another four touchdowns came against Tulsa. Georgia would technically be Boise's toughest opponent yet, and Moore did play well completing 28-of-34 passes for 261 yards with three touchdowns and an interception.

Tyler Wilson of Arkansas has had a pretty good year, too. Or has he? Arkansas has only been truly challenged once this season, and that was against Alabama. In that game, Wilson threw for only 185 yards while completing two touchdowns and an interception.

Texas A&M was nothing easy either, but they have been looking more like pretenders then contenders. Perhaps tests later on this season for A&M will give the win more credibility.

Arkansas' offense is considered one of the best, and I know they sit at 4-1, but do wins over Missouri State, New Mexico and Troy really impress? Not really, but I will give Wilson credit for his 510-yard and three-touchdown performance against Texas A&M.

So he did redeem himself and his credibility. The game against Auburn this weekend will be Wilson's big game to prove his critics wrong after what happened against Alabama.

Osweiler's Pac-12 competition comes from No. 7 Stanford's Andrew Luck. Luck is one of the best quarterbacks in all of football, and I agree with that. So far this season though, Luck has played San Jose State, Duke, Arizona and UCLA.

Now, it isn't Luck's fault that Stanford has arguably one of the easiest schedules in football, but one would imagine his numbers would be much more impressive at this point in time.

Luck's best game was against Duke, throwing for 290 yards and four touchdowns. He also had his only pick in this game. Arizona could arguably be their toughest opponent thus far, and Luck did throw for 325 yards and two touchdowns. Once again, it isn't Luck's fault that Stanford just hasn't had any tough competition yet.

What does all this mean? 

Well, what is being shown here is that while Osweiler and the Sun Devils may not be considered serious BCS contenders, we can see from their competition and Osweiler's performance that perhaps ASU could succeed given their success thus far.

Osweiler's numbers may not be better, but he has put satisfactory numbers against much tougher opponents. Point being, Osweiler has succeeded at numbers that are comparable to his competition and their weaker schedules thus far.

This isn't taking anything away from these teams or their quarterbacks, but it is just a simple comparison in that competition thus far gives Arizona State an advantage over these teams at this point in time.

Against weaker teams, the running game can often succeed and outshine the passing game. Still, the passing numbers have been relatively good from these quarterbacks. Of course, this is only a sample size, but one can't take away the numbers Arizona State has put up given their competition at this point in the season.

Teams have to play to the schedule they are dealt, but Osweiler has faced a much tougher competition thus far, showing that he can perhaps handle the elite teams with the numbers he has put up so far.

No one can make excuses for Osweiler for his performances against Illinois and Oregon State, but he deserves credit for how he came through in close games against Missouri and USC. Even against Illinois, Osweiler kept up his composure and possibly could have sealed Arizona State a win if it wasn't for a missed field goal.

These other teams will be facing tougher competition down the road, and Arizona State still needs to get past Utah in Week 6 and then No. 9 Oregon the following week.

Looking at the numbers and competition though, one can determine that if Arizona State can get past these teams and compile a record that puts them into the Pac-12 Championship and ultimately make a BCS bowl, quarterback Brock Osweiler will be able to stand up there with the cream of the crop.

Osweiler will have the Oregon game to prove whether or not he is an elite quarterback. Osweiler has all the skill sets needed to succeed, but it is important that he shows that he can perform on the big stage. USC and Missouri were just a quiz. Oregon will be his big exam. Let's worry about Utah for now though.