SEC= Heavy on QB talent. (Manning Award list has 8)

Ah yes, you have responded to the argument about statistics with your downright Confucian, "You keep pointing to stats...in this case they are like a drunk man leaning on a lamp post...more for leaning on than illumination."

And quoting the "lies, damned lies, and statistics" garbage is the last refuge of the arguer with no facts upon which to back up his argument. When all else fails, simply say that that which is before your eyes cannot be trusted. Say that verifiable facts are merely distortions upon which almost any conclusion can be based. Of course, any time anyone argues about athletics, the actual introduction of fact and evidence is usually frowned upon, because it immediately shows "conventional wisdom" to be in error. It is conventional wisdom that Blake Mitchell is a weak, "inconsistent" quarterback. Conventional wisdom is proven wrong by reference to verifiable facts. Or at the very least, Mitchell is shown to be no MORE inconsistent than any of the so-called best QBs in the league.

Really, if you think Mitchell is "inconsistent", I challenge you to name 3 quarterbacks in the SEC who were a) good, and b) consistent. We'll stack them up against Mitchell and see if there is any significant difference. I've done some of the work for you already. On my last blog post, I compared Mitchell to JR, Leak, and John Parker Wilson. Mitchell was slightly less consistent than JR, about as consistent as Leak, and more consistent than Wilson. They were pretty much all "equally consistent" using 4 criteria I could actually evaluate: 1) games with less than 50% completion, 2) games with more interceptions than touchdowns, 3) games with more than 20 attempts but fewer than 200 yards passing, and 4) games with more than 20 attempts without a touchdown pass. None were perfect, and none were noticeably better than any other at avoiding the above benchmarks for bad games.

In other words, if Mitchell was inconsistent, so was every other QB in the league last year.

 

I'm basing what I am saying a number of things. One, I've already mentioned. Two, conversations with more than a half of a dozen Golder Spurs. Three, conversations with two players who happen to live here in Charleston. Four, a conversation I had just the other day with one of their medical trainers. Five, a conversation I had over the summer with a couple of their GA's. Six, a conversation I had with one of their S&C coaches. Last, but not least, a personal observation watching them scrimmage.

So, you can go with all the stats you would like. I'll base my opinion purely on people I know in and around the program and what I've seen in person.

So, I guess we can visit this subject again sometime during the season.

 

I'll compromise with you. I'll agree that he's "inconsistent" if you'll agree that it apparently didn't manifest itself in actual on-field performance in any noticeable way. We can then argue about whether or not it is in any way important that he was "inconsistent".

Can you at least propose a definition of "inconsistent" that we can use to evaluate whether or not he fits it?

 

I can agree and disagree with this compromise! Part of the reason he was benched was the drinking thing, part of the reason was Spurrier wasn't happy with his performance with the OL being so porous, and the last part was Newton gave them the advantage of having a real mobile QB.

Inconsistent in my book is continuing to make mental mistakes, the same mistakes made before. Does that make sense?

 

I have no idea why this thread was ressurected...but since it was...


Hey potted plant...whatcha think about Mitchell now? I hate when Terry's right...but Terry was right.:thumb: