Which returning SEC quarterbacks produce touchdowns and limit mistakes through the air?
The usual suspects are out front, followed by a couple players in line for big seasons as leaders on offense.
Last season, Alabama’s Blake Sims managed a league-best mark of plus-18 (28 TD, 10 INT) as a first-year starter for Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide’s hoping projected starter Jake Coker posts similar success this fall.
Looking at the TD-to-INT differential for each SEC quarterback who has thrown at least two career touchdown passes, here’s how they stack up:
- Dak Prescott, Mississippi State: +23 (41/18)
- Maty Mauk, Mizzou: +21 (36/15)
- Brandon Allen, Arkansas: +16 (34/18)
- Kyle Allen, Texas A&M: +9 (16/7)
- Jeremy Johnson, Auburn: +7 (9/2)
- Treon Harris, Florida: +5 (9/4)
- Patrick Towles, Kentucky: +5 (15/10)
- Jake Coker, Alabama: +4 (5/1)
- Brandon Harris, LSU: +4 (6/2)
- Anthony Jennings, LSU: +4 (12/8)
- Johnny McCrary, Vanderbilt: +1 (9/8)
- Brice Ramsey, Georgia: +1 (3/2)
- Joshua Dobbs, Tennessee: -1 (11/12)
To no one’s surprise, league veterans Prescott, Mauk and Allen have considerably higher totals than the rest of the field with more starts and opportunity. Prescott’s incredible plus-11 effort through the first five weeks of the season as a junior helped the Bulldogs go from unranked to No. 3 before a victory over second-ranked Auburn vaulted Mississippi State into the top spot.
Mauk led the Eastern Division in interceptions last fall (13), but stayed close to his career differential average per season after managing 11 touchdowns and two picks as a freshman.
It’s interesting that Dobbs, perceived in the upper half of the SEC at the position entering his junior season, is the only league quarterback whose thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes during his career. Many of those picks came during the second half of his freshman season when he threw six interceptions (and two touchdown passes) in five games against SEC competition.
In recent years, A.J. McCarron’s plus-27 performance in 2012 is a league single-season best. Tim Tebow and Aaron Murray’s career bests in a single campaign, by comparison, was plus-26.
USC senior quarterback Cody Kessler, a Heisman frontrunner, is the national leader in career TD-to-INT differential at plus-34. Last season, he finished at plus-34 while Heisman winner Marcus Mariota, Oregon’s star and the No. 2 overall pick, was plus-38.
34 Days #CountdownToKickoff: Cody Kessler’s +34 TD-to-INT differential in 2014 is best for returning Power 5 QB. pic.twitter.com/RAC0HbZNOi
— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) July 31, 2015
