Good advice for Alabama football fans is to pump the brakes on Tua frenzy. That is hard to do when he is the No. 1 rated QB in college football.
According to ESPN, Alabama football starting quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa is the No. 1 rated QB in the FBS. ESPN created the Total Quarterback Rating (QBR) in 2011. The worldwide leader loves its proprietary products but measuring quarterbacks for more than passing efficiency makes sense.
You can read more about the QBR here.
Here is also part of ESPN’s explanation of the QBR which the network began using in 2012.
"The scale of QBR is from zero to 100, where 50 is average. Top quarterbacks are in the upper 80s and 90s for a season."
Johnny Manziel, who happened to win the Heisman in 2012, earned a QBR of 90.5 as calculated by the ESPN algorithm. That rating was No. 1 in the FBS.
The No. 1 QBR guy in 2017 was Baker Mayfield, followed by Khalil Tate, Mason Rudolph and Lamar Jackson. Mayfield’s QBR was 92.5. Jalen Hurts was No. 7 in QBR last season with a rating of 83.4.
The No. 1 QBR guys in 2013-2016 were, in chronological order, Jameis Winston (FSU), Marcus Mariota (Oregon), Seth Russell (Baylor) and Baker Mayfield.
Week One QBR Ratings
- No. 1 – Tua Tagovailoa – 98.2
- No. 2 – Ty Storey (Arkansas) – 98.6
- No. 3 – Eric Dungy (Syracuse) – 96.1
Others of interest to Alabama football fans
- No. 17 – Drew Lock (Missouri) – 88.3
- No. 25 – Woody Barrett (Kentucky) – 80.0
- No. 27 – Jordan Ta’amu (Ole Miss) – 79.2
- No. 28 – Justice Hansen (Arkansas State) – 79.1
- No. 29 – Jarrett Stidham (Auburn) – 78.7
- No. 30 – Felipe Franks (Florida) – 78.5
- No. 31 – Kyle Shurmur (Vanderbilt) 77.8
- No. 35 – Blake Barnett (South Florida) – 75.9
- No. 39 – Jake Bentley ( South Carolina) – 74.3
- No. 41 – Joe Burrow (LSU) – 73.0
- No. 52 – Gardner Minshew (Washington State) – 67.6
- No. 59 – Kellen Mond (Texas A&M) – 64.1
- No. 63 – Jarrett Guarantano (Tennessee) 63.1
- No. 70 – Shea Patterson (Michigan) 57.7
- No. 81 – Jawon Pass (Louisville) 46.5
A different quarterback algorithm is published by teamrankings.com. Tua is only No. 7 on that list. The QBs ranked above Tua are Mitchell Guadagni (Toledo), Storey (Arkansas), Steven Montz (Colorado), Tevaka Tuioti (New Mexico), Anthony Brown (Boston College) and Brady White (Memphis).
The Crimson Tide’s Saturday opponent, Justice Hansen, is No. 11 on the second list. Jarrett Stidham did not fare well in the second set of ratings. He is No. 66 out of 100 QBs rated.
One week does not make a season, but Tua certainly is off to a good start.
Will Tua get to rack up some big numbers against ASU on Saturday? Probably, but he may have to share time with two other quarterbacks.