Caught this little bit of faux sympathy from a Tech supporter commenting about AJ and Joe over at Dawgrant:
I feel your pain. (Calvin and Reggie)
Give me a break, pal. At least Joe has mastered the ability to count to four.
Besides that, it’s not like he exactly stunk on ice against South Carolina. Over at Team Speed Kills, cocknfire has the tale of the tape.
vs South Carolina / 9.12.09 Passing Rushing Comp Att Pct Yds TD INT RAT Rush Yds Avg TD Joe Cox 17 24 70.0 201 2 1 160.35 4 -24 -6.0 0
vs Georgia / 9.12.09 Passing Rushing Comp Att Pct Yds TD INT RAT Rush Yds Avg TD Stephen Garcia 31 53 60.0 313 2 1 116.78 10 42 4.2 0
That’s right – that’s Joe Cox with a passer rating of 160+. That’s Joe Cox with a passer rating about 45 points higher than the kid who turned in the game of his career. Now, admittedly the PR doesn’t tell the whole story. An interception counts the same whether it’s a smart or stupid throw, whether it leads to three points or is a pick six. And obviously, it doesn’t take into account the damage Garcia did with his feet. But even with that in mind, it’s hard to call Joe’s statistical performance anything less than credible.
That’s not to say that there isn’t room for improvement – Cox would probably be the first to tell you that – but to call that performance Ballesque is laughable. Dude, we knew Reggie Ball. Joe Cox is no Reggie Ball.
Yep, ummm, Ball had a career completion percentage around forty-five, despite playing with the best WR in the country.
I do think a George Godsey comparison would be much more in line for Cox.
Joe Cox is a much better QB than Ball … on and off the field. Ball was an embarrassment to Tech for 4 years. Regardless of what he does on the field this year, Cox doesn’t seem to be the type of kid that will embarrass UGA.
Cox probably is more talented than Godsey but he needs to win some more games and have multiple 400 yard passing games to warrant a comparison.
Ball was bad (I’m a Tech alumnus). His career completion percentage was 49%, but this only accounts for his passing and does not include his shortcomings. Agreeing with you: Cox > Ball.
You should avoid the “despite playing with the best WR” observations, though. With AJ Green on the field, Cox will have limited excuses for low passing percentages too.
Good thing he completed 71% against a pretty competent D this weekend then, eh?
Sure, it kind of offsets the 50% completion rate Cox had against a crappy Oklahoma State defense the previous week.
Look, I think Cox is a good QB and he will help the dawgs more than he hurts them this season. I’d stay away from comparisons to Ball, though – he’s in a league all by himself (which is also a testament to what a craptastic coach Gailey was/is).
Has Josh Nesbitt even completed 10 passes this season? Pretty bold talk for a team that hasn’t had decent QB in a long, long time.
Pingback: EDSBS » Archive » CURIOUS INDEX, 9/15/09
What’s easier than shooting fish in a barrel?
Finding reasons why Reggie Ball sucked at QB.
Dr. Saturday equated Josh Nesbitt and Reggie Ball last Friday.
Reggie Ball was perhaps the worst four-year starter in college football history. But I’m not telling anyone anything new there.
Quincy Carter was close.
At least he wasn’t a four-year starter. Sigh…. slams head into desk.
It sure seemed like it.
Chris Rix at Florida State was pretty terrible, as well.
At least Rix beat the Fightin’ Zooks a couple times, though.
Reggie Ball beat Miami and Clemson multiple times, beat Vandy single-handedly with a late drive, and generally had the Italian balls/brains ratio going for him. Not a good quarterback, but not an unmitigated, boring disaster a la A.J. Suggs. He would have kicked butt in Tech’s current offense, because he was a good runner and had a very strong arm. Y’all lay off Reggie; the fourth-down screwup was caused by a) the sideline crew not changing the down marker and b) Gailey having a slow brain and never getting the plays sent in on time.
As poor as Ball’s statistics were, he was always a QB you had to worry about, because you never knew when he would scramble for 25 yards on you. He was dangerous (to both teams!), unlike a guy like Suggs.
I agree he had all the tools to run Tech’s current offense, although with his decision-making, he might often try to pitch the ball wildly while being tackled running the option, causing many disastrous fumbles.
DH
If by “you”, you mean “Georgia fans”, uh, no.
Dog was money. As I said in my very first post at GTP:
As poor as Ball’s statistics were, he was always a QB you had to worry about, because you never knew when he would scramble for 25 yards on you.
Yea, but that was just to get back to the line of scrimmage after one of his 50 step drop and roll outs.
I thought Reggie blamed the clock for his brain fart.
It’s kinda funny, though, when you think about it – the Georgia defense seemed to know what down it was.
ah, Tech fans defending the sublime genius of Reggie BaLLLL.
and I thought South Carolina fans were the most delusional people on the planet…..
Reggie did come up big for them in some games, no doubt. But, he couldn’t beat UGA, and that, more than anything, is why he’s a non-person to most Tech fans I know. Just not on here. I guess a foolish consistency really IS the hobgoblin of small minds.
Ball could not run Tech’s current offense. He does not have the mental mindset to make the right decisions in a quick manner.
To compare Nesbitt to Ball is just foolish. While Nesbitt has not looked pretty running this offense, the guy just finds a way to win. He is clutch down the stretch.
In the future, CPJ will find a more true option QB to run this offense but it will be tough to find one that can nut it up in crunch time like Nesbitt.
Cox had more yards per attempt than Garcia. I had not realized that until just now. Cox had 8.375 to Garcia’s 5.90. Nice.
yechsters i believe ball beat auburn a couple times w/tubby at the helm, and so chan and ball beat miami more than once and fl state at least once so dont cry too much yech sould have done alot worse
thats could have done alot worse