ATVSQBPI Doesn't Have a Bye

We head into yet another weekend without LSU football. I mpromise things are about to get hot and heavy for LSU in November, but the stop and start nature of the schedule so far gives us one more chance to catch our breath and look at all of the quarterback in the SEC with our handy-dandy in-house statistic, ATVSQBPI.

As always, you can get the details on ATVSQBPI here. If you don't feel like reading, just know that it is modified yards/attempt.

We'll take a look at the big chart first, and then we'll go team-by-team to look at each quarterback in the SEC, and then a bit of a national look as well. Numbers are beginning to mean something now that the season is reaching the last week of October.

Sean White, Auburn
7.930 ATVSQBPI
6.740 in SEC

In White's first two games against Power 5 teams, he posted ratings of 3.720 and 3.543. His worst performance since then was the 7.031 against LSU. He's cracked double digits in two of his past three games, with a season high against UL Monroe. But let's look at that Arkansas game for a second. In a huge blowout win, he only went 6-11 for 77 yards. Sure, he was efficient, but he was hardly the reason Auburn poured it on. He may be leading the SEC in ATVSQBPI right now, but he won't be come the end of November.

Jake Bentley, USC
7.800 ATVSQBPI
0.00 in SEC

The revolving door at quarterback in Columbia continues to do just that, as the Gamecocks moved on to their third starter of the season. Bentley had a nice game, and his 7.80 was a season high for the team, but it was also against UMass. Your guess is as good as mine what we'll see going forward, or who the QB even will be.

Chad Kelly, Ole Miss
7.681 ATVSQBPI
8.222 in SEC

He should be atop the leaderboard, but he has posted a worse ATVSQBPI than the week prior in three consecutive weeks. He's gone from a 14.107 against Georgia to a 4.533 against LSU. That's not a good progression. The biggest problem for Kelly is that his touchdown rate has dried up while he's now throwing a bunch more picks. A 12/3 TD/INT rate in the first four games has given way to ¾ ratio in the last three. However, he has added some running to his repertoire, which should help him out going forward. So should an easier schedule over the back half.

Jalen Hurts, Alabama
7.672 ATVSQBPI
7.488 in SEC

I don't want to say he was exposed against A&M because the Tide won by 19 points and it seemed like it should have been more, but he did put up a season worst 4.935 rating. Really, it's just that it was his first multi-interception game, and the formula kills you for throwing picks. He's exactly what Alabama wants out of their QB, as he keeps the lights on and doesn't really hurt you. The added dimension of the RPO is a huge boon to the offense, but he's not the guy making it go. His job is to get it to the guys that do, and he's doing that well.

Drew Lock, Mizzou
7.544 ATVSQBPI
3.840 in SEC

Speaking of exposed. Lock put up huge numbers against some terrible competition, but has been humbled by SEC defenses. Lock pulled off the near impossible task of a negative one game ATVSQBPI against Florida, a -1.571, thanks to going 4/18 for 39 yards with 2 picks. That's about as badly as a quarterback can play. He rebounded to play decent against MTSU, but he's nowhere near the heights of September. Opponent matters.

Austin Allen, Arkansas
7.178 ATVSQBPI
6.022 in SEC

October has not been kind to Allen either. Even in the win over Ole Miss, he only rated a 5.789, his highest mark in the past three games. Allen's got a lot of things working against him: he throws a lot of interceptions, he complete a low percentage of his passes, and he can't run for squat. However, he does get a lot of yards/completion and he scores a bunch, so it keeps him right in the middle of the pack of SEC quarterbacks. He's about to have back-to-back games against Florida and LSU, two of the best defenses in the conference, so he might lose contact with the peloton.

Trevor Knight, Texas A&M
7.160 ATVSQBPI
6.891 in SEC

A portrait of mediocrity. His biggest issue is the one that Brandon Harris struggled with last year: he's flirting with a completion percentage just north of 50%. That's just not sustainable. Eventually, the lack of completions will catch up with you and there's only so high his rating can go with so few completions. He helped himself out a lot against Tennessee by rushing for 110 yards and 3 TD's on 15 carries. Also, let's be honest, Alabama ate his lunch.

Danny Etling, LSU
7.065 ATVSQBPI
6.097 in SEC

Despite the big win, the Ole Miss game didn't help his numbers a whole lot. He posted a 5.467 ATVSQBPI due to his middle of the road passing numbers coupled with another interception and little ability to rush the ball. His numbers are just sort of there. There's nothing really to recommend them, but at the same time, there's no huge demerits. It's just a nice, serviceable line. Let's face it, that's music to most LSU fans' ears. He did have a monster performance against Southern Miss, but there are no more USM's on the schedule.

Luke del Rio, Florida
6.243 ATVSQBPI
6.521 in SEC

Luke del Rio returned to the Florida lineup and showed why Gator fans so eagerly waited his return. Just kidding. He was awful. Sure, he threw for 236 yards, but it took 38 attempts. He also gave a lot of those yards back with three picks. Not that it matters, as Florida beat the holy hell out of Mizzou, but his 2.974 ATVSQBPI is cringe inducing. And the defenses just get better from here, as Missouri is clearly the strongest team he's played. Which is saying something.

Joshua Dobbs, Tennessee
6.057 ATVSQBPI
5.984 in SEC

While not a negative score, Dobbs' 0.471 ATVSQBPI against Bama sums up the Vols' problems pretty quickly. Dobbs has thrown at least one interception in every game this season, which became even worse once the touchdowns dried up. You can throw a lot of picks if you're scoring a ton, but not if you aren't. Additionally, Dobbs only has 52 yards rushing in the last three games combined. A big hunk of that is going negative against Bama, but still, he's a guy who needs to be running the football to be effective. However, he's through the worst part of the schedule, and he now gets a chance to pad his numbers. He could be due for a rebound in November.

Stephen Johnson, Kentucky
5.950 ATVSQBPI
4.381 in SEC

After three miserable games in which Johnson posted sub 3.00 ATVSQBPI's, he exploded for his best game of the year with an 8.381 in a win over State. He passed for 292 yards in the game, more than he had in the past three games combined, all conference games. It's not schedule effects, as two of those games were against South Carolina and Vandy. I'm not sure if this is just one great game or Johnson suddenly turning a corner. But if he plays like this for the rest of the way, Kentucky will go bowling.

Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi St
5.858 ATVSQBPI
5.503 in SEC

To give Fitzgerald credit, he's pretty consistent. He doesn't have any absolute clunkers in there, but that leads to the problem, he doesn't have any real outstanding games either. He's sort of running in place right now. State can deal with a slightly below average quarterback, but they would like to see some signs of improvement, and that's the concern right now. He's not even giving signs that there's a better QB buried in there, waiting to burst out of his chest like a xenomorph.

Jacob Eason, Georgia
5.732 ATVSQBPI
5.082 in SEC

Eason posted a perfect 0.00 against South Carolina, which is almost impressive in its awfulness. He actually wasn't that bad in the Vanderbilt loss, going for 346 yards and an 8.651 rating. He didn't even turn the ball over. Georgia just couldn't convert those yards to points. In a lost season, we'll just chalk that one up to a learning experience. Eason seems to alternate between good game and bad game, so Florida has to be thrilled by that pattern right now.

Kyle Shurmur, Vandy
4.320 ATVSQBPI
3.072 in SEC

Hide the children.

Nationally...

Jake Browning keeps up his terrific season despite only completing 50% of his passes last week. That 26/2 TD/INT ratio helps... Lamar Jackson won the mythical September Heisman, but he does seem to be coasting a bit recently. He turned in two good but not great games against Clemson and Duke, which at least let the field have a chance to catch up. The big thing for him is those rushing totals. If he keeps rushing for 100 yards a game, he's a shoo in... Yes, the Texas Tech-Oklahoma game was ridiculous. Patrick Mahomes ATVSQBPI wasn't off the charts (9.140) due to the fact he had 88 pass attempts and 12 rush attempts. But Baker Mayfield's was. 545 yards and 7 TD gets you an 18.526 ATVSQBPI... And whoever asked me to add Anthony Jennings to the chart, I hope you're happy. The numbers are bad.