Houston Nutt: Destroyer of quarterbacks

Give Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt enough time and he’ll ruin a quarterback for you, just look at what he’s doing to Jevan Snead this season.  Last year, Snead was a pretty damn good quarterback for the Rebels, he even went eyeball to eyeball with Tim Tebow in Jesus 2.0’s backyard and came away a winner.  Here’s what his numbers ended up being:

2008 - 26 TD’s, 13 picks, 2,762 yards passing and a 145.5 passer rating

Through the first five games of this season, Sneads numbers (as well the fortunes of Ole Miss) have seen a steep decline:

2009 - 9 TD’s, 9 picks, 868 yards passing and a 107.6 passer rating

Now let’s compare Snead’s numbers to the numbers of other quarterbacks to this point of the season:

Tyson Lee, Mississippi State - 3 TD’s, 6 picks, 826 yards passing and a 108.8 passer rating
Greg Paulus, Syracuse - 8 TD’s, 10 picks, 1,187 yards passing and a 126.7 passer rating
Jonathan Crompton, Tennessee - 13 TD’s, 9 picks, 1,210 yards passing and a 129.1 passer rating
Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State - 9 TD’s, 6 picks, 948 yards passing and a 132.3 passer rating
Joe Kemp, Tulane - 4 TD’s, 5 picks, 883 yards and a 138.5 passer rating

Pryor can’t throw it a lick, Crompton’s not much better (except when he’s playing the 2009 Georgia defense), Paulus hadn’t played competitive football in five years, Kemp attempted 34 passes in 2008 and Lee is (and always will be) an absolute deer in headlights.  Yet all these quarterbacks are having better statistical seasons than Snead.

Maybe the prolonged exposure to Nutt is finally having an effect on the guy, because lord knows it’s happened to other quarterbacks.  While he was at Arkansas, Nutt developed Matt Jones into a drug addicted NFL wide receiver and also helped give Mitch Mustain the tools by which he would eventually become the third string quarterback at USC. 

A fantastic example of the Nutt Effect on quarterbacks is Casey Dick.  During Nutt’s last season at Arkansas, Dick was absolutely terrible, throwing 10 TD’s against 18 picks.  After Nutt was replaced by Bobby Petrino, Dick actually had a decent senior season in 2008, throwing for 2,500+ yards with 14 TD’s and 13 picks.  Want your kid to develop into a top flight NFL quarterback prospect?  Step number one is have him avoid Houston Nutt at all costs.

Son, I love you…now go sit on the bench

Speaking of quarterbacks playing badly, Colorado’s Cody Hawkins has been benched again by his father Dan in the wake of the Buffs’ second half collapse against Texas.  I really hope Cody gets his degree and subsequently finds a good paying job, because he’s going to need a couple years of therapy to repair this father-son relationship.

This means that for the second straight season, Colorado has decided to take the redshirt off of Tyler Hansen and put him under center.  The trouble with this scenario is that Hansen played terribly last season, with a passer rating in the low 80’s.  He’s definitely no knight in shining armor riding in from the Rockies to save the program.

It’s been a steady downhill slide for the younger Hawkins, who showed so much promise just two short seasons ago.  As a redshirt freshman in 2007, Cody led the Buffaloes to six wins (four more than the previous season) and an Independence Bowl bid.  It’s one thing to coach your kid in pee wee football, but on the collegiate level?  Seems like a lot more can go wrong than go right.

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