If this poll was made current, the Nooch would definitely have to be in there. Drafted by the Cowboys and made the roster. That is some high company.

(01-07-2018 09:54 AM)dukesfan4010 Wrote:  Vad Lee under Mike Houston would have been ridiculous. Maybe not the most accomplished, but I would say most talented.

Agreed; Vad Lee was crazy skilled. And an even better human.

Mike Cawley is greatest, and its not even close.

The talent was much better in those days, before all the good teams moved up.

Hart:

Vad and Landers were very different runners so it is hard to compare them. Rodney could get 3 yards even when the entire stadium knew the call was him off tackle. He flat out put the hurting on some safeties and DBs. Vad was elusive and had better break away speed. He was more likely to take it to the house on any given play.

Rodney’s injury was in the second quarter of the semifinal game his senior year. Vad’s was in the second quarter of his 7th game his senior year. Rodney also played all four years at JMU. Even though he did not start until he was a Junior, he played some prior and was way more familiar with his offense at the start of his Junior year. Vad ran the option for two years before he came to JMU. There was a learning curve with Withers offense and new teammates his Junior year.

So Vad had two years less in the Withers offense than Rodney did in Mickey’s offense and Rodney played I think 8 more games his Senior year than Vad. Vad still had five more TDs than Rodney. This is a more accurate interpretation of the TD numbers than you portrayed.

I loved Rodney, Vad and all of the great QBs who have played at JMU. This poll is comparing greatness to greatness. I’d take any of them to play for us. Man, we have been lucky to have so many talented QBs at JMU.

No doubt. To further muddy the picture, Landers teams only had 64 offensive snaps per game while Lee’s had 79 offensive snaps per game.

Cumulative stats and different paced offenses make it hard to see who would be better head to head in a vacuum.

Another interesting stat regarding accuracy. Lee completed 63% of his passes and Landers completed 63% of his passes. They did it two different ways but both were equally effective getting it into their receivers hands. I would never consider either a great passer of the ball, but both produced excellent passing results some of which was fueled by the defense having to protect against their deadly running skill.

I’ve always felt the dual threat QB is the first choice in college football. So hard to defend and you only have to keep them healthy for 2 or 3 years of starting so no need to baby them.
It doesn’t work as well in the NFL as defenders are bigger,faster,stronger And owners want to protect their multi million dollar QB for as long as possible. I guess Mike Vick has done it the best for the longest without getting a debilitating injury.

Sidebar- will be interesting to see if Belichick leans heavy on Cam Newton’s run game. They can win a lot if he is a true dual threat. He could be the Pats leading rusher if allowed to do so.

I always felt Rodney was a better passer than he was given credit for being. His accuracy on the deep throw was very good. At times it felt like he either ran it or threw it deep.

Stats are so tough to compare especially between a Withers and Matthews offense.