Different era of football here - and this is not a “Milroe is the best” post - but man, have we become spoiled by elite QB play at UA.
Here are Brodie Croyle’s 2003 stats (and I’m confident many on this board would say Brodie was a better QB than Milroe).
In 12 games, he completed 182-341 (53%) for 2,303 yards with 16 TDs and 13 INTs. No rushing TDs and a grand total of 7 positive rushing yards.
Through 11 games this season, Milroe is 171-263 (65%) for 2,396 yards, 15 TDs and 9 INTs. He’s added 615 rushing yards and 17 rushing TDs. More passing yards on about 80 fewer attempts, and nearly as many completions as Croyle had for that entire season. Not to mention the rushing production.
The game has evolved and QBs are playing at a higher level in general - Croyle’s 2003 season was considered average at the time and would be considered atrocious by today’s standards. Brodie played on a different team and didn’t have as much raw talent around him - but that 2003 offense had many of the same pieces from the 2002 team that won 10 games and scored a lot of points.
If we are honest, I think most of the angst with Milroe’s play is not that he’s a “bad” QB. It’s that he’s not Tua, or Bryce, or Mac.
I think you can also make the argument that Brodie Croyle would be a Heisman candidate on this team and in this offense, and you probably wouldn’t be wrong.
Just some perspective. We’ve seen plenty of “bad” QB play at the Capstone over the years and Milroe is far from the worst. He’s just not transcendent at the position, which is something we’ve become rather accustomed to. Again, it’s a different era, but it seems like some of you don’t remember Freddie Kitchens.
JMO. I do agree that the team will likely be better off when Milroe leaves and DeBoer gets a guy that is closer to what he wants from the position.
Let's take a long stroll down memory lane and look at the starters (not including those who only started a game or two due to injuries or whatever):
Bryce Young.
mac Jones.
Tua.
Hurts
Coker,
Sims,
AJ,
Gmac,
Jp Wilson,
Croyle
Pennington,
Watts,
Zow
Phillips (replaced by Zow after 4gms)
Tucker (partial year)
Kitchens
Burgdorf
Barker
Woodson
Hollingsworth
Smith
and that's as far back as I have direct memory of.
out of all those, who would you rate behind Milroe?
probably Watts who was only playing because Zow kept getting hurt, but at least Watts was decisive running the option and made the right keep/give decision most of the time, so maybe not.
Phillips - he got beat out.
Pennington? he also only played due to injuries then quit to play baseball
Burgdorf? Only playing significant time due to injury
Kitchens - maybe/probably.
Woodson - maybe/probably.
The rest: All ahead of JM I think. That's not to say they all have as strong of an arm, or could run anywhere close to as fast, but they'd at least read the field, make audibles at the line, know the box count, and mostly (no one is ever 100%) get us to the right play and make the right decisions on the field. Even Kitchens and Woodson were probably ahead of JM in stuff pre-snap; they just struggled with what happened after that