His first was Stan White at Auburn, who improved a lot between a junior season under Pat Dye in which he completed only 51.6 percent of his passes and had a dismal 5-16 TD-interception ratio and a senior season under Fisher and Terry Bowden where those numbers shot up to 60.5 and 13-8. After White was Patrick Nix, who went from a little-used sophomore backup to a 56 percent passer (13-7 ratio, 2,206 yards) as a junior starter, then had a Mauck-like senior season (60.7 percent, 15-9 ratio, 2,574 yards). Then came Dameyune Craig, whose sophomore numbers (28-of-40, 268 yards, 4-1 ratio) were substantially better than his performance actually was that year. But after Nix graduated at the end of 1995, Craig posted a solid junior year (54.5 percent, 2,296 yards, 16-10 ratio) and then blew up as a senior (53.6 percent, school-record 3,277 yards, 18-13 ratio), leading Auburn to the SEC Championship game, which Auburn was a point shy of winning, basically all by himself. I don’t count Ben Leard, who Fisher only really had a half-season to work with in 1998 before a bad back put him on the sidelines. But in 1999, Fisher moved on to Cincinnati, where he took over an offense quarterbacked by an athletic-but-raw senior named Deonte Kenner who had emerged as a starter in a dreadful 2-9 campaign the year before. Kenner had decent enough numbers as a junior (54.8 percent, 2,047 yards) except for a miserable 6-13 TD-interception ratio. Under Fisher’s guidance Kenner’s numbers were pretty similar (54.9 percent, 2,430 yards), but his ratio improved to 14-15. Considering that Kenner threw 379 passes for Fisher in 1999 as opposed to 270 as a junior in 1998, and you can see that he became a smarter quarterback. Move on to Josh Booty, who under the Gerry DiNardo-Bob McConnell brain trust had put up some abysmal numbers (48.6 percent, 1,830 yards, 7-19 ratio), but after getting a year of Fisher’s coaching had earned a spot on the Coaches’ All-SEC team after improving tremendously (50.0 percent, 2,121 yards, 17-15 ratio). Rohan Davey made even bigger strides. As a sophomore in 1999, Davey was little-used (31 of 52, 491 yards, 4-4 ratio), and that didn’t change a lot in 2000 (38 of 59, 577 yards, 7-1 ratio). But Davey was getting significantly better along the way, and when he finally got a shot to show it in 2001 he won an SEC championship with a monster season (59.1 percent, 3,347 yards, 18-10 ratio). As for Mauck, he went from a relatively lousy passer as a redshirt freshman (18 of 41, 224 yards, 0-2 ratio) to a somewhat lousy passer as a sophomore starter in 2002 (48.5 percent, 782 yards, 9-2 ratio) to a pretty darn good passer last year (64.0 percent, 2,825 yards, 28-14 ratio). As for Randall, he’s already seen some statistical improvement. As a sophomore, the Baton Rouge Glen Oaks product was a 48.1 percent passer (1,173 yards, 7-5 ratio) as the starter for the second half of the season. Last year, in admittedly less-strenuous duty, Randall completed 62.5 percent of his passes (25 of 40) for 403 yards and a 2-1 ratio. If Randall improves as much as the other did, especially in reducing tunrovers, the Tigers will be fine.
This is exactly why I have been arguing with Auburn fans about why I think Randall will be better than Campbell. Of any fan base, they should understand.
Don't stop there A look at Greene's crappy QB rating for 2003 and knowing teams have the recipe for kicking hiz azz ... ~P~R~E~S~S~U~R~E~ Randall will also be better than Greene ... AGAIN ... this year ... with a better QB rating at the end of the season ... mark it down. Randall gets to practice against the best blitz packages in America ... think about that a minute and what it really means What can any DEFENSE throw against Randall that he hasn't already seen? How many hits/hurries/sacks will Randall take this year? How many hits/hurries/sacks will Greene take this year? :hihi: Day and Night!
Goods points, but in fairness, Stan White's perceived improvement under Dye versus Bowden had little (if anything) to do with Fisher. Bowden's arrival meant a shift in phiosophy from Dye's "run till they stop us" mantra to Bowden's "pass-first" mentality. Stan's passing numbers under Dye were a reflection of the low percentage opportunities he confronted in that system (e.g. 3rd-and-long). On the other hand, his yardage benefited from some of the long passes he did complete.
Jimbo is very good, and I consider myself one of his fans. Just thought you might like some facts to go along with the runaway enthusiasm over Saban & Co.
Hey SNIFF! The only runaway you know about is the Runaway Train that ran over you and your Auburn mutts last year ... Did you get the number on that freight train ... :hihi: Jimbo is probably waiting for that scumbag coach at Auburn to get his Wal-Mart cigar smokin' trailer trash lovin' azz run off ... so he can waltz in and name his price ... a damn site more than you azzclowns pay Tubby ... so show the man respect ... the man that kicked your azz so hard ... you're wearing your own azz for an Auburn hat I was just kidding about Fisher going to Auburn ... he has too much class for that :hihi:
