How do you measure a good quarterback? Win-loss record? Total passing yards? Completion percentage? Touchdown to interception ratio? What about his ability to manufacture yards on the ground? How about his ability to march his team down the field during the fourth quarter of a close game?

These are all factors used in a variety of measures for assessing a quarterback's efficiency and/or productivity. Which measure is best, though? The traditional quarterback efficiency rating has been the preferred benchmark for several decades. It has some flaws, however. Some question its emphasis on completion percentage. Many have pointed out that the NFL passer efficiency is needlessly complex (those with a weak stomach are advised against looking at the NFL formula here). Its major flaw, however, is the omission of rushing statistics and fumbles. Should we penalize a QB who repeatedly holds the ball too long, gets sacked for a 12-yard loss, and fumbles the ball away? Probably. Should we reward QBs who are efficient runners? Absolutely. Should we reward a QB who runs for 500 yards...on 250 rushing attempts? Nope.

David Berri's QB Score addresses many of these criticisms lobbed at the traditional pass efficiency rating. The QB Score places a greater emphasis on yardage gained and touchdowns scored while strongly penalizing turnovers. Most importantly, it incorporates rushing statistics into the formula. As an added bonus, it's very simple:

QB Score = Total Yards - (3 x Plays) - (50 x Turnovers)

The QB Score isn't perfect, however. Under certain conditions it overemphasizes overall production: a player who plays 3 games will usually have a better score than someone who plays 1 game. For those who start at least four or five games, however, these differences in production usually even out and the QB Score becomes a better judge of overall efficiency. Compare, for example, Washington's Keith Price and Alabama's AJ McCarron. Price had 501 total plays last season compared to only 363 from McCarron. Despite being involved in 40% more plays, Price only posted a QB Score of 244 (133rd in the nation) compared to McCarron's 1698 (18th in the nation). Despite similar yardage totals, Price needed 150 more plays and also managed to turn the ball over 13 times. As a result, his QB Score took a nosedive. Despite being much more involved with his offense, Price was inefficient and his QB Score reflects that.

While the emphasis on productivity does diminish the QB Scores' ability to make comparisons between a QB who played one game and a QB who played the whole season, its inclusion of rushing statistics make it a viable alternative to the traditional pass efficiency rating.

I've pulled data on every quarterback with more than 60 passing attempts last season and calculated the QB Score for each. After looking at the overall top ten, we will break it down conference by conference. In each table we list the QB's name, his team, his QB Score (and overall ranking), and his efficiency rating (and overall ranking). How did your favorite QB perform?

Overall

Is anyone surprised that Johnny Football was the most productive QB in the nation last season? He gained over 5000 yards last season and no matter how you break it down he was stellar. He completed 68% of his passes, averaged an excellent 8.5 yards per passing attempt, and had 26 TDs compared to only 9 interceptions. He also had more than 3700 passing yards. On the ground he averaged 7.0 yards per rush despite running the ball over 200 times. Not too bad for a freshman. Although the top-3 is composed of dual-threat quarterbacks, half the top-10 QBs are traditional passers. Although the QB Score rewards those who run well, great running alone clearly isn't enough to top the rankings. One must efficiently compile boatloads of yards, whether by passing or running (or even receiving!).

Now let's go through each conference to find the winners and losers according to the QB Score. I would like to thank TwistNHook and Nam for providing their thoughts on the results from many of the following conferences.

Pac-12

TwistNHook: If you had told me that the 2 best QBs from the Pac-12 were from the Arizonas, my response would have been:

You'd think an Oregon or a UCLA or a USC or even a Stanford might be at the top. While Mariota, Hundley, and Barkley are all near the top, it is Taylor Kelly and Matt Scott who have the highest QB Scores in the Pac-12.

It should be noted that while Kelly and Scott were the #1 and #2 QBs in QB Score, in Efficiency Scott was actually quite a bit lower. In fact, when it comes to Efficiency Scott is the 9th best QB in the Pac-12.

Even Cody "Deferens" Vaz, who is the 11th best QB in the Pac-12 by QB Score had a better QB Efficiency than Scott. What does this mean? Since QB Score relates more to overall production while Efficiency relate more to passing, it means that Scott had a decent chunk of other non-passing variables, such as rushing yards that pushed his QB Score up. As for pure passing, though, Scott wasn't quite as good as his #2 QB Score ranking would lead you to believe.

It is unsurprising that Cal's QBs did not seem to be near the top. Maynard was in the top 10, but Bridgford was near the bottom. Cal did not see consistent QB play in 2012 and that is reflected here. Hopefully, in 2014, we'll be crunching the numbers to show how Klindergoff was #1 in both QB Score and QB Efficiency for the 2013 season.

In conclusion, boy did Colorado suck! Their 2 QBs were in the last 3 QBs in the Pac-12. And they both were ranked in the upper 100s for the nation. They were the Houston Astros of the Pac-12!

ACC

Nam Le: Perhaps Buffalo’s decision to draft EJ Manuel wasn’t so crazy after all – Manuel’s QB Score and Efficiency are both strong, and trail only Geno Smith among drafted quarterbacks this year. That’s right, Manuel’s statistics last season were better than the guys who got infinitely more press than him. I’m looking at you, Ryan Nassib.

Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense doesn’t call for many passes, but Tevin Washington (133 attempts last season) managed to make the most out of them, coming in a surprising 39th among 181 qualifiers in QB Efficiency. That would suggest that Washington was in the 79th percentile of QBs last year, which I think is a tad bit misleading. Now, without having watched extensive tape on Georgia Tech, I will make an educated guess as to why this might be. Against a run-heavy offense like the one Tech uses, undisciplined defenses eventually forget to respect the pass; and on the rare occasions Washington actually does so, this lack of respect often results in a long gain. That, in turn, pumps up Washington’s Efficiency rating, which is partially weighted by YPA; his QB Score – 68th among qualifiers (63rd percentile) - gives a more accurate picture of his offensive contributions, since it accounts for the rushing responsibilities he carries as an option quarterback.

Raise your hands if you thought a Duke quarterback would be in the ACC’s top five. Check that. Raise your hands if you knew Duke had a football team.

Walterfootball thinks that Logan Thomas is a second round pick next year. Now, other things obviously factor into draft evaluations, but statistically speaking...Him? Really?

Big 12

Nam Le: Atop this list is Nick Florence, whose offense outgained every other in all of college football last year. That’s right – the Baylor Bears rolled up more yardage than Oregon, and even Sonny’s own Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, and Florence had a great year leading their attack, by either standard.

Geno Smith might have taken a huge tumble in the NFL draft, but he could be better than most people think, rating extremely highly according to both metrics – the former Mountaineer ranked 2nd among Big 12 QBs in QB Score, and 3rd in Efficiency. Considering that he had a grand spanking total of 343 rushing yards in his 4 years at WVU, this makes his numbers even more impressive, since his numbers were all gained through the air. What this means is that Geno is no fluke – he protects the ball, totals up passing yardage with great accuracy, and passes the ball down the field too (his 8.1 YPA ranked 21st in the country).

Before his arrest and suspension, TCU’s Casey Pachall was off to a great start – he had a 10:1 TD:INT ratio, and a QB Efficiency score high enough to lead every passer in the country. Unfortunately, he did not score nearly as well in the QB Score portion – mostly because he did not have the opportunity to total as much yardage as everyone else. Still, to come in 11th among the 17 Big 12 QBs? Playing only 4 games? Not bad.

Many people were shocked that freshman Wes Lunt transferred out of Oklahoma State, as the quarterback job appeared to be all his starting in 2014 – yet, these numbers suggest that he may not have been anything that special anyway. Granted, he was a true freshman, but his numbers pale in comparison to J.W. Walsh and Clint Chelf, both of whom split duties after his injury.

I love Steele Jantz. I think he owns one of the greatest names a QB has ever had. But clearly, his name lends him no help – thanks to a 13:12 TD:INT ratio and a below average 5.96 YPA, he managed to land at the bottom of the QB Score list. Neither he nor counterpart Jared Barnett nor Sam B. Richardson particularly lit up the stats sheet, which is probably why Iowa State couldn’t make up their minds on which to start.

Big Tweleven

Nam Le: The Big Ten has taken a lot of heat in recent years for being overrated, and generally grown to be perceived as a weak conference for offense. Examining this data set only further supports those notions. Here, take a look yourself:





Average national ranking:



SEC: 86.15 in QB Score , 79.42 in QBE



Big 12: 82.05 in QB Score , 63.70 in QBE



Big 10: 103.55 in QB Score , 98.15 in QBE







Granted, Twist only asked me to write up three conferences, and that's all the data I was given, but a few conclusions can be drawn here.



The first - that the Big 12 is the best conference for quarterbacks [at least statistically]. Second, though, is what I talked about up top; that the Big Ten isn't particularly great on offense. Indeed, an average Big 10 signalcaller is about 20 spots worse in QB Score than an average Big 12 or SEC one, and the gap gets larger when you look at where they rank in efficiency against other conferences.



[Interestingly enough, the Pac-12 is roughly about the same as the Big Ten, with an average national rank of 102.63 in QB Score , and 97.15 in Efficiency. Not a strong year for quarterback play out west. Think to the struggles of Maynard, Nunes, Barkley, the Washington State guys...yeah. Most of the conference had problems at this position.]





Score and Efficiency than the passing quarterback, Siemian.



As far as individual guys go, two names that Cal fans should familiarize themselves with are Kain Colter and Trevor Siemian. The two of them shared quarterback duties for the Wildcats last year, and will reportedly continue to do so for the 2013 season. Interestingly enough, Colter handles most of the running duties, rushing for almost 900 yards and 12 TDs last year - yet, has a higherEfficiency than the passing quarterback, Siemian.

Braxton Miller, the other name that Cal fans must familiarize themselves with, is already a known commodity, and among the best that the Big Ten has to offer. His legs add a large amount to his game, though - when you take out the rushing yardage that QB Score factors in and judge him by Efficiency instead, Miller drops from 2nd to 6th best among Big Ten QBs . The same can be said about Denard Robinson, although Miller is a much more refined passer by comparison.





The quarterback situation in Wisconsin remains unresolved, but judging by the statistics they recorded last year, Joel Stave would be the best option for new coach Gary Andersen. He's a far better passer than Curt Phillips [note: Former Maryland transfer Danny O'Brien will not return after deciding to transfer to another school].

Big East

Nam Le: Next April, some lucky NFL cellar dweller is going to have their pick between Jadaveon Clowney and Teddy Bridgewater. The former is a destroyer of ballcarriers and certified terrorizer of quarterbacks; the latter is a sleeper Heisman candidate and shows enough skill as a passer (10th and 14th in Score and Efficiency, respectively) to anchor an offense for years to come. Go ahead and flip a coin.

Munchie Legeaux would start on the All-College Football Name team. Without question.

Though he only played after B.J. Daniels got hurt, South Florida’s Matt Floyd was arguably the worst quarterback in the country – out of the 181 qualifiers in QB Score and Efficiency, Floyd’s 110 passing attempts left him 180th ranked in the former, and 179th on the later. Yikes.

Independents

Player Team QB Score QB Efficiency 1. Everett Golson Notre Dame 967 (57) 131 (95) 2. Connor Dietz Air Force 685 (79) 165.2 (9) 3. Trent Steelman Army 522 (95) 109.3 (152) 4. Keenan Reynolds Navy 487 (101) 150.1 (34) 5. James Lark Brigham Young 297 (121) 138.6 (73) 6. Taysom Hill Brigham Young 283 (123) 122.4 (120) 7. Riley Nelson Brigham Young 225 (137) 119.1 (131)

Berkelium97: Everett Golson leads the independents. Although after watching Notre Dame's "offense" in the National Championship Game, I don't think that's much of an accomplishment.

Connor Dietz had a stellar QB Efficiency rating, but that only tells half the story. As captain of the Air Force triple option, he only attempted 111 passes last season and a whopping 7 over the final three games. When he did pass, however, he picked up big chunks of yardage, which is bound to happen when the opposing defense sells out against the run. His YPA is a ridiculous 10.2. His QB Score took a dive because he wasn't that efficient on the ground. He averaged a decent 4.6 yards per carry but only mustered 5 rushing touchdowns. Keenan Reynolds of Navy follows the same pattern. He barely passed while commanding the Navy triple option, but was rather efficient when he opted to throw against an unsuspecting defense. Otherwise he was hampered by pedestrian production.

The Stormin' Mormons of BYU fill out the bottom end of the independents' rankings. It is a testament to their defense that they managed to win 8 games last season.

SEC

Nam Le: Leading the SEC QB Score list was – who else? – Ser Johnny, of House Football. Yes, everyone knows that he was a one man yardage machine last year; any highlight reel - and I suppose, his #1 overall QB Score - will tell you that. But in comparison to the yardage/turnover based QB Score, his Efficiency shows that the first ever freshman Heisman winner does still have a place to improve. SEC defensive coordinators are probably shuddering at the thought of that, but it’s true – he’s already this good as a redshirt freshman, and can still play better. Not turning the ball over against LSU would help. 3 of his 9 interceptions came against them.

Man, oh man, things were ugly at Auburn. Of the four worst QB Scores in the SEC, three belonged to Tigers, with former 5 star recruit Kiehl Frazier bringing up the rear. Auburn brought back Gus Malzahn with the intention of correcting their offensive ineptitude, so that’s a situation that is worth keeping an eye on.

One guy who figures to be popular on NFL draft boards next year should be Georgia’s Aaron Murray. Sure, he fell five yards short of winning the SEC Championship Game, but just look at his numbers, which prove him to be a damn good quarterback, any way you want to slice it. Most of the quarterbacks in the Big 12 or the SEC are good when measured by QB Score or by Efficiency. A few of them are good in both categories. Murray, however, is better than any of them – he is the only one in this sample to be rank in the single digits of both QB Score and QB Efficiency.

Jordan Rodgers was surprisingly average, although sometimes, average is all you need - Vanderbilt enjoyed their most successful season since 1915 with him at QB. At the very least, his numbers show that not every program needs a Manziel to be successful…although having one certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Conference USA

Berkelium97: Marshall only finished 5-7 last year? That must be a result of having the nation's second-worst scoring defense last year (after our good friends in Colorado). The Thundering Herd should have read Sonny Dykes' playbook on how to give up a boatload of points but still manage to win 9 games.

At the bottom end there was a lot of bad quarterbacking in this conference last season. Look at all those triple-digit rankings. Poor D.J. Ponder only completed 42% of his passes in his short-lived time as Tulane's starter.





Mid-American Conference







Berkelium97: I'm not surprised to find half a dozen MAC QBs with scores above 1000. With offenses like those of Northern Illinois, Ohio, Kent State, and Toledo, the conference lived up to its MACtion moniker this season.

Just like #1 overall QB Johnny Manziel, #2 QB Jordan Lynch was a first-year starter. Other than a lackluster opener against Iowa, Jordan Lynch was on fire last season. He piled up nearly 5000 total yards and was exceptionally efficient in doing so. He averaged 6.2 yards per carry (on a whopping 294 carries) and 8.0 yards per passing attempt. He had more passing yards than our entire Cal team and more rushing yards than C.J. Anderson and Isi Sofele combined. It's impressive that Kent State managed 11 wins despite mediocre QB play. Their two 1300+ rushers made up for that shortcoming.

Perhaps Amherst should have held off joining FBS ball for another year or two...

Mountain West Conference

Player Team QB Score QB Efficiency 1. Cody Fajardo Nevada 1786 (13) 143.9 (49) 2. Derek Carr Fresno State 1774 (14) 155.9 (21) 3. Brett Smith Wyoming 1298 (41) 157.6 (17) 4. Joe Southwick Boise State 1250 (44) 141.8 (59) 5. Ryan Katz San Diego State 739 (72) 151.6 (31) 6. Conner Smith Colorado State 292 (122) 137.8 (76) 7. Garrett Grayson Colorado State 282 (124) 126.5 (107) 8. B.R. Holbrook New Mexico 264 (128) 108 (155) 9. Nick Sherry UNLV 235 (135) 107.6 (158) 10. Adam Dingwell San Diego State 132 (147) 121 (124) 11. M.J. McPeek Colorado State -2 (160) 113.6 (143)

Berkelium97: Oh look, it's our good friend Cody Fajardo. The same Cody Fajardo who piled up 300+ yards against our helpless defense in our season opener. The same Cody Fajardo whose team lost at home to South Florida the following week. South Florida.

Despite improving his QB score by more than 100 points over his 2011 score, Derek Carr could not hold onto the top spot this year. I would not be surprised if he reclaims the title next year en route to an early departure to the NFL.

Brett Smith's third-place finish wasn't enough to save Wyoming from a 4-8 season. Former Oregon State QB Ryan Katz produced a solid season under Andy Ludwig's tutelage at San Diego State. Poor M.J. McPeek was just two yards from avoiding a negative score.

Sun Belt

Berkelium97: Terrence Broadway led the SEC-lite with his impressive combination of passing and rushing. Although Broadway had fewer total yards and TDs than Ryan Aplin, he touched the ball less and was more efficient. Broadway had 9.0 yards per passing attempt versus Aplin's 8.2 and 6.5 rushing yards per attempt compared to Aplin's 4.2. Only a sophomore last season, Broadway should be the class of the conference next season.

The Sun Belt had several quarterbacks in the top-50, but it also had a few in the bottom 40. Sunbelt newcomer South Alabama has its work cut out for it next season. Believe it or not, the passing game was the highlight of the Jaguars' offense last season.

Western Athletic Conference

Player Team QB Score QB Efficiency 1. Colby Cameron Louisiana Tech 2325 (4) 153.2 (29) 2. David Fales San Jose State 2125 (6) 170.8 (4) 3. Chuckie Keeton Utah State 1934 (8) 154.6 (24) 4. Eric Soza UTSA 1252 (43) 142.3 (58) 5. Shaun Rutherford Texas State 1083 (52) 137.8 (75) 6. Andrew Manley New Mexico State 426 (107) 124.1 (116) 7. Nick Lamaison UTEP 384 (109) 114.8 (140) 8. Ryan Polite UTSA 246 (132) 134.2 (88) 9. Dominique Blackman Idaho 43 (157) 115.3 (138) 10. Logan Bushnell Idaho -10 (162) 98.3 (171) 11. Taylor Davis Idaho -100 (171) 96.6 (174) 12. Carson Meger UTEP -107 (172) 112.7 (146) 13. Sean Schroeder Hawaii -335 (181) 100.3 (167)

Berkelium97: Have a look at that: the top WAC quarterback is a product of the Dykes-Franklin offense! Colby Cameron, David, Fales, and Chuckie Keeton were head and shoulders above the rest of the WAC last season. Now their coaches--Sonny Dykes, Mike MacIntyre, and Gary Andersen, respectively--will see if they can reproduce their success at BCS-level schools.

Newcomer Texas State also enjoyed some decent quarterback play, although they limped to a 4-8 finish. Idaho's troika of quarterbacks had a bad habit of throwing to the wrong team and were penalized accordingly. Finally we have Hawaii's Sean Schroeder who posted the nation's worst QB Score. Remember the days when Colt Brennan and Bryant Moniz were racking up 4000+ yards per year? That must seem like ages ago for fans of the Rainbow Warriors. It must be rough living in Hawaii...

And there you have it, QB Scores from 181 different collegiate quarterbacks during the 2012 season. I would pontificate more on the results and differences among various efficiency ratings, but you've already read through 5000+ words on this. Why don't you take the rest of the day off? You deserve it. Tell your boss CGB said it was okay.