Playoff QBs left?...... No names in college

[michael89156]

Lopresti: NFL starting QBs left?...... No names in college

Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports
12:42p.m. EST January 14, 2013


 Don't look to their college careers as predictors of success for the starting NFL QBs left




(Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY Sports)



49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick got scholarship offer off his high school basketball play

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco had only one winning college season

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan finished sixth among passers in Heisman Trophy voting

Funny thing about quarterbacks in the NFL. When it comes to using their college careers to predict who'll make it big, sometimes you might as well pull out a Ouija board.

 Take the four guys now knocking at the Super Bowl door. Let's rewind the tape to their campus days for a little quiz. You can decide how many of them looked like they were locks to be local folk heroes one day.



Who had his high school films mailed to colleges nationwide by his brother, but received one – just one – scholarship offer from an FBS school?

 Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers, and an alumnus of Nevada.


 Who started his career seventh on the depth chart?

Tom Brady at Michigan, on his way to the New England Patriots.


 Who threw one completion for an FBS school, before heading to the FCS level.

 The Baltimore Ravens' Joe Flacco, who transfered from Pittsburgh to Delaware.


 Who threw 19 interceptions as a senior, second most in the nation, and 37 in his career?

 Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons, and before that, Boston College.


 Who had to alternate at his position with another quarterback at the start of his senior season?

 Brady.


 Who won one bowl game in his life – the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl?

 Kaepernick.


Who had only one winning season as a starting college quarterback?

 Flacco.


 Who consulted a psychologist to help him handle the stress of trying to win a starting job?

 Brady.


 Who never won a conference championship?

 Ryan.


 Who was not first-team All-American, but his running back and kicker were?

 Flacco.


 Who was never first-team all-conference?

 Brady.



Who was given several national awards as the top quarterback, but finished sixth in the Heisman voting among quarterbacks behind such names as Missouri's Chase Daniel, Oregon's Dennis Dixon, West Virginia's Pat White – and the trophy winner, a guy named Tim Tebow?

 Ryan.


 Who was 0-2 as a starter against New Hampshire?

Flacco.


 Who was so unrecognizable, that when working in a sports apparel shop after his junior season, he was asked by customers to show them where the college quarterback's jersey rack was? They didn't even realize they were speaking to him.

 Kaepernick.


 Who was so upset, he called a meeting with his coach one day with the intention to transfer?

 Brady.


 Who played on a broken foot as a junior, and in high school scored 15 points in a basketball game after taking an elbow to the face and suffering a cut that would eventually require 30 stitches?

 Ryan.


 Who was offered a college scholarship, not because of his passing mastery, but because one of the coaches saw him help win a high school basketball game despite a 102-degree temperature?

 Kaepernick.


 Who played his home games before an average crowd of 21,801?

 Flacco.


Who, in his one start on the field of his school's biggest rival, threw 56 passes but had only one touchdown, two interceptions and lost?

 Brady, at Ohio State.


 Who wasn't even first team all-East?

 Flacco.


 Whose main claim to fame going into college was that he had thrown two no-hitters as a high school pitcher?

 Kaepernick.


 Whose college career rushing total was minus-169 yards?

 Brady.


 Who spent less time on an FBS team than his brother, the biomechanical engineering major?

Flacco. Brother John was a junior this season on the Stanford roster.


 Look at the four now -- Brady a future Hall of Famer, Flacco an emerging star, Ryan finally shed of his playoff stigma, Kaepernick one of the stories of the season.

 As collegians, the four produced no national championships, no spot in the top five of the Heisman voting and only one appearance in a BCS bowl – Brady in the 2000 Orange.

 But you don't have to be the biggest names from the biggest schools with the biggest reputations. You don't have to be the diamond of your recruiting class. You just have to know how to win.

 The combined record of these four as seniors in college: 45-10. That's one reason they'll all be playing this Sunday.

[The Anti-Java]

Whose main claim to fame going into college was that he had thrown two no-hitters as a high school pitcher?

 Kaepernick.




Being a baseball fan, I like that one.