By: Ryan Moreland (@ryanmoreland)
The regular season is over and today coaches, ADs, and players are gearing up for the postseason. Before that can happen though, we have to finish off the season by looking at the JTR Leaderboard. This will be an extended article, as is the custom for Week 8 JTRs. I hope you enjoy it. See you next season QBs!
How JTR Works
JTR ranks players by comparison to the league average using unbiased stats. By unbiased stats, we mean stats that don’t show a preference for one style of play over another. For example, we expect a quarterback in an air raid system to throw the ball more often than a quarterback in a multiple set. So comparing the two based on completions wouldn’t be fair. Once we determine stats that we believe to be unbiased, we create a league average. Outperforming the league average earns a player positive points. Stats that fall below the league average will earn a player negative points. Points for each stat are calculated and combined with a base rating given to each player. The combination results in a player’s JTR metric score. 0 is the worst possible score and 100 is the best possible score.
For QBs, the stats we chose to use are completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown percentage, interception percentage, passing yards per game, and unique rushing index. The rushing index excludes sacks from a quarterback’s rush totals to get a more accurate sense of them as a runner. Also, QBs cannot take negative points from the rushing index (outside of fumbles). This is because a running ability for a quarterback is a plus, but not a requirement.
JTR is not a predictive metric. It cannot tell the future. It can only measure what a player has done up to that point.
JTR Leaderboard
| Rank (Last Week) | Player | Team | JTR Score (Change) |
| 1 (1) | Jaylen Tyree | Ohio State | 96.203 (-1.636) |
| 2 (2) | Kevin Price | North Carolina | 92.356 (-3.953) |
| 3 (4) | Jay Duke | Auburn | 91.194 (-1.679) |
| 4 (5) | Jack Schmidt | Florida | 86.901 (-1.903) |
| 5 (3) | Himoteo Del Este | Oklahoma | 86.311 (-7.416) |
| 6 (7) | Owen Dart | Texas A&M | 82.257 (-0.131) |
| 7 (10) | Zeus Claydon | Florida State | 81.138 (+1.248) |
| 8 (6) | Jamesyn Golde | USC | 79.977 (-4.192) |
| 9 (9) | Bo Jones | Texas | 78.060 (-2.073) |
| 10 (8) | Saint Major | Virginia Tech | 77.896 (-3.460) |
| 11 (15) | Leisa Pink | Miami | 73.961 (+0.280) |
| 12 (11) | Cole Mantell | Michigan State | 73.616 (-6.199) |
| 13 (12) | Windham Carter | Michigan | 72.476 (-3.989) |
| 14 (13) | Johnny Ray Davis | Alabama | 72.031 (-2.720) |
| 15 (16) | Sky Sanders | Colorado | 71.272 (-0.572) |
| 16 (17) | Sean Keohane | LSU | 68.836 (-2.595) |
| 17 (14) | TJ Cunnington | Kentucky | 68.468 (-5.593) |
| 18 (19) | JK Matthews | Penn State | 67.589 (+0.485) |
| 19 (20) | Brandon Petty | Georgia | 65.954 (+0.236) |
| 20 (22) | Sterling Verdugo | Tennessee | 64.365 (+0.537) |
| 21 (18) | Gunner Rice | West Virginia | 63.312 (-4.966) |
| 22 (23) | Tavon Moss | Clemson | 60.719 (+2.698) |
| 23 (21) | Noir Royal | Notre Dame | 60.065 (-4.461) |
| 24 (24) | Claude DuBois | Oregon | 58.079 (+2.037 |
Findings
Jaylen Tyree will stay at the top spot for the third straight week. He has held the top spot six different weeks this season, which is a staggering amount.
This week’s best score improver goes to Clemson’s Tavon Moss. Moss threw for 400 yards and 3 touchdowns to help his team pull off a major upset of Virginia Tech. This is the first time Moss has been the biggest score improver. Other big rising scores belong to Oregon’s Claude DuBois, Florida State’s Zeus Claydon, and Tennessee’s Sterling Verdugo.
Moss’s score improvement only allowed him to climb one spot, so he was not the biggest improver in rank. That honor belongs to Miami’s Leisa Pink, who jumped up five spots this week. Pink had a solid showing against Florida State this week, but it was more her ability to not fall (like many around here did) that earned her the big jump. Other rank jumpers are Florida State’s Zeus Claydon and Tennessee’s Sterling Verdugo.
Now it is time to look at who the best QBs were this season in a few different categories.
Best Rushing QBs
These are QBs that scored the best in the JTR Rushing Index.
Note: Keep in mind this isn’t based on one single stat, but many. There are some with more rushing yards, but they were hurt by fumbles, having fewer touchdowns, etc.
| Rank | Player | Team |
| 1 | Jay Duke | Auburn |
| 2 | Kevin Price | North Carolina |
| 3 | Himoteo Del Este | Oklahoma |
| 4 | Jaylen Tyree | Ohio State |
| 5 | Owen Dart | Texas A&M |
Kevin Price is the only QB on this list who was also on it last season (he was the best rushing QB in Season 20).
Best Pure Passers
These are the QBs with the best JTR Score without including rushing stats.
| Rank | Player | Team |
| 1 | Jack Schmidt | Florida |
| 2 | Jaylen Tyree | Ohio State |
| 3 | Zeus Claydon | Florida State |
| 4 | Saint Major | Virginia Tech |
| 5 | Bo Jones | Texas |
No one on this list made an appearance on this list last season. However, Zeus Claydon was fifth among the Pure Passers in Season 19.
Most Efficient Passers
These are the QBs with the best passing touchdown percentage to interception percentage ratio.
| Rank | Player | Team |
| 1 | Jaylen Tyree | Ohio State |
| 2 | Zeus Claydon | Florida State |
| 3 | Jay Duke | Auburn |
| 4 | Jack Schmidt | Florida |
| 5 | Sky Sanders | Colorado |
Zeus Claydon and Jay Duke are both returners to this list. Last season Claydon ranked third and Duke fourth on this list.
Comeback QBs
These are the QBs with the best improvement from their Season 20 final JTR score to their Season 21 final JTR score.
| Rank | Player | Team | Score Change |
| 1 | Jack Schmidt | Florida | +28.077 |
| 2 | Jaylen Tyree | Ohio State | +27.613 |
| 3 | Owen Dart | Texas A&M | +25.689 |
| 4 | Jay Duke | Auburn | +8.289 |
| 5 | Zeus Claydon | Florida State | +5.574 |
This is, understandably, the hardest list to find repeat performers. However, Auburn’s Jay Duke has now been on the list in each of the last two seasons. He was fifth last season.
Also, this is the largest score improvement year-to-year that we have ever seen. We only started the Comeback QBs after Season 19, so there isn’t a long history of it. However, the largest score change ever was last season when Kevin Price improved his by 23.440. That would have been the fourth-best this season.
