Tuesday Tailgate: Best true freshman quarterbacks
Remember when freshman weren't even eligible to play in college football? Well, neither do we. First-year players have been making their impact on the sport for long enough now that it's hardly a surprise. Nonetheless, it's easy to forget that a true freshman, generally speaking, is less than a year removed from his last high school game when he makes his collegiate debut. The transition is usually even more difficult for quarterbacks, who have to manage the entire offense and win the trust of their teammates.
But then there are a few who aren't making it look so hard. Here are the top five true freshman QBs in the Football Bowl Subdivision thus far in 2015:
1. Josh Rosen, UCLA
Saturday's loss to Arizona State notwithstanding, Rosen remains the biggest impact player of the QB class of '15 with the most star potential. Through five starts, his passing numbers stand at 102-of-168, a 60.7% completion rate, for 1,243 yards and nine TDs with five picks.
2. Tanner Mangum, Brigham Young
Mangum is not your run-of-the-mill true freshman, considering he recently turned 22. Nevertheless, the Cougars' plans were to keep his redshirt on for this season. Everybody now knows how those plans had to change when Taysom Hill went down with a foot injury. Both BYU and Mangum have come back to earth a bit since he threw for two last-minute winning scores. He has a respectable 60.5 completion percentage (101-of-167) for 1,084 yards and six TDs but five INTs.
3. Drew Lock, Missouri
The suspension of incumbent Maty Mauk gave Lock the opportunity to make his first career start, but there were indications he was going be seeing the field a lot more anyway. His 21-for-28, two-TD performance in the win vs. South Carolina certainly presented a strong case for him to keep the job. He has now thrown for a total of 361 yards on 36 completions in 53 attempts, with three TDs and just one pick.
4. Brett Rypien, Boise State
He was likely to see action at some point, but sooner-or-later became very much sooner when Ryan Finley was sidelined with an ankle injury. Though the Broncos' competition hasn't been as challenging since Rypien took over, his productivity has been exceptional. He's thrown for 718 yards and six scores without a pick while completing 73.9% of his passes (51-of-69).
5. Seth Collins, Oregon State
Like Rosen, Collins won the starting gig in fall camp for the Beavers. His first road start was a baptism by fire at Michigan, which has been playing pretty decent defense (just ask Mangum). Collins performed a bit better in Oregon State's other loss against Stanford — another pretty stout defense, by the way — throwing for 275 yards and a TD while running for another score, and he's engineered victories in the games the Beavers were supposed to win. Overall he's hit on 52 of 95 attempts for 581 yards with five TDs and only one interception.
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