UK Football: In defense of ol' Rosy-Cheeks
By Paul Jordan
I’m skipping out on breaking down who has the edge this week because, well, Kentucky is playing Charleston Southern and should win by 50. Instead I wanted to go inside of some statistics and take a look where Mike Hartline is stacking up. He has had some up and down moments this season, and despite two nearly flawless performances, he’s manage to infuriate a large portion of the fan base by throwing some inopportune interceptions at bad times in the game. So how bad is Mike Hartline?
Yards: 2,402
National rank: #8
SEC rank: #2Thoughts: It’s hard to argue with a top ten national ranking. Hartline is piling up the yards this year and doing so against some of the top defenses in the country. Possibly the most surprising thing is that he’s second only to Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett in the SEC. I guess that puts a chink in the armor of the “Hartline is not a SEC-level QB!” argument.
Yards-per-attempt: 7.6
National rank: #36
SEC rank: #6Thoughts: Hartline has struggled to shake the stigma that he has a wet noodle for an arm and is not capable of throwing the ball downfield for his entire career. While 7.6 yards per attempt isn’t out of this world or anything, it does rank Hartline in the upper half of the SEC in the category, and in the top third of the country.
Completion percentage: 65.9
National rank: #23
SEC rank: #5Thoughts: There’s never really been a big complaint about Hartline’s accuracy and he’s been pretty good this year outside of a couple of obvious misses. One thing that I find telling here is that despite being one of the top 25 most accurate quarterbacks in the country, he’s only checking in at fifth in the SEC. While that’s not really bad, it is indicative of the type of talent the SEC is boasting behind the center this year.
Touchdowns: 19
National rank: #13
SEC rank: #1Thoughts: It’s been pretty clear that Mike knows how to find the endzone this season, and his #13 ranking nationally proves it. It’s actually even more impressive when you consider that Randall Cobb has stolen a couple away from him when Kentucky has used the “WildCobb” formation in the redzone. The fact that Mike leads the SEC in touchdown passes right now would probably shock most fans in the conference. Factor in that UK will be playing three relatively weak defensive backfields over their final three games and there is a very good chance that Hartline will finish the year out in front of this category.
Interceptions: 7
National rank: 36-tie
SEC rank: 2-tieThoughts: The good news is that 35 players in the country have thrown more picks than Mike has this season. The bad news is that only one player in the SEC has. The reality is that even though Hartline is tied for second in the SEC for interceptions thrown, he’s only thrown seven on the year and he’s only averaging one pick per 39 attempts. Only Vanderbilt’s Larry Smith and Alabama’s Greg McElroy are averaging better and they’ve thrown 139 (Smith) and 121 (McElroy) fewer passes than Hartline.
QB Rating: 145.7
National rank: #31
SEC rank: #6Thoughts: I’ll be honest here. I don’t know what the hell a QB rating really is or how it’s figured up. I do know that the higher the rating the better you are and that it helps account for efficiency when some teams don’t throw enough to put up a lot of numbers. I put this stat on here for anyone that might want to know, but that’s about all I’ve got on it.
Conclusion:Mike Hartline is not the reason Kentucky is under-performing this season. As a matter of fact, you could make the argument that Mike Hartline might be one of the only reasons Kentucky has won the games they did and stayed competitive in the ones they lost. I think a lot of Kentucky fans have just decided Mike is going to be the guy they release their frustrations on when they’re looking for a whipping boy to point the finger at. I’m sure the high profile resumes of Morgan Newton and Ryan Mossakowski are helping to fuel the fire, but it’s a fire that should be extinguished immediately.
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