Boston College Football: Reassessing the Quarterback Position - Darius Wade

2015's been a tough season for the Boston College Eagles. At 3-7, they're bowl ineligible, and they rank 124th in total offense, ahead of only four schools - Fresno State, Kansas State, Tulane, and Missouri. It's been a frustrating year for the fans as the promise of taking the next step's been replaced with the lesson of how deep rebuilding had to go.

The quarterback position's been front and center of the discussion. At a position where only one player can play, BC's played four young men, all of whom started at various points during the season. From a two-man rotation to the stabilization of the position by a walk-on freshman, it's been an odyssey that's drawn blame from almost all corners.

Teams identify from the quarterback position more than any other spot on the field. When talking about a football team, fans and analysts can normally name the starting quarterback over any other position on the field. The offensive line, for example, has been a mess, but it gets recognized as a unit. The wide receivers, unable to get open, also get recognized, for the most part, as a unit.

Since the position is so individualized in the eyes of many, it's worth revisiting the last 10 games and determining how each individual played within the context of their statistics. With the statistics, it's also worth taking into consideration how each game was called, since, again, there is the element of coaching in here.

Darius Wade

Wade never really got a fair shake this year since his season is virtually incomplete. Injured during the Florida State game, he barely played against Howard and was viewed as having struggled at times against Maine. Looking back on his incredibly small sample, however, tells a different story.

Wade went a combined 15-25 in the first half of games he played in this year for 131 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. His performance tailed off in the third quarter, where he went 4-12 for 64 yards, but he showed the seeds of being exactly what Steve Addazio said he was - a thrower. He was remarkable consistent between first and third down, going 5-11 on first down, 6-12 on second down, and 9-18 on third down. On third downs in the first three games, Wade actually threw for over 100 yards, going 9-18 for 112 yards.

Additionally, Wade did exceptionally well when moving the ball between his own 20 and plus territory, at least in terms of consistency. Wade was 13-28 between his own 20 yard line and his opponent's 40 for 156 yards. He got even better in terms of getting down inside the opponent's end, going 7-10 for 54 yards and three touchdowns after advancing past the 40.

Yes, most of this is against Maine and Howard, but it's clear the talent level was there to some extent. It would've been great to see what the coaching staff would've done later in the year in terms of opening the playbook, but we won't really know what happened with that.

It would've been great to see what BC could've done in opening the playbook with him later in the year, but since we'll never know what happened with it, we can't begin to speculate.

Why can't we speculate? Because the sample size is a) too small and b) too marginalized. Wade played against two FCS opponents and Florida State before he was injured. We'll never know what he could've done against a team like Wake Forest or Virginia Tech, teams with lower ranked defenses than the Seminoles. And we'll never know if he could have progressed to a point where this team would've been moving on offense with him at the helm.

We like to think that the offense is going to be a mess because of the coaching staff and playcalling, but the truth is, we can only speculate as to what would've happened this year with Darius Wade. If Wade's still playing, maybe the offensive line is gelling with him. If he's in there, maybe the playcalling is more suited for him and there's chemistry with the receivers. Then again, maybe it all falls apart on him too. We'll never know, so ithis year instead becomes both incomplete and totally lost for a quarterback that statistically was heading in the right direction.