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By now, you probably know quite a bit about Connor Halliday. WSU's starting quarterback is entering his fifth year on campus and second as the full-time starter. You know he played through a lacerated liver. You know he leads the country in arm strength hubris. You definitely know he threw for a ton of yards last season.
Halliday won't be the only starting quarterback on Thursday, however, and there is a very good chance you know considerably less about Rutgers starter Gary Nova. To help fill that knowledge void, Brian and I gathered some vital information about the two quarterbacks.
Connor Halliday has highlights
When you throw the ball 714 times, you are going to be featured predominantly in team highlights, just like Connor Halliday is in this video which includes all 34 of his touchdown passes.
Gary Nova has highlights too ...
Connor Halliday has an Internet meme
So does Gary Nova ...
Yeah, but what does Google say?
Well there is this:
And then there is this ...
Ok, what about stats?
We love stats here at CougCenter, so naturally they would be involved in this discussion. Season stats aren't really fair ... Halliday easily eclipsed Nova's totals in the first half of the season.
Game when Halliday passed Nova's last season stats |
|||
Attempts |
Completions |
Yards |
Touchdowns |
OSU (Wk 7) |
Cal (Wk 6) |
OSU (Wk 7) |
Oregon (Wk 8) |
The averages aren't on Nova's side either.
Player |
Yards Per Game |
Yards Per Attempt |
Touchdown % |
Interception % |
Completion % |
Halliday |
353.6 |
6.4 |
4.8 |
3.1 |
62.9 |
Nova |
215.9 |
7.1 |
5.9 |
4.6 |
54.5 |
Nova takes yards per attempt and touchdown percentage, but somehow managed to throw interceptions at a significantly higher rate. Nova started 10 games before being benched, so let's take the final five games for each player.
Player |
Yards Per Game |
Yards Per Attempt |
Touchdown % |
Interception % |
Completion % |
Halliday |
359.8 |
6.3 |
5.6 |
1.8 |
61.5 |
Nova |
197.6 |
6.1 |
3.1 |
6.2 |
50.9 |
Oh my.
The very serious and highly official guide to which quarterback is better based on things on the Internet