Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Hey friends, I was thinking about a former Badger and he made me think of an archetype. And I was wondering if anyone else had similar feelings. Maybe share your guy. 

The player I was thinking about was Tyler Donovan. In my memory, he was kind of a disappointment. And looking back. He was good. Maybe pretty good. Not great. Not season-changing, but good.

His story: He was a four-star dual-threat QB, two things you rarely saw in Madison. He lost a QB battle as a RS freshman, then lost again the next year to a shaky starter, John Stocco, who suddenly blossomed and kept Donavan on the bench until his senior year (minus a two-year injury fill-in).

Donovan took the job as a senior and was part of a team heavy on expectations. They'd gone 12-1 and returned eight starters on offense, plus seven started from a monster defense. The team opened at No. 7, and this felt like a breakthrough year. They even started a rickety 5-0, but took an upset at unranked Illinois. Then they got gutted at PSU, rallied to finish 4-1 in the regular season, with the only loss at No. OSU. They lost the bowl with Donovan throwing a pick at the end of a 4-point game.

The thing with him was that he wasn't quite as accurate as we'd hoped. He didn't have a crispness with where he located passes. He also was a nice runner, but hardly a game-breaker. It was easy to blame him as a team with expectations was only 9-4ish. 

But looking back, after another decade of QB play, he was pretty decent. He's still sixth in single-seaon yards in program history (was second when he left campus). He left third in TD passes for a season (now T-7). He's just outside the top-10 in season pass efficiency, and half the top-10 happened after he left. Combine that with being a gamer and a little running, he wasn't half bad. 

If I were to look through the modern era, you're probably talking about it being in the convo for eighth best QB season in 30 years. In the 11-8 mix for sure. 

And he had some adversity. The defense was not near the level it was supposed to be. His starting possession receiver tore an ACL in game 6. His other starting receiver missed games 3-7 and was a little limited after. His running game was not so effective (tight ends were good, OL decent). They had to roll into PSU with a mess at WR. but he was big in a couple understated fun wins, upending No. 13 Michigan in Madison and a weird shootout with Minnesota. 

I complained about him, but he was pretty good. Not lead a breakthrough year good unless the team around him was also breakthrough good, which it was not.

Bonus pick: James White. He ran for 4,000 yards and was never really considered the best back on his team. The only time he led the team in rushing was as a freshman, when he started as a third-stringer. He also averaged 6.2 yards a carry and had 45 rushing TDs.

For Florida, it's my former high school teammate, Doug Johnson.
He was basically the bridge between Wuerffel and Grossman.  Kind of a tough job.


He did have a tendency to make bad throws.  He had some bad INTs.  But he was good.  His crime was failing to be great.
But here's the thing - at the end of his career, he would've ranked 1st or 2nd in career TD passes at every other SEC school.  
But because he was at Florida, under Spurrier, after St. Danny and before Sexy Rexy, he was mostly shat on by the fans.  It probably wasn't fair.

Johnson would have been fifth at Georgia in career TD passes, not second, third at Kentucky and fourth at Tennessee.

at UNL.. Jammal Lord.  Guy was a stud in hindsight.  He really carried UNL.

great runner, too bad he didn't have much arm talent

Johnson would have been fifth at Georgia in career TD passes, not second, third at Kentucky and fourth at Tennessee.

He said at the end of his career, so through 1999. 

Tom Brady. He came to Michigan in 1995 as a true freshman out of California as a lightly regarded recruit and was the 7th guy on the depth chart and had to bide his time and earn his way up the depth chart. Scott Dreisbach was one of the prized recruits in the entire nation in 1994, and Michigan stole him right out of Notre Dame's own backyard. After a year of redshirting in 1994, he was the guy in 1995. He was basically just handed the keys to the ferrari as a RS Frosh in 1995, there wasn't a real battle. After starting off hot in '95, Dreisbach got hurt, missed just over half the season that year and Brian Griese filled in while Tom Brady took a redshirt as a true frosh. So 1996 starts off and Scott Dreisbach is back from injury and his job as the starter for the entire season, was basically handed right back to him, and he doesn't miss a game. Griese and Brady barely play in 1996 except in garbage time.

Flash forward to 1997, Dreisbach gets injured again before the season starts, and the starting QB job is open for battle in 1997. Griese was a fifth year senior and Brady a RS Soph, it was a neck and neck battle in fall camp but Lloyd Carr picks Griese over Brady. Brady almost transfers, but decides to stick it out and stay and be the back-up. Michigan goes on to a 12-0 season and wins a MNC. Hard to argue with the choice of Griese after a season like that. 1998 rolls around, Scott Dreisbach is healthy enough to play again but has to compete with a RS Jr. Tom Brady and incoming phenom Drew Henson who was the #1 QB in all of high school and maybe even the #1 MLB prospect in high school- a true phenom that was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Brady wins the starting job in 1998, he goes on to lead the team to a 10-3 record and #12 final rankings and complete 62% of his passes for 2,427 yards and throw 14 TD passes vs 10 INT's. Virtually same completion % as Griese in '97, same exact TD numbers but 400+ more yards and also 4 more INT's


1999 starts and instead of naming your returning 5th year senior returning starter QB that was named team captain for the upcoming 1999 season by his teammates, who had been the back-up in your 1997 MNC season and then go onto lead you to a 10-3 record and #12 ranking in 1998 as a starter- what does Lloyd Carr do? He decides to not name a starter and say there's a QB competition and that Drew Henson will play. Tom Brady starts every single game in 1999, but for the first 5 weeks of that season, Michigan goes 5-0 with Lloyd Carr deciding to yank Brady and insert Drew Henson- almost at completely random- and then give Henson long stretches of playing time and re-insert Brady or at times even let Henson finish games. In the 6th game of that season- on the road in East Lansing vs Michigan State- Michigan got down by 17 points playing the QB musical chair game. Carr did the first smart thing he had done all season and left Brady in to finish the final 18 minutes of play. Brady threw for 241 yards in those final 18 minutes and nearly brought Michigan back. Michigan lost 34-31 on the road. Maybe that's a game they win if Brady is getting 100% of the snaps. You'd think that would've put an end to Lloyd Carr's stupid ass musical chair QB system- but it didn't. The very next week vs Illinois they were doing it again- only for Brady to throw for 307 yards in a 6 point loss. After that game, Carr wised up and it ended. Brady was the starter of every offensive snap, no more Drew Henson except for a gadget play here or there. And Michigan never lost a game again after that. They went 5-0 from then on, with Brady having an epic 4th QTR comeback win vs then ranked #6 Penn State in Happy Valley, a win vs Ohio State, and then an epic game in the Orange Bowl vs Alabama where he lead two 14 point comebacks in the same game to win the game 35-34. Brady lead Michigan to a 10-2 season that year and a #5 final ranking. For his career he went 20-5 as a starter, threw for 4,773 passing yards, completed 62% of his passes, and threw 30 TD's vs 16 INT's (basically 2:1 TD INT RATIO).



The way Brady was disrespected by Lloyd Carr as a 5th year senior and then going in the 6th round put a massive giant sized chip on his shoulder and propelled him into becoming the greatest QB ever. And it might've cost Michigan a shot at playing for the title in 1999. And although I said it's hard to argue with Griese getting the nod in 1997 after the results- that team wasn't an offensive juggernaut by any stretch- the offense actually kind of stunk- and as long as Brady wasn't a turnover machine they probably win a share of the 1997 MNC if he's the starter too.



All things considered, Brady was pretty damn good at Michigan and underappreciated. Even his #'s at the time were inline for some of the best ever at Michigan- at the time. They just didn't throw the ball that much back in the 80s and 90s, and no QB has ever put up earth shattering numbers at Michigan. Ever. John Navarre's 2003 season in which he put up 3,331 passing yards is still the single season passing yards record at Michigan. Chad Henne's 2004 season in which he threw for 25 passing TD's is still the single season TD pass record at Michigan. Shea Patterson's 2019 season of 3,061 passing yards is the 2nd most ever in a single season. And his 23 TD passes in the 3rd most ever in a Michigan single season. This is pathetic. Michigan football- particularly it's passing offense needs to get with the times and into the 21st century. But that's a topic for another discussion entirely.

Currently on the Team:

I think I will go with RB Journey Brown.  He was a 3* running back out of high school, and the lowest rated recruit in a room filled with 4 and 5 star talent.

Last season true freshman and all world recruit Noah Cain burst onto the scene and continuously churned out tough yards and seemed to be the best back in the "running back by committee" room.  Then he got injured and the 3 remaining backs split about equal time.  Journey Brown, however, seemed to get better and better each game.  In the bowl game he ran for over 200 yards, finished the season with almost 900 rushing yards, and averaged almost 7 yards per carry.  His average of 6.9 yards per rush was better than Jonathan Taylor and JK Dobbins. 

He also ran a verified 4.29 40 time and is the all time PA high school state record holder in the 100M dash. 

Nobody seems to be talking about JB.  He probably won't make any pre-season lists.  Penn State also returns 4 offensive lineman, so he will likely have a very good year.  (And he'll probably still split a ton of carries with at least 3 other guys).  I think he may be the best back in conference, with the possible exception of teammate Noah Cain.  Yes, I'm a homer, but I don't think I'm being overly homer'd here.

Past players:

This is tough.  Perhaps John Shaffer, Penn State QB in the late 1980s.  He wasn't fast.  He didn't have a great arm.  However, I don't think there has ever been a more clutch player.  He wasn't drafted and finished his high school and college career with a 66-1 record.  He went 25-1 as Penn State's QB, including a national championship.