Completely disagree. Nothing to do with NFL success. Elway was #2 in the Heisman voting in 1982 behind Herschel Walker despite playing on a losing football team. He was the best quarterback in the country on a crappy team.
Danny Wuerffel played on great Florida teams. Those teams made Wuerffel better. Elway's teams made him worse--and he was still the best QB in the country.
To use your own analogy, you're using Florida's winning to justify Wuerffel over a better quarterback on a team that sucked.
Some fun things to know about Elway's college career. In addition to being a consensus All-American his senior year, he won the Sammy Baugh trophy for best passer in the country, and, as noted, was #2 in the Heisman voting despite playing on a losing team. Recall that only Paul Hornung (with a little ND bias) has won a Heisman from a losing team. He was the 1980 and 1982 Pac-10 player of the year, despite playing on 6-5 and 5-6 teams, respectively. In case you're wondering who else played in the Pac-10 in 1980, this kid Marcus Allen (you may remember him from the '81 Heisman trophy) was in the backfield at USC--and Ronnie Lott played his last season at USC that year, too, before being the 49ers 1st round NFL pick (8th overall). Elway set Pac-10 records for passing yardage, passing touchdowns, and completions, and was #2 in completion percentage behind Heisman winner Jim Plunkett.
The year after Elway graduated, Stanford dropped from 5-6 to 1-10. The year after Wuerffel graduated, Florida dropped, too--from 12-1 to 10-2.
Okay, so I read all of that and see that Elway had one great year. Woo-hoo!
Statistically, Elway's best year resembles Wuerffel's worst, so I wouldn''t cite stats.
My whole life, Joe Montana was always held is such higher esteem than Dan Marino, despite Marino's stats dwarfing Montana's. Either winning matters for a QB or it doesn't.
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If Elway doesn't measure up when it comes to stats or winning, then the only reason he's noteworthy is his tools. Perhaps the best "arm talent" of all-time. Great. But admit that. If he threw wounded ducks with the same exact stats and wins, he wouldn't even get a mention here. If he didn't win 2 Super Bowls....if his last name was Smith his college career was largely unremarkable.
Wuerffel won 4 straight SEC championships along with the '96 NC. The 4 years before he was there and the 4 years after, Florida only one 1 SEC championship each. He replaced the 3x SEC Player of the Year and took UF to another level. And yes, there was quite a drop-off when he left. Thankfully those '97 and '98 Gators teams had great defenses.
Elway was an all-time great NFL QB. But this isn't an NFL list, sorry. You could find a dozen college QBs with similar careers as his who fans deem unremarkable.