The UCF game seemed like a stinker to me but maybe it wasn't that bad
You can call it bad but he had 250 yards passing, 64% completion, and we scored 44 points.
Plus, it was the most yards of total offense we've had against a conference opponent since at least 2011. (I stopped looking at 2011)
OK, I kept looking and the 536 yards of offense were the most against a conference opponent since 2008 when we had 550 yards in a 58-35 loss to OU. (the score was 55-28 at halftime lol)
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/boxscores/2008-10-25-kansas-state.html
That's fine, but the UCF defense is atrocious (43.7 ppg in Big 12 games). It's bad enough that it almost needs an asterisk next to it.
This year, Will's passer rating is 20 points below his rating last year. He's 26 attempts shy of his total volume of throws from last year, but he had 6 more passing TDs last year and three fewer INTs. His avg. per attempt is down from 8.2 to 7.1. Even with his 80-yard run last week, his avg. yards per carry is down a full yard this year (from 5.8 ypc last year to 4.7 ypc this year). His QBR this year is 69.5 - 38th in the country.
Did we feel like Will was the 38th best QB in the country during the second half of the season last year?
By all measures, Will is playing worse this year than last year. I think that's the concern - especially given that he made an enormous leap from 2020-21 to his play last year. Expecting the same level of play - or, even better play - is/was certainly not unreasonable.
And all of that doesn't even take into account the golden child now sitting on the bench. Factor that it too and it's easy to see why people are antsy.
