You guys don't understand why someone would see his stats as completely empty? His breaking that yardage record makes his legacy even more polarizing. He has had some high profile face planting. His best two wins were against a garbage Michigan team and this years gross OU team. That last drive is absolutely what Jake Waters was a K-State. Slow drive, a few questionable runs, holding the ball tok long, a seemingly great game saving pass that was equal parts amazing play by Lockett and fantastic pass by Waters, then a completely inexcusable interception.
At this point you have to be willing to ignore a lot to act like we should hold Jake Waters in any high regard with the K-State QBs that wre universally adored.
I don't know...I just think that it's hard to call tonight a "face plant" when Waters goes 22-27 for 300 yards. I'll give you that last year, Waters was really bad for most of the year, especially early on. But this season? Outside of Auburn (and maybe TCU), he's been objectively good. Even if you do 100% blame Waters for the interception (which, who knows), there's no way to characterize his passing night as anything other than really good.
Sure, Lockett is maybe the best receiver K-State's ever had. But Lockett has also had the luxury of playing with Waters, who is good enough to put Lockett into a position where he can do his thing.
And every great K-State QB has been complimented by another great player on offense. Yes, Waters has Lockett. But Chad May had Kevin. Bishop had Mcdonald and 4 (four) running backs averaging over 4.7 ypc. Beasley had Morgan. Roberson had Sproles. Freeman had Jordy. Klein had Harper and Lockett. The catch is, that Waters and Lockett are more productive than all those guys.
Our offense is getting 6.2 yards per play this season. That's better than '12 (6.0) and way better than '11 (4.7). It's also better than any Freeman team (high of 5.7) and better than our '03 offense (6.1). The stat site i use doesn't go back further. Roberson's and Freeman's offenses each doubled the number of turnovers K-State had this season -- we average .9 TOs/game (3rd in the country).
Regarding his high profile face plants, what K-State QB hasn't had high profile face plants? Bishop had 97 Nebraska and the other one. Roberson had his share. Klein certainly had a couple.
I'm not trying to christen Waters as the best QB K-State has ever had, but our offense has been really, really good this year, and he's been a huge part of it.
