As Bo Wallace continues to recover from shoulder surgery, a surgery upon which the hopes of Ole Miss returning to the Compass Bowl or slightly better rest, I fell into a deep think about Wallace and his second season as starting quarterback. Mostly, I attribute this deep think to it being May, my TV shows are wrapping up, and I am a crazy person who is worried about something I can't control that is three and a half months away.
In his first year as starter, Wallace exceeded the staggeringly low expectations I set, which were me hoping for slightly better than Randall Mackey under Houston Nutt. And, at times, he showed tremendous promise. He also made more than enough decisions that would have made Hugh Freeze toss his visor, if he were a visor-thrower instead of a "hecknabbitBowhadyadoing…ah, shit" kind of guy.
When the clock ran out against Pittsburgh in the Compass Bowl, Wallace ended the season with 17 interceptions to go with his 22 touchdowns. The last Ole Miss quarterback to throw that many passes to the other team was Jevan Snead, who hit 20 in 2009.
So, given that Wallace entered Snead's stratosphere AND is coming off a significant shoulder surgery, shouldn't I, as well as all Ole Miss fans, be significantly nervous about Wallace in 2013? After all, when Snead was considering going pro, I could not have been more delighted because the thought of watching him play another season was physically painful and mentally unsettling. And when he announced he was not coming back to school, I shared many a happy phone conversation with friends.
Yet, despite their similarities in poor decision-making, I feel pretty good about Wallace in year two. To me, he's got a few things working for him that Snead did not.
The most obvious of which is that Hugh Freeze is in charge of Wallace instead of Houston Nutt. While we've only seen one year of Freeze, it's safe to say his offense could win infinity consecutive Bible sword drills against the Nutt sampler platter.
Though Nutt did have offensive success at Ole Miss, his offenses were pretty dated, relying heavily on just being better than opposing defenses and overpowering them. He was able to get away with this in '08 and '09 because Ole Miss had NFL talent (he also had some success in '10, but mostly against very bad defenses).
Once the talent moved on and wasn't replaced, well, I'm doing my best to forget 2011. But let's just leave it at DUMPSTER FIRE PCB USA CITY.
When Nutt's offense was combined with a quarterback who so often made bad choices, you get what Snead did in '09 against conference and legitimate non-conference opponents (9 games):
132-250 (52.8%) 10 TDs, 18 INTs, 197 yards/game
Those are Romaro Miller going-against-teams-of-equal-or-greater-value numbers right there. Now, I like Romaro, even more now that I've read some things he's written about Ole Miss, but he gets propped up among Ole Miss fans, who conveniently forget he was AWFUL in important games.
In comparison to Snead's numbers, here are Wallace's from similar games last year (10 games):
193-306 (63%) 16 TDs, 16 INTs, 245.5 yards/game
Again, some of the difference has to do with the offenses of Freeze and Nutt, but Wallace did not spray the ball all over the field to not his receivers with the dedication of Jevan Snead.
What I'm about to say may reek of the blowhardness of saying nothing so perfected by 99% of talking heads (ASSUMING THE REST OF THIS DIDN'T), but the most irritating thing about watching Snead was his steady state of panic. It was like he was allergic to calm.
Skittish, on-edge, nervous, all of th – oh, wow, JUST REALIZED HE WAS HOUSTON NUTT IF HOUSTON NUTT COULD STILL PLAY QUARTERBACK. It all makes sense now. And here I was about to cast the blame on Bradley Sowell for being the leading cause of Snead's shellshock (just kidding, he only gets some blame).
Whether it was him not trusting his offensive line, as he was sacked 15 times, or maybe Houston Nutt possessed his body, whatever the reason, he was always in a hurry to make a choice. And many, many, many, many times, he made a wrong choice.
In the mostly opposite direction, Wallace always seemed in control. He certainly made some awful choices, but he never looked panicked or like he was trying to go 400 miles an hour because anything slower freaked him out, and that's from a guy who was sacked many times (28).
Wallace's biggest flaw was that he never accepted the limitations his shoulder injury put on his throwing strength. Too often he tried to cut one loose, only to have it fall well short of his receiver and perfectly into the hands of a defensive back.
A healthier Wallace will be able to make some of those deeper throws (ALLEGEDLY) he couldn't make last year. Plus, a Wallace a little more broken by Hugh Freeze should cut down on the Brett Favre across-the-body-choke-away-a-win-to-the-Saints-in-the-NFC-Championsip-game throws.
Wallace won't be putting up Baylor quarterback numbers, but an improvement should be expected rather than him topping Snead's numbers from '09. Of course, I could be terribly wrong and will remember that I wrote this stupid thing as I'm storming out of the Vanderbilt game late in the third quarter after Wallace throws his fourth pick of the night.
But until then, consider me somewhat at ease. Now if we want to talk offensive and defensive lines, I'll be on the cold bathroom floor with the light off, breathing into a paper bag.
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