If you had told me that former Mississippi State quarterback Tyson Lee holds the school record for career completion percentage, I would have said why are you telling me things about a quarterback that played like four year ago and ha – WAIT WHAT? Tyson Lee? The short guy who once operated Sylvester Croom's offense of backing into a cement piling? SURELY YOU JEST.
Incredibly, you would have been telling the truth, but probably being real smug about it. I know how you can be with a fact like that.
Though Lee only played for two years, which may have helped his cause, he completed 58.8% of his passes in 481 attempts. And though he ended his career with 19 interceptions to just 11 touchdowns, he only threw an interception every 25.3 passes (Tyler Russell sits at an interception ever 29 passes and has completed 57.7% of his passes).
He did all of that with the best game of his career only being a 31-28 win over Arkansas in 2008, where he finished 23-40 for 219 yards, 2 TDs, and no INTs. Even more staggering is that he actually got worse when Dan Mullen took over, averaging an interception every 15 passes (14 on the season), compared to every 52 passes under Croom (5 in 2008).
I would think this had something to do with Mullen's offense being new and requiring a quarterback to do more than get the punter ready, but it's yet another stat about Lee's career that causes swirling confusion in my mind. In fact, here's a list of Mississippi State quarterbacks I assumed would be ahead of Lee in career completion percentage:
Tyler Russell
Chris Relf
Kevin Fant
Omarr Conner
Wesley Carroll
Kyle York
Matt Wyatt
The Brothers Morgan
Wayne Madkin
Derrick Taite
Todd Jordan
Greg Plump
Sleepy Robinson
That one guy they called the Polish Rifle (not sure he ever played)
Tony Shell
Don Smith
John Bond (FRIEND OF THE BAGMAN?)
Rockey Felker
My knowledge of State quarterbacks is now exhausted, so basically everyone but Michael Henig, who was the worst
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