Let’s Size Up Prescott versus Tebow and Newton after Four Weeks

No matter how hard you try to look away from it, it’s staring you right in the face every day if you are Dak Prescott.

Since last year’s fantastic finish and through this week, Dak Prescott has seen his name rise among the ranks of college football’s elite quarterbacks.  From a long shot Heisman contender, to a Davey O’Brien mention and more, Prescott is arguably the hottest name in college football after last week’s performance down in Baton Rouge.

Of course, there are pundits and people that like to throw mud at Prescott and say things like, “He still has to show me” or “He’s just not that great of a passer”.

So, being that it’s an off week, we decided to compare Dak Prescott with two other quarterbacks he is often compared to and two guys his coach, Dan Mullen, coached as well at Florida.  Let’s compare Prescott with Tim Tebow and Cam Newton through the first four weeks of their Heisman years.

Newton won the Heisman in 2010, while Tebow won the prestigious award in 2007.

First we will look at Tebow through his first four games of 2007.

Tebow played Western Kentucky, Troy, Tennessee and Mississippi.  He was 4-0 at this point.

Here is a look at his stats through four games.

Tebow through four games was 65-95 for 1,096-passing yards.  He had thrown 10-touchdowns and 1-interception and completed 68% of his passes.  He had also rushed the football 70-times for 353-yards and 7 scores.  He was averaging 5-yards per carry at this juncture of the season.

Cam Newton, like Tebow was 4-0 through his first four games and had defeated Arkansas State, Mississippi State, Clemson and South Carolina.

Let’s look at Newton’s stats through four games.

Newton through four games was 43-68 for 683-passing yards.  He had thrown 9-touchdowns and 3-interceptions and completed 63% of his passes. He had also rushed the football 75-times for 485-yards and 5 scores.  He was averaging 6.5-yards per carry at this juncture of the season.

Now let’s recap Prescott and then we will evaluate the three.

Precscott through four games is 58-96 for 964-passing yards.  He has also thrown 11-touchdowns and 2-interception and completed 60.4% of his passes. He has also rushed the football 62-times for 378-yards and 3 scores.  He is averaging 6.1-yards per carry at this juncture of the season.

So what does all these numbers tell us?  Let’s look at a comparative table with all three and rank each of them in eight categories.  You will see their individual numbers and corresponding rankings for each, between the three.

Interestingly, Prescott has thrown more touchdowns than both Newton and Tebow at this point of the season.  Not bad for a quarterback that several people, (Ole Miss Fans), say can’t throw.

Prescott is last in completion percentage, but just off pace of Cam Newton.  Tim Tebow carries a significant edge on completion percentage.

Passing-yards are comparable and interceptions are as well.  Oddly, Prescott though has the fewest rushing attempts of the three at this point.

That’s not a bad thing though, considering Mullen did all he could to keep Prescott fresh the first three games and let’s not forget, Prescott played basically a half against USM and 2.5 quarters against UAB.

I’m sure if you look deep enough, you will see Tebow did the same thing.  Newton, however had the toughest schedule of the three through four games and had to play the bulk of the snaps.

So what do all these numbers and comparisons tell us?  It tells us Prescott is on par at this time to have a similar year to Newton and Tebow, assuming he stays healthy and his team does as well.  Which if he does, means he is truly a legitimate Heisman candidate.  After all, we aren’t just randomly comparing numbers here.

We are comparing Prescott against Newton and Tebow’s best years and so far, the kid is holding his own.  So far he’s hanging in there with the champs.