Best BYU quarterback seasons

[SpiffCoug]

BYU QBs Passing Efficiency Rating through the years.
I went back and added bowl games stats to the BYU QBs's stats. Then I pulled up the NCAA stats for that year, calculated the standard deviation for PER and compared how BYU did to the average.

If I recall correctly my stats class, 50% of bell curve is within 1 standard deviation (25%-75%). So if a QB's PER is more than 1 standard deviation from the average, they are/were better than 75% of the QBs in the PER stat for that season.

Here are the 12 highest standard deviations for BYU QBs. I went with top 12, because that basically captures all the best years by the best QBs at BYU.

It's interesting to see how high the average PER has gotten. In 1979, the average PER was 112.55. In 2020 (with some bowls still remaining), it's 136.55.

It's also amazing how other worldly Jim McMahon was. I've got other deep dives available in terms of standard deviations (completion percentage, passing yards, touchdown).

[byufan4ever]

I love to see stats like this! Z. Wilson sure had a great season. Would have been fun to see him against the real schedule.

[nuk13]

McMahon had 47 touchdown passes his jr. year. None of the others have had that many. Few at any school have had that many.

[SpiffCoug]

McMahon had 47 touchdown passes his jr. year. None of the others have had that many. Few at any school have had that many.

John Elway was 2nd with 27 TD passes.