Willis = future heisman??

[MustangLaxer]

I'm pretty sure the thread said Willis could be a Heisman Candidate, and why not? Willis could be a top 5 QB in the nation, esp if Kolb can...and look what SMU did to his punk [deleted]...

[drs1310]

this is so f**kin stupid to be talking about this!!

There is no way that Colt is better than Willis. Colt is surrounded by some of the best athletes in Texas and cant put up the numbers that Willis has. And as for drs1301 how can you say that all he wants to do is run. Do you watch the games? Willis holds on to the ball forever trying to make a play down field. He is the least flighty qb we have had in quite a while.

And as for this the Big 12 and CUSA are just a "little" bit different. YOU ARE CRAZY TO THINK WILLIS IS BETTER THAN COLT!!! He holds the ball forever because he panics, do me a favor 35srt, against rice look down field when he starts to scramble and i promise you will find and open man.

[PerunaPunch]

I'm pretty sure the thread said Willis could be a Heisman Candidate, and why not? Willis could be a top 5 QB in the nation, esp if Kolb can...and look what SMU did to his punk [deleted]...

First off, did you even go to the Houston game? Kolb's punk a** eluded what looked to me to be a certain safety, flicked the ball 40 yards, got his team back into the game and went on to beat us. So I'm not going to say anything negative about him other than he should provide some leadership to that bunch of goons he calls teammates.

Second, as good as JW is playing (on one play in yesterdays game, 6 defenders got hands on Willis and he still got away) he's still not always progressing through his reads to identify the open receiver. Bobby Chase had 5 receptions yesterday, but he shoulda had about ten. He was WIDE open often -- including having enough time and being open enough to make a sandwich on the sideline on that one drive that eventually stalled on the Tulsa 15.

In a perverse way, you could say the having Sanders sit a few weeks is one of the best thing that could happen to JW as that forces him to spread the ball around rather than scrambling around until 1) he gets sacked for -15 or 2) threads a miracle into Sanders in what looks for all the world like a game of sandlot football.

But for all that...

I think he played an excellent game yesterday running straight upfield for good gains rather than dancing around until he got sacked. And he didn't drop any.

As for the Colt comparison, they two QBs would probably have identical stats is JW didn't have to sit the UTEP game, and he'd have a real shot at the freshman QB TD record (2+ TDs at UTEP and 2+ TDs at Rice and he'd have it). If the kid makes progress and if we can get a running game to take some pressure off him, I wouldn't be surprised if SMU didn't start generating some Heisman chatter. Like Kolb, even if it's an outside shot, it generates a lot of attention for the university.

[expony18]

im really enjoying reading this thread.... atleast this can even be an argument... when was the last time we had a Frosh QB who put up passing stats like this/ and could run like this? and we have 3 more years of him growing/ maturing and learning the offense (as long as there is no major changes)... even if he doesnt get any hype when hes a junior or senior, we should all be excited that we have JWill to lead the Mustangs for the years to come

[NickSMU17]

I clearly stated that he could be a heisman candidate by his senior year. If the kolb kid and Garrat wolfe are senior candidates, I see no reason why willis after playing a couple more years and improving can't be mentioned in the same breath with those guys.

[THE-SMU]

Now, it is pretty clear that Willis will never win the Heisman and the whole lack of schedule strength has been hit on, but you have to think that if his next 2 seasons are like this season, and even better, there will be some buzz around this guy. I am not saying his name is going to be mentioned in the same realm as "Heisman," but it is at least possible. If he improves on this season for 2 more years, Willis seems like one of those guys that analysts will love to throw out there in the pre/early season when his senior year rolls around.

[planoponyfan]

Hold on there partner.. Willis is good, but it's preposterous to talk about a Heisman.

Give him a couple of years as the starting QB and see how he's done before you even consider whether he should be talked about that way.

[J.T.supporta]

This has become one of the funniest threads on this board in a while...

this whole thread was about considering Willis as a canidate/hopeful but some of you people turned this into a huge bashing/arguement/whatever you wanna call it.

Anyone who is a senior and has put up great numbers in previous years, their athletic department has always tried to do some sort of Heisman campaign. Like the one that was done for Kolb and I know UNT did one for their DT Booger something.

Willis' numbers are fair but not great. he is only 4 tds from the freshman record but has not put up the greatest amount of yards. If Justin keeps playing better over the next 2 years, he will have a campaign going for him in order for SMU to get some media attention. Willis will help SMU get more exposure over the next couple of years.

No need to turn this thread into a who's better; Colt or Willis ... If Garrett Wolfe can be considered for the Heisman, so can Justin Willis...Willis plays in a better conference than Wolfe. This whole Heisman thing all depends on stats, W's, and the teams SMU will play in the next 3 years.

Willis will be considered a Heisman hopeful/ longshot; whatever you want to call it but he needs to improve each year leading up to his last year here.

For some that don't think Willis is even worthy of the talk, google a man by the name of Colt Brennen. This guy is a great qb that no one knows about. He will have a Heisman Campaign next year and might even get some votes this year.

And for the guy that said, "Willis has cemented his self a 2nd team Freshman All American selection" don't get to ahead of yourself. There are about 6 very good qbs that are leading there team in their first year in college football. McCoy, Davis, Thaddeus, Freeman, Skinner, Mustain, Willis, you can add Tebow in there too.

[BrianTinBigD]

And for the guy that said, "Willis has cemented his self a 2nd team Freshman All American selection" don't get to ahead of yourself. There are about 6 very good qbs that are leading there team in their first year in college football. McCoy, Davis, Thaddeus, Freeman, Skinner, Mustain, Willis, you can add Tebow in there too.

McCoy - 1st Team - Come on he plays for Texas and gets huge Pub.
Davis - Ball St. - 21st ranked QB, 1707 yds, 17 TDs, 7 int
Thaddeus - Did you mean Thaddeus Lewis? Is this the QB at Duke who is ranked 96th out of 100 and has won how many games? At least he has 14 picks and 7 int's.
Freeman - Kansas St. - Guess you did not see the Kansas game. He is ranked 90th in the country and has 13 picks to 6 TD's.
Skinner - Wake Forest - Care taker QB that is ranked 30th and has 3 picks and 7 TD's. Can't run to save his life.
Mustain - Benched so I assume he ain't getting any votes though it was a nice thought.
Tebow - Just does not play enough and is the backup QB.
Willis - 10 games played - 1910 passing yds, 2254 total yds, 25 passing TD's which is good for 8th in the country, 3 rushing TD's, 4 picks, and ranked 7th in passing efficiency.

- Has a real shot at breaking NCAA freshman TD record with McCoy of 29
- Stay healthy and he can make a run at most TD's by the time he is Sophomore at 55, Junior at 86, Career at 121.
- Along with McCoy has great shot at breaking Freshman Completion % record of 66.2%. They are currently seperated by 1 incompletion. McCoy is at 69.6%, JW at 69.3%.
- Stay healthy and he can make a run at Completion % record of 68.2%.

So are there any more worthy options out there?

[expony18]

And for the guy that said, "Willis has cemented his self a 2nd team Freshman All American selection" don't get to ahead of yourself. There are about 6 very good qbs that are leading there team in their first year in college football. McCoy, Davis, Thaddeus, Freeman, Skinner, Mustain, Willis, you can add Tebow in there too.

McCoy - 1st Team - Come on he plays for Texas and gets huge Pub.
Davis - Ball St. - 21st ranked QB, 1707 yds, 17 TDs, 7 int
Thaddeus - Did you mean Thaddeus Lewis? Is this the QB at Duke who is ranked 96th out of 100 and has won how many games? At least he has 14 picks and 7 int's.
Freeman - Kansas St. - Guess you did not see the Kansas game. He is ranked 90th in the country and has 13 picks to 6 TD's.
Skinner - Wake Forest - Care taker QB that is ranked 30th and has 3 picks and 7 TD's. Can't run to save his life.
Mustain - Benched so I assume he ain't getting any votes though it was a nice thought.
Tebow - Just does not play enough and is the backup QB.
Willis - 10 games played - 1910 passing yds, 2254 total yds, 25 passing TD's which is good for 8th in the country, 3 rushing TD's, 4 picks, and ranked 7th in passing efficiency.

- Has a real shot at breaking NCAA freshman TD record with McCoy of 29
- Stay healthy and he can make a run at most TD's by the time he is Sophomore at 55, Junior at 86, Career at 121.
- Along with McCoy has great shot at breaking Freshman Completion % record of 66.2%. They are currently seperated by 1 incompletion. McCoy is at 69.6%, JW at 69.3%.
- Stay healthy and he can make a run at Completion % record of 68.2%.

So are there any more worthy options out there?

can you throw in some stats for the other guys, not just give reasons like tebow's a back up... he's looked pretty good to me as a "back up" who gets about 45% of the snaps

[Ikus]

.... He holds the ball forever because he panics, do me a favor 35srt, against rice look down field when he starts to scramble and i promise you will find and open man.

To find an open man when QBs are scrambling isn't uncommon -- when you're running for your life, it's easy to throw to the first guy who looks even a little bit open. But if there's one thing Willis does NOT do, it's panic. Frankly, I wish he'd panic a little more. He is so calm back there, and slides just a little to avoid a sack so calmly, he makes me nervous as hell. His poise is maybe his best asset, but it also might get him killed. He's the "coolest" freshman QB I can remember seeing since .... forever.

[PonyPride]

And as for drs1301 how can you say that all he wants to do is run. Do you watch the games? Willis holds on to the ball forever trying to make a play down field. He is the least flighty qb we have had in quite a while.

Bingo.

[EastStang]

Did Ben Rothlesburger when the Heisman? I didn't think so and the guy did just about everything a player could do in college football. Unfortunately, Justin doesn't play in a BCS conference and thus his exploits get discounted. That said, we will have games in the next few years against BCS teams. Willis needs to have big days against those teams as well as against CUSA teams. If he does, then he might get some attention from the press. Even the Washington Post mentioned his breaking of Hixson's touchdown record.

[The Falcon]

Did anyone else notice what I did in the Tulsa game.

In the first half - Willis was trying to stay in the pocket and move around to avoid sacks and he only ran when he was being pressured. The coaches have tried to have him do that in order to see secondary receivers breaking open and I think Bennett has said before that they wanted him not to take off and run. I think Tulsa watched some film and saw that.

In the 2nd half - it looks like someone turned Willis loose and he ran much more quickly with great results. He made several first downs with his running ability. This opened up the passing lanes more as the game progressed.

He has a ways to go yet, but I sure am enjoying the way he plays and am looking forward to three more years of watching him. If he keeps improving, watch out CUSA.

[BrianTinBigD]

can you throw in some stats for the other guys, not just give reasons like tebow's a back up... he's looked pretty good to me as a "back up" who gets about 45% of the snaps

Tebows stats for the year:
Attempts - 31(12 attempts came againt I-AA Western Carolina last week)
Comp - 21(10 completions came againt I-AA Western Carolina last week)
Yards - 357(200 yards came againt I-AA Western Carolina last week)
Int's -
TD's -4
Rushing Yds - 396(Willis has 336 but does have lots of sacks that count against him)
Rushing TDs - 7(Willis has 3)

So Tebow and his 753 yards of total offense will get him nothing but the admiration of the Gator faithful.

Any more Freshman QB's that people are too lazy to look up? I am off this week so I have nothing better to do but refute half [deleted] claims of greatness and planning the trip to Houston.