The bizarre thing about Stave's day against Penn State is he had a career high in pass compeltions with 29 and a career high in passing yards with 339. But at the same point, Stave had a career high in passing attempts with 53 as well as his first three interception game of his young career. The statistics do not really show Stave's day at Camp Randall. Many balls sailed over receivers' head who were open as well as missing open receivers. Stave could have had the same amount of yardage with less attempts, but he could not capitalize when Penn State gave him a chance. With how Wisconsin runs the football, Stave getting 300 yards is not really that important. What's more important is his completion percentage. When Stave is at his best, his completion percentage is around 70 percent which he achieved in games against Illinois and BYU. For the season, Stave is only at 61 percent which is slightly above average. This is what made Scott Tolzien an ideal Badgers quarterback with his ability to complete passes at an efficient rate as he was around 70 percent in his final year as Badgers quarterback. Although Stave does not deserve all of the criticism in this one as offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig definitely should be questioned for his play calling.
There were multiple situations where Wisconsin faced a 3rd and short, and the decision was to pass the football. James White and Melvin Gordon are two of the best running backs in the nation; there is zero reason to be passing the football in that situation. The art of surprise is completely overblown in offensive play calling ranging from high school to professional sports especially when your team has a strength over another squad. Catching a team off-guard once is nice, but not multiple times in a football game. Yes, some of Ludwig's play calls happened due to Wisconsin being down 17 points, but still the fact remains, Stave passed much more before Penn State got out to their double-digit lead.
My dad is an eternal sports optimist more so than I am and said to me after Saturday's game, 'Do not criticize Stave on Monday, you will be making a mistake.' He continued explaining how Stave will develop and mature into a better quarterback in the following year. I am 50/50 right now with him. This is only his first full year of starting at quarterback as he went down with a broken collarbone mid-season, therefore it could mean we are one year away from seeing what the real Joel Stave could be next season. The assumption would be head coach Gary Andersen would probably keep him as the starter for the 2014 season although I do think he needs to play adequately in the bowl game against likely an SEC squad.
The reason why Stave needs to at least have a decent performance is the future has not been brighter for Wisconsin at the quarterback position. If Stave struggles again, it opens the door for redshirt freshman Bart Houston and incoming freshman Austin Kafentzis, two of the biggest quarterback recruits in Wisconsin football history. Now Houston said before the season he would not transfer, but I have to wonder if he might think about it during the offseason with the highly touted Kafentzis coming to Madison. There is a slight chance we could see an all out quarterback competition as we saw with this team last season.
While 2013 ended on a down note, it was an encouraging season for the Badgers. Andersen stepped into a situation where they lost Montee Ball, three Rose Bowl appearances, lost some starters on the defensive end and notched nine wins for Wisconsin in his first year. The future is real bright with this team on both sides of the ball and I am on the fence whether Stave will be a part of it.
Charlie.
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