Top Gator passers

[Escambia94]

In the "Top 100 Gators" thread we discussed who the best athletes were based purely on individual accolades and contributions to the UF football team. Here is my list of top 10 Gator passers. Quantifying "passer" instead of "quarterback" made the number crunching easier, but there is plenty of room for debate on the best overall QB. I did a simple formula and ranked each player based on statistics against one another, then awarded 10 points for the 1st-best, 9 points for the 2nd-best, etc.

OVERALL "POINTS": Danny Wuerffel is the overall best passer, with Tim Tebow and Chris Leak not far behind. Steve Spurrier and John Reaves were in a different era, so it was tough for them to compete with modern-day passers.
Danny Wuerffel 35
Tim Tebow 34
Chris Leak 32
Shane Matthews 26
Rex Grossman 26
Doug Johnson 17
Kerwin Bell 16
Wayne Peace 16
Steve Spurrier 9
John Reaves 9

WINNING PERCENTAGE: Danny once again comes out on top as the winningest Gator QB.
Danny Wuerffel 88.2%
Tim Tebow 85.4%
Doug Johnson 78.4%
Shane Matthews 77.8%
Rex Grossman 74.2%
Chris Leak 72.5%
Steve Spurrier 71.9%
Kerwin Bell 69.8%
Wayne Peace 65.9%
John Reaves 62.5%

COMPLETION PERCENTAGE: Once again, Danny comes out on top as the QB with the best completion percentage. Note that Tebow still has the top QB passer rating.
Danny Wuerffel 88.2%
Tim Tebow 85.4%
Doug Johnson 78.4%
Shane Matthews 77.8%
Rex Grossman 74.2%
Chris Leak 72.5%
Steve Spurrier 71.9%
Kerwin Bell 69.8%
Wayne Peace 65.9%
John Reaves 62.5%

CAREER PASSING YARDS: In the total passing yardage category, Chris Leak does come out on top by about 500 yards. Tim Tebow would add another 2947 rushing yards for a total of 12233 total yards if there were a total QB comparison.
Chris Leak 11,213
Danny Wuerffel 10,875
Shane Matthews 9,287
Tim Tebow 9,285
Rex Grossman 9,164
Kerwin Bell 7,585
John Reaves 7,581
Wayne Peace 7,206
Doug Johnson 7,114
Steve Spurrier 4,848

PASSING TOUCHDOWNS: Once again, Danny and Chris battle each other out tops in a category, with Danny coming out on top by about 20 TDs. Tim Tebow "only" has 88 passing TDs, but he does add 57 more TDs rushing for a total of 145 total TDs. Still, his 88 passing TDs have him tied with Chris Leak for #2 in this category.
Danny Wuerffel 114
Chris Leak 88
Tim Tebow 88
Rex Grossman 77
Shane Matthews 74
Doug Johnson 62
Kerwin Bell 56
John Reaves 56
Wayne Peace 34
Steve Spurrier 32

 

[Leakfan12]

Wow Wuerffel, Tebow, and Leak only seperated by three points.

 

[Escambia94]

Wow Wuerffel, Tebow, and Leak only seperated by three points.

Here is a comparison of just the modern passers:

Career passer rating:
Tebow - 170.8
Wuerffel - 163.6
Grossman - 146.7
Leak - 140.8
Matthews - 137.6

Career yards per attempt:
Tebow - 9.3
Wuerffel - 9.3
Grossman - 8.3
Leak - 7.7
Matthews - 7.7

Career interception %:
Tebow - 1.6
Leak - 2.9
Grossman - 3.2
Wuerffel - 3.6
Matthews - 3.8

Once again, Leak proves that he is good enough to be mentioned amongst the greatest, but not as the very best.

 

[FrozenGator]

I became a true Gators fan watching Leak throw like a surgeon and then seeing Tebow come in for the short stuff. I couldn't help but be impressed by that combination, and can't think of better pairing of complementary skills, and quality guys.

And I remember Kerwin Bell only from his CFL days. He was, highs and lows considered, a very good QB, and passing is what it's all about in the CFL His time here, however, included him spiking the ball after a TD against his former team (the Bombers), only to have it bounce into his groin. We laughed.

 

[Escambia94]

I grew up watching Wayne Peace back when nobody expected the Gators to win. I also watched Kerwin Bell in his college days, World League Football Orlando Predators, and on occasion CFL Sacramento.

 

[DocZaius]

Eric Kresser had the misfortune of playing 2nd string to Wuerffel, but if he had come along at a different time I bet he would have put up some good numbers, too.

 

[Escambia94]

I am glad you brought up Eric Kresser. There are some strong parallels with Eric Kresser and Danny Wuerffel vs Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett. Eric was more highly recruited, had a stronger arm, a more prototypical delivery, and higher scout rating. Danny almost went to Alabama, and had even considered going to FSU with his high school teammate and receiver, E.G. Green. Does anybody know why Danny chose Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators over Gene Stalling's Crimson Tide or Bobby Bowden's dadgum Seminoles? It was that connection to a fellow son of a minister. There is a nice story where Gene Stalling and Bobby Bowden both used the famous recruiting tactic where they have this red telephone that talks to God, which is why their programs were so successful. Both Stalling and Bowden said their programs were the one program able to afford the $1000/minute phone rates to talk to God. Steve Spurrier said that the call was free, because it was a local call. From there the discussion went beyond football and went into faith and personal aspects of being a Gator, and the rest is history. That being said, Danny became the starter because he had the "it" factor that Eric did not have, even though Eric was the better passer.

Eric Kresser's stats from Florida and Marshall:

1993 NCAA Florida Gators 20 4 5 10 50.0 141 1 1 10.0 10.0 35.3 14.1 181.4
1994 NCAA Florida Gators 21 9 23 38 60.5 439 5 2 13.2 5.3 48.8 11.6 190.5
1995 NCAA Florida Gators 22 9 65 112 58.0 992 12 2 10.7 1.8 110.2 8.9 164.2
1996 NCAA Marshall Thundering Herd 23 15 226 375 60.3 3407 31 11 8.3 2.9 227.1 9.1 158.0​

Danny Wuerffel's stats from Florida

1993 NCAA Florida Gators 19 11 159 273 58.2 2230 22 10 8.1 3.7 202.7 8.2 146.1
1994 NCAA Florida Gators 20 12 132 212 62.3 1754 18 9 8.5 4.2 146.2 8.3 151.3
1995 NCAA Florida Gators 21 11 210 325 64.6 3266 35 10 10.8 3.1 296.9 10.0 178.4
1996 NCAA Florida Gators 22 12 207 360 57.5 3625 39 13 10.8 3.6 302.1 10.1 170.6​

Just for kicks and grins:
Eric's NFL Europe Stats

2000 NFLE Berlin Thunder 27 10 52 102 51.0 690 5 6 4.9 5.9 69.0 6.8 64.6​

Danny's NFL Europe Stats

2000 NFLE Rhein Fire 26 10 161 260 61.9 2042 25 7 9.6 2.7 204.2 7.9 107.2​