Air Midwest II: Tornado Alley

Graham Harrell Texas TechA few days ago I posted the career stats on eight Big-12 quarterbacks. Most of them had already set school records for passing yards and touchdowns. I also included projections for their career totals assuming they stay in school for four years. Although, the monumental passing stats in the conference are unparalleled, the story isn’t just the Big-12 – it’s the “Midwest”. It’s Rice, Houston, Tulsa, SMU and North Texas. There’s a lot more than houses and cows flying around in Tornado Alley. There’s footballs in them thar winds. 

The starting point for this discussion is this: Of the top 11 quarterbacks (by passing yards), 9 of them are in Tornado Alley. Of the top 16, 11 are in Tornado Alley. What is Tornado Alley? Well, I drew a line from Austin to Kansas City. Each of these 11 QBs are within 200 miles either direction of the line. Most of them are much closer than that. In fact, the line nearly goes through the campuses of SMU, TCU, North Texas and Tulsa. Anyone familiar with springtime in the Midwest knows this patch of earth is the geographical ground zero for twisters. So, it’s an appropriate name. 

A logical question would be… “What has caused this?” That’s the subject of Air Midwest III. Stay tuned. But for now, the focus is on setting the table with the stats. Here are the top-16 quarterbacks in the U.S. by passing yards.  

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In addition to these 11, special attention should be made to Giovanni Vizza of North Texas who is #5 in pass completions. Another person who should be considered in this conversation is Zac Robinson of Oklahoma State. He is #22 by total yards, but is #3 in passing efficiency! It’s no wonder the BEST passing defense rank of any Big-12 team is Colorado (#72 out of 119).  

Ok, we’ve established that something bizarre is going on, but how bizarre? Well, I thought the first thing to do would be to evaluate how many of the top-16 were in Tornado Alley in 2007 or before. I went back to 2000 to make the point. Only 2006 and 2007 had more than two QBs along the line – and those are only because they are the same QBs that are on the list in 2008. Clearly, this season is freakishly abnormal as you can see by looking at the numbers for each year. 

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I was also curious as to the location of the rest of the top-16. Were they east of the line or west of the line? Shown below are the top-16 along the line and the number to the east or west for each season since 2000. Considering there are more schools to the east, it is actually fairly comparable. 

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Within a narrow stretch of Midwest farm land, 11 of the top-16 QB’s roam the fields. In the entire US – well over a thousand miles in both directions - only a few other quarterbacks are in the same league. Whether this extreme anomaly continues more than another year or two, remains to be seen. But, for now, we are watching something historic in our own backyard. If you like offense and scoring like me, you’re in college football heaven.