Revisiting Stafford’s 2008 goals
Back in August, Matthew Stafford laid out some ambitious personal goals for the 2008 season. Now that half the season is in the books, we’ll take a peek at how he’s coming along.
Goal: 35 TD
So far: 8 TD
Projected*: 16 TD
Comment: Not gonna happen. Even the Richt-era record of 24 set by Shockley in 2005 seems out of reach at this point. This isn’t a problem indicator; the SEC leaders only have 10 TD each, and the running game has been doing a great job of getting in the endzone. If Stafford can get to 20 TD on the season, I’ll be thrilled.
Goal: 3,700 – 4,000 yards passing
So far: 1503 yards
Projected*: 3000 yards
Comment: It’s probably not going to happen without a huge increase in production. Stafford did just post his first career 300-yard game. Even if Stafford averages 300 YPG the rest of the way, he’ll be at 3,300 yards heading into the postseason. That would put him in a position to beat Greene’s Richt-era record of 3,307 yards. If Stafford can average 250 YPG in the remaining six games, the SEC Championship, and the bowl, he’ll be in a position to challenge Eric Zeier’s all-time Georgia mark of just over 3,500 yards.
Goal: 64% completion rate
So far: 61.7%
Projected*: 61.7%
Comment: This goal is still very much within reach. Stafford has already improved his percentage over last season, and he just completed 69% of his passes against Tennessee. By completing just another couple of passes per game, he can get to 64%.
* – Projections are based on doubling the production so far. Yes, Georgia will likely face much better defenses the rest of the way. Production could also vary based on injuries and improvement. If my projections don’t suit you, fill in your own.
Comments
Dawg Media
RSS 2.0
3 Responses to 'Revisiting Stafford’s 2008 goals'
Subscribe to comments with RSS
Texas_Dawg
October 14th, 2008
1:55 pm
Those numbers always seemed pretty aggressive (especially the TDs), but it would be interesting to see if they would be closer to within reach is he’d still had Sturdivant protecting his back as he and the coaches figured he would when they set these targets.
NM
October 14th, 2008
5:03 pm
I’m a run-first guy, so I would rather see more drives like that looooong 4th quarter one vs. Tennessee than Stafford trying to force passes to hit 250-300 ypg. I thought we threw far too much on Saturday. We tend to be more successful when we throw 15-25 times per game; getting over 30 attempts (like, I believe, vs. SC in 2007) seems to correlate with weaker performances.
I thought these goals were a bit ridiculous from the outset, other than completion percentage, because (in an offense like ours) if your run game is successful, you just don’t need that many passing yards/TDs, or want to make the attempts to get them.
Let’s let Knowshon & co. do their job, and we’ll be alright.
RedCrake
October 15th, 2008
9:07 pm
It’s true that the defenses we face are going to get more difficult, but our deep threat big play receiver is only getting more experienced with each game as well.