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Articles
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Jake is back!
To wit: forgoing the NFL Draft, Jake Locker will finish his senior year at Washington. Bad news for nine teams in the Pac-10, but good news for the Huskies. And bad news for Sark; he won't get a free trip to Oslo. Locker's impeccable credentials are legion. Résumé: has the passing arm of Warren Moon and the powerful, zigzagging running style of Hugh McElhenny; bears an an uncanny resemblance to John Elway during his playing days at Stanford. Who cloned this guy? Coming out of Ferndale, Washington is like coming from Chicken Dinner Road in Idaho, which is on Cody Pickett's résumé. None of the experts would buy into Ferndale as being a launching pad for a future NFL quarterback. Going into the 2009 season, according to the them, Locker's career pass-completion percentage of 48.7% portended a failing season. He should be playing safety or another position, other then quarterback, they said. The stats said otherwise. Enough for us to conclude, "When Locker's offensive line and receivers are the equal or the better of the pass defense he is facing, he will be as good a passer as any other quarterback in the Pac-10 next season, if not better. The tutoring he's receiving from quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier and Sarkisian, a former quarterback, will only make Locker a better passer." That effects of their tutoring appear graphically in Figures 1 and 2 below, which show a dramatic improvement in completion percentage during the 2009 season. Locker threw for 2800 yards, while accounting for 388 yards on the ground; Locker's numbers were 71% of UW's offense. Over his career at UW, he's completed 53.3% of his passes, with an efficiency rating of 116.82; he posted a rating of 129.75 this year. Locker leads the conference's returning quarterbacks in passing-average per game for the 2009 season (Table 1). Sark's Locker-rocket, with its Elway-like booster, is on course for a bowl game next season, providing the Holt-missile, designed to shoot down incoming bogie's, doesn't fall off the launch pad. This season, total defense improved by 14% and run defense improved by a 38% margin, a dramatic improvement over last season. Although pass defense was down by 12%, more significantly, however, pass-efficiency defense improved by 10%. In the spring, the defensive line needs to improve its bull rushes and swim moves; the special teams need to work on their kickoff coverage and kickoff returns; Erik Folk and Will Mahan need to rocket some kicks and punts. You know, blah, blah, blah...same old, same old stuff. As for his WMD and the NPP, Sark will be preparing to light the fuse, while Oslo is on hold.
Table 1. Locker leads an
impressive array of conference quarterbacks into the 2010 season.
Figure 1. During the 2009 season, Locker's pass-completion percentage stayed over the 50% mark, ranging from a low of 51.6% against Stanford to a high of 82.6% against Cal.
Figure 2. With each game in 2009, Locker's career pass-completion stat continued to improve.
Richard Linde can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com |
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Steve Sarkisian
will never win the Nobel Peace Prize; once again he's preparing to
launch a Weapon of Mass Destruction.
