College Football Show Host Rips Garrett Greene, Calls Him 'Below Average' QB

Someone is pushing back on all of the preseason Garrett Greene hype.

Schuyler Callihan | Aug 23, 2024

Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

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West Virginia Mountaineers

West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene is considered by many to be one of the top quarterbacks in the Big 12 Conference. Some believe with an improvement from last year, there's a chance he could be in the Heisman Trophy conversation at some point this fall.

But not everybody was impressed with what they saw out of him a year ago in his first full year as a starter. Blake Ruffino, co-host of the Ruffino & Joe Show on the Bleav Podcast Network absolutely torched the Mountaineer quarterback during a recent episode previewing WVU versus Penn State.

“I just don’t know if I see a world where James Franklin who likes to get guys in the box, stop the run, play man-to-man on the outside that Garrett Greene who was a below average quarterback while he was throwing the football is going to be able to lead West Virginia to a win. 53.1% completion percentage a year ago. Now, we have had a lot of pushback by West Virginia people and West Virginia fans. ‘Oh Blake’s an a******. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Well let me refresh you Roody-Poos out there who were taking shots at me. Your quarterback was almost below average. When you do the things that that kid has done at times throwing the football, it would scare me if I’m a West Virginia fan. This is what Penn State is going to do. They are going to stack the box. They are going to make you throw the football and make you beat them that way and I don’t know if I see a world where that can happen. There is no dimension that Thanos can bring you to that 53.1% completion percentage is he’s just better than some. Get outta here with that.”

Where do I begin? Clearly, this guy is a stat gazer and not someone who watched all 12 of West Virginia's game last year. If he did watch the tape, he would have noticed several things.

One, Greene took big shot after big shot down the field last year. That was part of the offense's identity - run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, deep shot. Rinse and repeat. When you're throwing it downfield as much as he did, yeah, you're hit rate isn't going to be as high as someone who dinks and dunks their way down the field every drive.

Secondly, two of his preseason top four wide receivers, Cortez Braham Jr. and Jeremiah Aaron, left the team in the first month of the season. He leaned on LSU tight end transfer Kole Taylor, a former walk-on in Hudson Clement, and two true freshmen in Traylon Ray and Rodney Gallagher III. He also had NC State transfer Devin Carter who was pretty much just a deep ball threat.

The other part of that is he had to learn these receivers/tight ends on the fly. He had minimal work with them heading into the season partly because other guys were expected to be counted on and let's not forget to mention he was in a quarterback battle for much of fall camp, splitting reps with Nicco Marchiol. That timing and chemistry is built during the offseason and you'll see a stronger connection this fall because of it.

And finally, he wasn't at 100% health for much of the season. He suffered an ankle injury early in the Backyard Brawl and continued to fight through it once he returned. There were a few games where he came up hobbling which impacted his footwork and mechanics from time to time.

There's no question that Greene has to see an increase in his completion percentage. He has to hit more consistently on the layups in the underneath game and there's a strong belief from the coaching staff that it will happen. But to call Greene a below average quarterback? Come on, man. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar threw it 112 more times than Greene, yet only finished with 225 more yards.

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