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Passing Efficiency – Daniel’s White Whale

Posted by Phenomenal Smith on October 30th, 2008 under Football

Chase Daniel owns nearly every record in the Mizzou book.  That’s a fact.  Passing yards career.   Check.  Passing yards season.  Check.  Touchdowns career.  Check.  Touchdowns season.  Check.  Passing efficiency career.  Check.  Passing efficiency season.  Ch… say what?  Hold on a damn second here.  This can’t be right.  Now, who the hell is … Phil Johnson?  It seems that a guy named Phil Johnson holds the Mizzou season record for passing efficiency.

Please see this swell chart I conjured as proof:

 Rating Att. Comp. Int. Pct. Yds. TD Year
1. Phil Johnson 154.3 109 71 3 .651 954 7 1990
2. Chase Daniel 147.9 563 384 11 .682 4306 33 2007
3. Chase Daniel 145.1 452 287 10 .635 3257 28 2006
4. Corby Jones 140.8 191 102 2 .534 1658 12 1997
5. Marlon Adler 134.6 140 79 9 .564 1242 7 1982
6. Phil Bradley 134.6 226 135 10 .597 1780 12 1978
7. Phil Klein 131.3 84 50 6 .595 808 6 1950
8. Jeff Handy 130.6 329 196 8 .596 2463 13 1992
9. Terry McMillan 130.2 233 105 13 .451 1963 18 1969
10. Kent Keifer 129.0 275 165 15 .600 2183 11 1990

There’s no arguing with the chart. 

Before we get into Chase Daniel’s three-year futile quest for this seasonal record or Phil Johnson’s lofty perch on the passing efficiency pedastal, it’s vital to know just what passing efficiency means.

To determine Efficiency Rating Points, multiply a passer’s yards per attempt by 8.4; add his completion percentage, add his touchdown percentage times 3.3, then subract his interception percentage times two.  Now you can see why it is such an attractive record to hold and why Phil Johnson is loathe to give it up. 

Legend has it Phil Johnson was known as “Zeus” to his Tiger teammates (all except Jeff Handy, who called Phil “Water Boy”).  At the conclusion of his record breaking season, Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post Dispatch penned a masterpiece about Johnson.  Strangely, Miklasz never notes Johnson’s most awesome passing efficiency numbers.  Oh well.  Bernie wrote (my notes of clarification in italics):

 Johnson, a 20-year-old freshman (he had to repeat sixth grade twice), quarterbacked Mizzou to a 31-21 victory over the Jayhawks on Saturday afternoon, passing for 306 yards and two touchdowns.

The season is over, but Johnson has just begun. Johnson has three more seasons to keep throwing, keep Mizzou aiming higher. After two starts, it already is apparent that only graduation will keep Johnson out of the lineup (graduation, or the aforementioned Jeff Handy).

 Johnson is exciting. An elusive scrambler, he slithers away from pass rushers. With 4.5-second speed, he outruns hulking linebackers. He fires passes from every conceivable angle.

Johnson can roll left and throw to the right. He can roll right and throw to the left. He has a soft touch but can gun the ball outside, to the sideline – the most difficult pass. And he can push it deep. (Yikes, I think Bernie’s in love.) 

This package (see?) makes Johnson potentially the finest quarterback Missouri has had since another Phil – Bradley – attacked Big Eight defenses from 1978-80.

”I’m pretty laid back,” Johnson said. ”I don’t drink. I don’t party. (He’s never even kissed a girl.) I read a lot. I don’t say too much. But what I do say, I try to make the words meaningful. It has impact.” (What a douchebag!)

In 1991, Bernie’s love affair with Phil Johnson continued when he wrote, recounting Mizzou’s dramatic tie with Indiana (yes, remember when ties with Indiana were reasons to rejoice?):

 Then Johnson, looking like a baby Joe Montana, came up throwing and scrambling. He kept a 10-play, 66-yard drive alive by running for 7 yards on fourth and 6 from the Hoosiers 16, then clinched it by lobbing a 2-yard touchdown pass to receiver Byron Chamberlain.

Johnson struggled most of the afternoon.  But once again this poised sophomore showed a fondness for the fourth quarter. If a quarterback has heart and athleticism, the rest can be filled in later. Johnson has the nerve.

A baby Joe Montana?! 

baby joe montana 
Phil Johnson in 1991.

So, he was called Joe Montana, Zeus, and Water Boy.  Word is Dana Stubblefield called him Meat.  Still, nobody calls him Mr. Passing Efficiency, which is odd.  The man has the only record Chase Daniel doesn’t possess, yet everyone’s afraid to talk about it. 

Even Chase Daniel.  When asked what it was like chasing Johnson for three years now, he quipped “That’s what she said.”  Oh, Chase. 

He won’t talk about it, but you know he’s thinking about it.  Last season before the Big 12 Championship game – the Ship as most of us call it – Chase’s rating was 155.  Good enough to break the record.  Chase lobbied the NCAA not to count postseason games in the record books, but was unsuccessful.  He lobbied Pinkel to bring in Patton after the first series of the OU game, but Pinkel would not do it.  Rating was 101 for that game, which put him slightly behind Johnson’s record, but totally within striking distance.  The pressure got to Chase in the Cotton Bowl where he could only manage a rating of 73.88, his worst of the year.  One could sense his defeat after the game, not to mention Phil Johnson’s jubilation, wherever he was.  Johnson likely clings to that record like Western Pennsylvanians cling to their guns and religion.  It’s all Johnson has left.

Unfortunately for Johnson, Chase Daniel has given himself more cushion this season so even if he chokes mightily down the stretch, Johnson’s reign will finally be over.  Here are Chase’s numbers this year:

 Rating Att. Comp. Int. Pct. Yds. TD Year
Chase Daniel 177.8 286 220 6 .770 2675 23 2008

Again, it’s a chart so you know it’s right.  It would be virtually impossible for Chase Daniel to mess this up.  The record is his, right?  Hopefully he won’t collapse under the enormous pressure of the vaunted Missouri Passing Efficiency Rating Season Record as he did last season.  Hopefully he’ll forget about baby Joe Montana and focus on important things like his touchdown percentage and yards per attempt.  Then, and only then, can he harpoon this elusive trophy.  No, not this one.

 Where is Phil Johnson now?  Nobody knows for sure.  There have been unconfirmed sightings

Phil Johnson on the loose

but it is believed by most that he is holed up in a bunker somewhere stroking the Certificate of Achievement his mom made for him commemmorating his still-standing record.  She whited-out “Phil Johnson Participated in Cub Scout Day Camp” and inserted  “Mr. Passing Efficiency.”  Well, at least someone got it right.   Mr. Passing Efficiency, indeed.  For now.

Atomic Teeth reader(s), check in every week for updates on Chase Daniel’s quest for this most elusive record.  His white whale shall be his.  Unless he chokes again.

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15 Responses

  1. Euclid said:

    October 30th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

    Rumor has it that Phil was part of a recent boat trip from KC to St. Louis on the Missouri River. AtomicTeeth has uncovered this photo:

  2. Professor Van Nostrand said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 6:59 am

    The reference to the Indiana tie brings back memories. I believe that Jacke missed an extra point on the tying touchdown that would’ve given Mizzou the win. Hit the upright if I’m not mistaken. Please have your chartmakers confirm or deny my recollection. Thanks in advance.

  3. Phenomenal Smith said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 8:16 am

    Prof, I can’t find the box score for that game, but it didn’t end like you remembered. That’s not to say Jacke didn’t clank one off the upright at some point. Bernie’s account of the end of the game:

    COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri coach Bob Stull was asked if the 27-27 truce with Indiana made him happy or sad.

    ”Fortunate,” he said.

    A wise man, Coach Stull. Don’t look back. For when the Tigers rewind the video to replay the game’s most critical play, they will see that quarterback Phil Johnson touched down short of the runway.

    On the tying, two-point conversion, Johnson’s knees skidded on the ground before he crossed the goal line. Only his shadow made a two-point landing.

    Controversy arrived with 24 seconds remaining. The official’s call was so clearly wrong, you half expected Indiana coach Bill Mallory to react by throwing a chair. Sorry: same school, wrong sport.

    This tie was like getting a kiss from James R. Jankowski, the line judge who presented Mizzou with the necessary two points to avoid a familiar defeat. The Tigers had a 19-7 lead, but it escaped from their protective custo! dy in the fourth quarter.

    Before issuing his ruling, Jankowski appeared to slip. The dreaded Omniturf struck again.

  4. Gene Claude said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 11:46 am

    Professor, I believe you are remembering 1988, when we tied Indiana 28 – 28. Jeff Jacke was our kicker that year, and I think he nailed an upright with an extra point. From my google searches, all records of this event have been expunged from humanity.

  5. Professor Van Nostrand said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    You are correct G. Claude. My freshman year. Very clear memory of the euphoria of a touchdown in the waning seconds that would surely bring a win with the extra . . . DOOOHHHH

  6. Gene Claude said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    Just part of the fabric of Mizzoufanship. If there’s a way to destroy, we’ll find it.

  7. Phenomenal Smith said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    How many years before Chase looks like the guy the in the boat?

  8. Euclid said:

    October 31st, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    6 months

  9. Baby Joe said:

    November 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 am

    A couple of points of clarification, from an “insider”:

    1. If Jeff Handy ever called Phil “water boy,” he would’ve gotten his ass kicked.

    2. If Dana Stubblefield ever called Phil “Meat,” well, probably nothing would have happened.

  10. Atomic Teeth » Blog Archive » Mizzou/Baylor Post-Mortem said:

    November 2nd, 2008 at 6:46 pm

    [...] Daniel?  It is indisputable – to me anyway - that Daniel is the best QB in Tiger history.   As documented on these pages last week, he owns just about every QB record there is at Mizzou.  Never before has a Tiger player been [...]

  11. Roberto Frankfurter said:

    November 4th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    I think most people would agree that Daniel is the best QB in Tiger history (just about any way you look at it) so it is a little disturbing that during his senior year he is likely just the fourth best QB in the Big XII behind Bradford, Harrell and McCoy.

  12. Gene Claude said:

    November 5th, 2008 at 11:22 am

    I think fans of teams that are not habitually at the top of the heap tend to think of certain players as irreplaceable much more often than they actually are. I know we all fretted that without Brad were going to suck. I have a feeling that life post-Chase is going to be much better than people generally think. As you say, Roberto, he isn’t even one of the top 3 QBs in the conference.

  13. Atomic Teeth » Blog Archive » Passing Efficiency - T Minus 4 Games and Counting said:

    November 12th, 2008 at 10:41 pm

    [...] of Phil Johnson’s lofty and heretofore unattainable Passing Efficiency Record.  As I chronicled a mere two weeks ago, Chase Daniel is hot on the trail of Johnson’s record.  Without further ado, here are the [...]

  14. Atomic Teeth » Blog Archive » Passing Efficiency - Just Three Games Left said:

    November 24th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    [...] we’ve laid out before, Chase would have to completely and totally collapse for him not to break Johnson’s record.  [...]

  15. Atomic Teeth » Blog Archive » Passing Efficiency - and then there was one said:

    December 22nd, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    [...] Part 1. [...]

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