Update: Jennings was never higher than 7th in SEC Passer Rating (RAT)

9/14 Updated by cfbstats:

Jennings' best performance in game 2 was not eligible for a Passer Rating (RAT) because he had only 13 Attempts. The NCAA minimum is 15 passing attempts per game for a Passer, any Passer to receive a Passer Rating (RAT) for a game. ESPN computes their Passer Rating (RAT) and the broader QBR rating which includes running, passing, strength of defense, home or away, SOS, and many other variables using a 20 action play per game minimum to include running and passing quarterbacks and teams using 2 or more quarterbacks.

Note: To qualify, player must have played in 75% of his team's games and have a minimum of 15.0 pass attempts per game played. (posted at bottom of Rating Chart)

Shutouts by big margins are important and generate headlines: LSU has first consecutive shutouts since 1985 (Ole Miss and Kentucky) was in the news.


prior to Game 3:

Kenny Hill has the highest QB Rating (QBR) in the SEC at 93.9 (3rd in the nation) which you would expect since he has the highest overall stats, followed by ALA (Sims 90.0) and AUB (Marshall 80.1). 93.9 is a very high QBR and it means he should win essentially every game he starts. Brandon Harris who is not reported due to limited playing time has the highest you can get at 99.7 with 100 being perfect. The QBR means a given QB would be expected to win that percentage of games he played. 99.7 means that based on Harris's performance in the SHSU game he would be expected to win all of the games he played. It is too small a sample to say that and 2 weeks is too small of a sample for Jennings who has fluctuated wildly.

Jennings is 4th in QBR (77.3) in the SEC and 24th in the nation after 2 games. After the Wisconsin game he had a raw QB rating of 31.9 and an adjusted QB Rating of 52, good for 71st in the nation. So after one game he was near the bottom of the SEC.

As for the RAT or Passer Rating that generated the claim that Jennings had the best QB Rating in the SEC, Brandon Harris actually has a 250 to Jennings 201 so Jennings does not even have the best RAT Passer Rating on the LSU team.

The Ratings QBR and RAT (Passer Rating) can fluctuate with good and bad games and against easy or ranked opponents. And, since college football has imbalanced schedules, QBR adjusts for defenses faced vs RAW QBR that does not.

The scale of QBR is from zero to 100, where 50 is average. Top quarterbacks are in the upper 80s and 90s for an entire season.

Baylor's Russell and Petty are ranked one and four nationally at QBR 96.2 and 93.4. But other than Oklahoma and Kansas St they currently only 2 ranked opponents and don't play any SEC schools.

Jameis Winston ranked first with QBR of 89.4 for 2013. Mett ranked 6th with 85.7 and Nick Marshall ranked 12th with 81.9.

Manziel for example ranked first in QBR in 2012 with a value of 90.5. His unadjusted value was 86.4, also the best among FBS schools. The increase from unadjusted to adjusted reflects that he did face good defenses overall. A&M won 85% of their games so their QBR was a good barometer.

Bottom line: The QBR accounts for everything a QB does, when he does it, how he manages the clock, if he fumbles, has INTs, TDs, third down conversion percentage, and heavy emphasis on running ability, if he gets penalties, or draws the other team off sides, literally every play is weighted as are the strength of opponents and especially the 4 Qtr strength of their defense. Regarding Kenny Hill, he ran an up tempo spread offense that broke all of JFF's records in one game. In that game he ran 99 plays without having one false start penalty or INT.

It is often said that winning the turnover battle usually means you win the game. Winning the turnover battle in college football wins 73 percent of games. Winning the QBR battle wins 85 percent of the games. So QBR correlates to overall quarterback play and winning.


The NFL notices the QBR raw and adjusted because good QBs can end up playing weak SOS in lesser divisions and conferences.

Baylor and BYU want to win out by huge margins and shutouts whenever possible because they have weak SOS. Running up points on a team may seem brutal when it is an FCS school but it shows up in your key stats: Passing Yds, Rushing Yds, Pts For, Pts Against which along with won/loss and SOS influences the playoff committee. Shutouts by big margins are important and generate headlines: LSU has first consecutive shutouts since 1985 (Ole Miss and Kentucky was in the news.