While no doubt Clayton will go down as one of the NU all-time greats at the position...

[Gladeskat]

Well, if HJ gets a comparable D (and run game) over that time-span; don't see why the team wouldn't.

And about that 10 win season in 2015...

Duke - 9 for 23 w/ 2 INTs (D got a pick; 201 yds rushing for the 'Cats)

PSU - Thorson knocked out of game early; Oliver comes in and passes for 1 and runs for another TD (D also got a pick; 227 yds rushing)

PU - 9 for 19 for 82 yds w/ 1 INT (D got a pick; 250 yds rushing)

UW - 9 for 20 for 60 yds (D got 2 picks; 149 yds rushing - D held UW's run game to -26 yds)

Only 3 times during the 2015 season did Thorson pass for more than 150 yds w/ 2 of them being against Eastern IL and against Ball St.

Stats are for losers!

How many games did Thorson WIN in 2015 because he simply ran the offense effectively without fumbles or turnovers? Or he caught teams by surprise with his running ability? To this day there are idiots on this board who use his UW stats that year as evidence of subpar play. It's a 'never-strapped-it-on' stupid analysis of one of his best performances that year on the way to 10 regular season wins.

Chickens and eggs...NU has had some hyped Faberge eggs turn out to be duds. Hunter may be a good QB but he hasn't even won a game in college. Let's see if he can execute flawlessly on a cold, snowy day in Madison or bust for backbreaking runs and wins over Stanford and Nebraska. Let's see if he can carry a team to victories without any running game. Let's see if he can win three bowls and a West title.

IMO, Thorson is down the list of the top QB's at NU (and even at Wheaton North HS, for that matter) and he had some poor games and frustrating performances but it disgusts me to read the constant criticism of his play when he was the offensive leader of the winningest class in NU history by a mile.

Full disclosure: Thorson is from my high school and his appearance, playful personality, and strong religious faith remind me of a wonderful friend I had there who died tragically in a plane crash while flying supplies to orphanages in the Bahamas and Central America.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Stats are for losers!

How many games did Thorson WIN in 2015 because he simply ran the offense effectively without fumbles or turnovers? Or he caught teams by surprise with his running ability? To this day there are idiots on this board who use his UW stats that year as evidence of subpar play. It's a 'never-strapped-it-on' stupid analysis of one of his best performances that year on the way to 10 regular season wins.

Chickens and eggs...NU has had some hyped Faberge eggs turn out to be duds. Hunter may be a good QB but he hasn't even won a game in college. Let's see if he can execute flawlessly on a cold, snowy day in Madison or bust for backbreaking runs and wins over Stanford and Nebraska. Let's see if he can carry a team to victories without any running game. Let's see if he can win three bowls and a West title.

IMO, Thorson is down the list of the top QB's at NU (and even at Wheaton North HS, for that matter) and he had some poor games and frustrating performances but it disgusts me to read the constant criticism of his play when he was the offensive leader of the winningest class in NU history by a mile.

Full disclosure: Thorson is from my high school and his appearance, playful personality, and strong religious faith remind me of a wonderful friend I had there who died tragically in a plane crash while flying supplies to orphanages in the Bahamas and Central America.

Right on, Glades.

 

[EvanstonCat]

Let's see if he averages 9 wins a year as Clayton did, or wins 10 games in his first year at NU, or leads us to a West championship and three bowl wins.

I hope for MOAR with Hunter.

 

[EvanstonCat]

Stats are for losers!

How many games did Thorson WIN in 2015 because he simply ran the offense effectively without fumbles or turnovers? Or he caught teams by surprise with his running ability? To this day there are idiots on this board who use his UW stats that year as evidence of subpar play. It's a 'never-strapped-it-on' stupid analysis of one of his best performances that year on the way to 10 regular season wins.

Chickens and eggs...NU has had some hyped Faberge eggs turn out to be duds. Hunter may be a good QB but he hasn't even won a game in college. Let's see if he can execute flawlessly on a cold, snowy day in Madison or bust for backbreaking runs and wins over Stanford and Nebraska. Let's see if he can carry a team to victories without any running game. Let's see if he can win three bowls and a West title.

IMO, Thorson is down the list of the top QB's at NU (and even at Wheaton North HS, for that matter) and he had some poor games and frustrating performances but it disgusts me to read the constant criticism of his play when he was the offensive leader of the winningest class in NU history by a mile.

Full disclosure: Thorson is from my high school and his appearance, playful personality, and strong religious faith remind me of a wonderful friend I had there who died tragically in a plane crash while flying supplies to orphanages in the Bahamas and Central America.

How many did he "win" because he had Hankwitz's D keeping the other side in check? Many of the other QBs we've had over the years had to be far more productive to win games because they had the Colby Swiss on the other side of the ball. Thorson gets some credit for the wins, but let's not give him all or even remotely close to most of the credit. Simply put, Thorson plus Colby Swiss doesn't equal winningest QB in NU history. Far from it.

And in terms of your bold type, let's just say turnovers weren't Thorson's strongest point. Nobody, not even during the Andrew Brewer experiment, had an exhibit like Akron in that department.

 

[Gladeskat]

You obviously put a lot of work into this response, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

If I wanted to, I could put together a similar list if “failures” you highlight for all the QB’s you seem to think were as good or better. Geez, Trevor got routinely destroyed in these forums. He is in the NFL and now some act like he never had an off game at NU.

If someone told any of us at the time of CT’s recruitment that we would be getting theall time NU leader in career passing yards, be NU’s all time leader in passing TD’s, Lead the Big in career starts by a QB, be fourth all-time in career passing yards in the Big, second all-time in the Big in pass completions. Win 3 bowl games and the West Division title for the only time ever, all while representing the school in an honorable way, I think most of us are giddy.

I get amazed when people claim most of the previous QB’s could have done the same. Then why didn’t they? Our D was good most of the time for CT, but no way anyone will convince me our OL was better for CT. Alviti was higher rated than any other QB that the other QB’s had to deal with. Baz is the only one that had anywhere near the same career. Everyone love Persa, but he wasn’t good enough to be the starter here for all 4 years and he got hurt. Those are facts. Yes, he had the single best season i’ve Ever seen from a NU QB, but not the best career.

I just don’t understand why people can’t be thankful for all of what CT accomplished instead of repeatedly dragging every shortcoming and failure he had through the proverbial mud. I get it, some people like others better, but the need to keep bringing up Tennessee, ISU, Akron, interceptions, spread options et al is unnecessary.

AMEN!

NU fans whacking off over Hunter's potential (like they've whacked off over other unproven 4-stars, many who later turned out to be duds) while trashing the guy who won 36 games, 3 bowls, and the West division title is classic "Northwestern".

 

[EvanstonCat]

You obviously put a lot of work into this response, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

If I wanted to, I could put together a similar list if “failures” you highlight for all the QB’s you seem to think were as good or better. Geez, Trevor got routinely destroyed in these forums. He is in the NFL and now some act like he never had an off game at NU.

If someone told any of us at the time of CT’s recruitment that we would be getting the all time NU leader in career passing yards, be NU’s all time leader in passing TD’s, Lead the Big in career starts by a QB, be fourth all time in career passing yards in the Big, second all time in the Big in pass completions. Win 3 bowl games and the West Division title for the only time ever, all while representing the school in an honorable way, I think most of us are giddy.

I get amazed when people claim most of the previous QB’s could have done the same. Then why didn’t they? Our D was good most of the time for CT, but no way anyone will convince me our OL was better for CT. Alviti was higher rated that any other QB that the other QB’s had to deal with. Baz is the only one that had anywhere near the same career. Everyone love Persa, but he wasn’t good enough to be the starter here for all 4 years and he got hurt. Those are facts. Yes, he had the single best season i’ve Ever seen from a NU QB, but not the best career.

I just don’t understand why people can’t be thankful for all of what CT accomplished instead of repeatedly dragging every shortcoming and failure he had through the proverbial mud. I get it, some people like others better, but the need to keep bringing up Tennessee, ISU, Akron, interceptions, spread options et al is unnecessary.

I think people are thankful for what CT did for us. I am. And absolutely I will take all that he accomplished for us in a second.

I just think some of us recognize that he wasn't quite as great as some people think. He was what he was for us, which is indeed the winningest QB in NU history, and definitely the best option we had this year, and a good and solid QB. Not All-Conference caliber. For many games this year, he wasn't the best QB on the field (Haskins, Jones, Book, at least). Was he the best QB that you would put on the field if you had a choice of other QBs that have worn the Purple over the years? Would you have started him over healthy Persa? Basanez? Kustok? Senior Kafka? Bacher at his best? Schnur (who won a Silver Trophy and two conference titles)? Most (all?) of whom did earn All-Conference honors btw. I wouldn't. Doesn't take away from what he did accomplish here, including moments of absolute brilliance (e.g. Nebraska) and he certainly has some physical gifts and other strengths, will probably be drafted, but he was maddeningly inconsistent and frankly, benefited greatly from a good to great defense during his 4 year run. Some of us recognize this, and we find the winningest QB argument to be weak. Put a Thorson led offense opposite a Colby defense, and he's quickly no longer the winningest NU QB in history.

 

[Gladeskat]

How many did he "win" because he had Hankwitz's D keeping the other side in check? Many of the other QBs we've had over the years had to be far more productive to win games because they had the Colby Swiss on the other side of the ball. Thorson gets some credit for the wins, but let's not give him all or even remotely close to most of the credit. Simply put, Thorson plus Colby Swiss doesn't equal winningest QB in NU history. Far from it.

And in terms of your bold type, let's just say turnovers weren't Thorson's strongest point. Nobody, not even during the Andrew Brewer experiment, had an exhibit like Akron in that department.

AKRON! (BENGHAZI!)

Our defense doesn't score points. They didn't have to score a TD starting at their one-yard line with 1:40 left and no timeouts. Thorson did. They didn't toss a beautiful pass for a TD to clinch the West title at Iowa. Thorson did. Or spot-on passes for three TD's against MSU. Thorson did. Three bowl wins and a west title, thanks to our defense AND our offense (Thorson), and special teams.

How much did the Akron loss affect our season?! Did it cost us a bowl game or a West title?! How about the Illinois State game? Did you forget Thorson's performances that year that got us into the Pinstripe Bowl or do you want to keep making impossible comparisons with other QB's on other NU teams with better OL and WR's?

But keep crapping on Thorson for passing for 60 yards and ZERO turnovers against Wisconsin (10-3) in Madison after a blizzard. That was rich!

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I think people are thankful for what CT did for us. I am. And absolutely I will take all that he accomplished for us in a second.

I just think some of us recognize that he wasn't quite as great as some people think. He was what he was for us, which is indeed the winningest QB in NU history, and definitely the best option we had this year, and a good and solid QB. Not All-Conference caliber. For many games this year, he wasn't the best QB on the field (Haskins, Jones, Book, at least). Was he the best QB that you would put on the field if you had a choice of other QBs that have worn the Purple over the years? Would you have started him over healthy Persa? Basanez? Kustok? Senior Kafka? Bacher at his best? Schnur (who won a Silver Trophy and two conference titles)? Most (all?) of whom did earn All-Conference honors btw. I wouldn't. Doesn't take away from what he did accomplish here, including moments of absolute brilliance (e.g. Nebraska) and he certainly has some physical gifts and other strengths, will probably be drafted, but he was maddeningly inconsistent and frankly, benefited greatly from a good to great defense during his 4 year run. Some of us recognize this, and we find the winningest QB argument to be weak. Put a Thorson led offense opposite a Colby defense, and he's quickly no longer the winningest NU QB in history.

People use this against Jim McMahon too. Only win because of the D. Well when he got hurt what happened to the Bears. The same thing that would have happened to NU if CT got hurt. In fact, if CT didn’t play last year, I would suspect NU is less than 500 and certainly not sniffing a West championship.

 

[DkeCat]

With all due respect to Turk, I don’t see Turk and Wicker being the same poster. The writing styles and personalities are too different. Turk may be a troll, but he’s a decent guy. Wicker is much more like Puke, Chuckster, and Shivas.

Enuf with this talk!

 

[Gladeskat]

I think people are thankful for what CT did for us. I am. And absolutely I will take all that he accomplished for us in a second.

Bacher at his best? Schnur (who won a Silver Trophy and two conference titles)?
Put a Thorson led offense opposite a Colby defense, and he's quickly no longer the winningest NU QB in history.

What Silver Trophy did Schnur win? The "Silver Football" for Big Ten Offensive POY? Nope. Maybe the silver football for real estate, IDK.

Put a Baz behind our OL and see if he wins B1G POY (media). Same with Schnur and his success. Such comparisons are sketchy at best.

Thorson had a good defense. Baz, Kustok, and Schnur had good OL's. While we're making these comparisons, wouldn't it have been nice if Thorson had the same OL talent that Baz, Kustok, and Schnur enjoyed back then?

I hope for MOAR with Hunter.

We all do! I want MOAR from our OL and WR's as well and hope that the unproven QB some here are foaming over about is as good as Thorson, let alone his lofty 5-star high school billing.

 

[EvanstonCat]

People use this against Jim McMahon too. Only win because of the D. Well when he got hurt what happened to the Bears. The same thing that would have happened to NU if CT got hurt. In fact, if CT didn’t play last year, I would suspect NU is less than 500 and certainly not sniffing a West championship.

Absolutely. CT was hugely valuable for this year's team.

The question is whether another QB starter from a different time would have performed better, not whether CT was or wasn't better than TJ Green. I guess we'll see what happens to the offense next year with Hunter Johnson.

 

[Gladeskat]

Absolutely. CT was hugely valuable for this year's team.

The question is whether another QB starter from a different time would have performed better, not whether CT was or wasn't better than TJ Green. I guess we'll see what happens to the offense next year with Hunter Johnson.

Keep in the Thorson insults coming!

 

[AtlantaCat]

Thorson had a good defense. Baz, Kustok, and Schnur had good OL's. While we're making these comparisons, wouldn't it have been nice if Thorson had the same OL talent that Baz, Kustok, and Schnur enjoyed back then?

We all do! I want MOAR from our OL and WR's as well and hope that the unproven QB some here are foaming over about is as good as Thorson, let alone his lofty 5-star high school billing.[/QUOTE]

I hope Johnson lives up to the hype. I haven't been this excited about an incoming QB since Corbett Elsen. Or was it Tony Stauss?

 

[Alan Smithee]

Thorson had a good defense. Baz, Kustok, and Schnur had good OL's. While we're making these comparisons, wouldn't it have been nice if Thorson had the same OL talent that Baz, Kustok, and Schnur enjoyed back then?

We all do! I want MOAR from our OL and WR's as well and hope that the unproven QB some here are foaming over about is as good as Thorson, let alone his lofty 5-star high school billing.

I hope Johnson lives up to the hype. I haven't been this excited about an incoming QB since Corbett Elsen. Or was it Tony Stauss?[/QUOTE]
Tony Stauss' mom was a one-person hype machine. She wasn't fond of Baz, though.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

I hope Johnson lives up to the hype. I haven't been this excited about an incoming QB since Corbett Elsen. Or was it Tony Stauss?

Tony Stauss' mom was a one-person hype machine. She wasn't fond of Baz, though.[/QUOTE]
Baz was an irritant. That is what made him so good. In HS, I never saw this kid back down even when entire D’s were geared to stop him at any cost.

 

[rwhitney014]

People use this against Jim McMahon too. Only win because of the D. Well when he got hurt what happened to the Bears. The same thing that would have happened to NU if CT got hurt. In fact, if CT didn’t play last year, I would suspect NU is less than 500 and certainly not sniffing a West championship.

You know what they say about QBs who only won because of their defenses?

They won.

 

[StreamCat]

Stats are for losers!

How many games did Thorson WIN in 2015 because he simply ran the offense effectively without fumbles or turnovers? Or he caught teams by surprise with his running ability? To this day there are idiots on this board who use his UW stats that year as evidence of subpar play. It's a 'never-strapped-it-on' stupid analysis of one of his best performances that year on the way to 10 regular season wins.

Chickens and eggs...NU has had some hyped Faberge eggs turn out to be duds. Hunter may be a good QB but he hasn't even won a game in college. Let's see if he can execute flawlessly on a cold, snowy day in Madison or bust for backbreaking runs and wins over Stanford and Nebraska. Let's see if he can carry a team to victories without any running game. Let's see if he can win three bowls and a West title.

IMO, Thorson is down the list of the top QB's at NU (and even at Wheaton North HS, for that matter) and he had some poor games and frustrating performances but it disgusts me to read the constant criticism of his play when he was the offensive leader of the winningest class in NU history by a mile.

Full disclosure: Thorson is from my high school and his appearance, playful personality, and strong religious faith remind me of a wonderful friend I had there who died tragically in a plane crash while flying supplies to orphanages in the Bahamas and Central America.

Right again. Thorson not only gave us so very much to cheer about, he made me proud to be a fan.

 

[StreamCat]

AMEN!

NU fans whacking off over Hunter's potential (like they've whacked off over other unproven 4-stars, many who later turned out to be duds) while trashing the guy who won 36 games, 3 bowls, and the West division title is classic "Northwestern".

I’m proud to say that I’ve never whacked off over any NU player.

 

[Alan Smithee]

I’m proud to say that I’ve never whacked off over any NU player.

Literally or metaphorically?

 

[StreamCat]

Literally or metaphorically?

I was talking literally.

 

[Gladeskat]

I’m proud to say that I’ve never whacked off over any NU player.

Good. I'll scratch you off the list then.