Let's Talk 2016 NFL Draft Quarterbacks

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Prescott’s numbers are among the best in SEC history
By Jake Wimberly on September 29, 2015

Prescott and Mullen
The biggest knock on Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott used to be that he was just a runner and not a proficient passer.

That criticism has been put to rest and Prescott is poised to finish off his career as one of the state of Mississippi’s most transcendent college football players of the past 40 years.

Prescott enjoyed a banner season in 2014, including helping his team to the first No. 1 ranking in school history. He guided the Bulldogs to just the third 10-win season in school history and a berth in the Orange Bowl, and finished eighth in Heisman voting. Prescott finished with 4,485 total yards, the third-highest single-season total in SEC history.

Through four games this season, he has Mississippi State in the top 25 again and is on a pace to finish his career in the top five in SEC history in total offense. If Mississippi State were to go to a bowl, Prescott potentially could finish in the top three in the league in that category (behind only Aaron Murray and Tim Tebow). He’s also on a pace to finish his career as the most prolific major-college offensive player in state of Mississippi history.

Not bad for a former three-star recruit from Haughton, La.

Going into this week’s game at Texas A&M, Prescott has not thrown an interception in 191 consecutive attempts – the sixth-longest streak in SEC history and the longest current streak in the country. He has thrown for 1,069 yards, with seven TDs and no interceptions, and is completing 66.9 percent of his passes.

To put Prescott’s Mississippi State career in perspective, consider that there were 14 quarterbacks who started at least one game for the Bulldogs from 2002-08, the seven-season stretch prior to coach Dan Mullen’s arrival in Starkville. Those quarterbacks combined for just over 14,000 total yards, with 79 touchdown passes and 116 interceptions. Prescott is on pace to finish with 11,086 total yards, with 69 touchdown passes and 18 interceptions.

His improvement as a passer has NFL teams looking at him as a potential second-day pick in the 2016 draft. He still can make some refinements as a passer, but he also has come a long way. Quarterback guru David Morris — coincidentally an Ole Miss alum who runs a company that develops and trains quarterbacks called “QB Country” — has said Prescott arguably had the best skill set of any quarterback in the country entering the 2015 season and compared him to former first-round pick Donovan McNabb.