Since Jack Coan started his first game for the Badgers on October 27, 2018 against Northwestern people in Madison have been looking past him and to four-star recruit Graham Mertz, waiting and sometimes clamoring for Mertz to get the job under center.
While Mertz’s talent is apparent and nobody would deny the fact that he has a bright future both in Madison and maybe at the next level, his presence has created an ambivalence towards Coan and what he has accomplished. This has then led to Coan’s improvement from 2018 to 2019 and his 2019 season, including a Big Ten-best completion percentage of 70%, to go largely unappreciated amongst Badger fans.
Now there are some, like myself, who since the spring practice period leading up to the 2019 season have been on the “Coan should 100% start” train and have recognized the fact that he is arguably becoming the best quarterback the Badgers have had since Russell Wilson (that I’ll get into later).
And I will acknowledge that his supporting class last season was probably the best since the Wilson years when he had Montee Ball, Jared Abbrederis and Nick Toon as his running mates.
But listen to this. Before I get into Coan’s 2019 season and where it ranks in the school’s recent history, Jesse Temple of The Athletic conducted a survey last month for which he received 666 responses to questions about Paul Chryst, Coan, the program as a whole and much more.
Of those 666 respondents 62.2 percent were correct and thought Coan should be the starting quarterback for the 2020 season. The fact that 37.2 percent of the respondents thought Graham Mertz, a redshirt freshman, should start in place of Coan is crazy to me given the fact Mertz is young and has almost no game experience and Coan is coming off a Rose Bowl appearance and a Big Ten Championship game during which he had his team up 21-7 at halftime.
However, that was not the most surprising response to one of Temple’s survey questions.
For that look no further than the question “Who is your favorite player on the 2020 roster?”
The response? Mertz: 97 votes, Jake Ferguson: 48 votes, Jack Sanborn: 45 votes and, finally, Jack Coan: 42 votes.
It’s not the fact that Ferguson and Sanborn scored so well, as they are budding stars at key positions for Chryst’s team. It’s the fact that the backup quarterback, who has thrown a total of 10 college passes, received more than double the number of votes that the starter received, a guy who only finished last season with the best completion percentage in the Big Ten and a total of 2727 yards, an 18-5 touchdown-to-interception ratio and four rushing touchdowns.
Again, Mertz has all the talent in the world and a bright future for Chryst’s program. But it’s become increasingly apparent that Badger fans are looking past what Coan did last year and are simply waiting for when Mertz gets the job.
Here are some stats for context.
Coan’s final line from 2019 was 2727 yards, 70% completion, 8.4 adjusted passing yards per attempt, 18 touchdowns, five interceptions and four rushing touchdowns.
Since Wilson’s remarkable 2011 season during which he bested all of those numbers with 3175 yards, 73% completion, 11.8 AY/A, 33 touchdowns, four interceptions and six rushing touchdowns where does Coan’s season rank?
Passing yards: first, completion percentage: first, AY/A: second (to Joel Stave in 2012 with a smaller sample size), touchdowns: second (to Alex Hornibrook in 2017 when he also threw 15 interceptions), interceptions: second (again to Stave in 2012 with far fewer attempts) and rushing touchdowns: first.
I said it above and through those numbers it’s clear: Jack Coan has become the Badgers’ best quarterback since Russell Wilson.
Adding on to all of this I am not the only person praising Coan heading into 2020, as ProFootballFocus called him a “hidden offensive gem” and TheDraftNetwork has him listed on their way-too-early big board for the 2021 NFL Draft.
“Looking at only the Power-5 level, only two of the top 10 quarterbacks who threw at least 200 non-play-action straight dropbacks return in 2020: former four-star recruit Sam Ehlinger at Texas and former three-star recruit Jack Coan at Wisconsin,” the PFF article reads. “With their use of different personnel groupings, formations and pass concepts, the Wisconsin passing attack is not necessarily a plug-and-play system for quarterbacks, but Coan performed admirably.”
Yes, Coan will need to avoid poor showings like his game last year against Northwestern and will need to build upon his 2019 production this season without the services of Jonathan Taylor and Quintez Cephus.
But in the grand scheme of things his talent and success need to be appreciated before he’s gone, even if Graham Mertz is waiting behind him in the ranks.