Altmyer or Paddock. It’s the question everyone’s been asking since last Saturday’s game against Indiana. However now that it’s seemingly been confirmed that Altmyer is the answer to that question, fans of Illini football are divided and many are outraged.
The start of the 2023 Fighting Illini Football season started off in search of a new starting quarterback. And it ended with Luke Altmyer as the face of the franchise.
Many fans were excited about the new QB and hoped the new season would be as good as the last, maybe even better.
Altmyer faced skepticism about whether or not he was the right pick by fans. A rough game to start the season made that clear. The team playing Toledo and only winning by two points. It didn’t help that Altmyer threw an interception that game, and two the next. The final nail in the coffin of doubt was Altmyer throwing 4 interceptions in a game against Penn State.
But what sealed the deal for fans objectively losing most if not all hope in the quarterback for this season was the game against Purdue. A 44-19 loss for the Illini. This was a game that was much closer in odds than the score indicated it should’ve been. It devasted the fans, including myself and left us all wondering what the hell happened.
Injury Timeout
The season looked like it might get worse for the fans before it got better. Altmyer goes down during the game against Minnesota and the backup quarterback has to go in. John Paddock, who at this point as played at least a little bit for the Illini at the very end of games, is taking over at a crucial moment where everything is on the line.
Paddock, a legacy player, doesn’t let the fans downs and throws and completes just three amazing passes to win it all in the final seconds of the game for Illinois.
This causes the fans to rally behind Paddock because they were euphoric over a win and a Hail Mary one at that.
News comes that Altmyer is out with a concussion so Paddock will start and play the next game. And play he does.
Going Down in History
As a legacy player it must’ve been important for Paddock to leave his mark on the program and a good one at that. After the way he played with over 500 passing yards, a 67 yard longest passing throw, and 24 out of 36 attempted throws for a 66.7% completion rate, Paddock was named Big Ten player of the week and instantly the fans demanded he start in the game against Iowa today.
Altmyer Vs Paddock
That brings us to today. The entire week Coach Bret Bielema and his team have kept a tight lip about who would be starting the game against Iowa today. If it would be the newly healed Altmyer or the sudden fan favorite Paddock.
When it was revealed this morning that the coach had decided to go with Altmyer, his original starting QB, fans in the comment sections of Illinois Football social media pages expressed their outrage.
One person said, “not starting paddock is a crime.”
Another said, “Bret wants to lose. He knows nothing. Why not start paddock who is on fire.” That comment was followed by an emoji of a man facepalming his head.
The Stats
The decision to start Altmyer was a shocking one.
At first.
But the more you look into the stats of Altmyer the more you may come to understand Bielema’s decision. Now I’m not saying you’ll come to agree with it, but at the very least you may see a little bit as to why he is doing what he is doing and the faith he has in the young QB.
Altymer Has More Eligibility than Paddock
Let’s start with the basics. Altmyer is a sophmore. That’s two years of eligibility after this to build on and make a better program. Paddock is a senior, this is his last year. He doesn’t have anymore eligibility after this, there’s no program to build on him.
Altmyer Has a More Consistent Completion Rate than Paddock.
While Paddock has had more passing yards than Altmyer and fewer sacks and interceptions, Altmyer is more consistent in his completions than Paddock is, even for how impressive the throws and completions may be. Altmyer still has a higher completion percentage than Paddock with his coming in at an overall average of 64.8% and Paddock’s at an average of 62.9%.
The Right Choice
At the end of the day the stats are only one piece of the puzzle that show who should be the starting quarterback the for Illini. Before I started researching this article I fully believed Bielema had made the wrong decision but now I’m not as convinced as I was before.
As fans we don’t see what the coaches do in practice and we don’t know the work ethics and the potential of the players behind the scenes. We don’t have all the information.
I would like to see more of Paddock because he played a hell of a game against Indiana and it was exciting to watch every step of the way. But I don’t think I can confidently say it’s the right decision to bench Altmyer especially with statistics that aren’t particularly bad.
What I do know is that this had to have been an incredibly difficult choice for Bielema as he values so much of what the fans have to say. After getting to interview him one-on-one after the 2022 season that was one of my biggest takeaways. He respects the fans deeply and values what they think so hearing each and every one of those comments saying that starting Paddock is the move to make when his gut is telling him something else is and going with his gut is something to be admired.
Only time will tell if Bielema made the right decision. Tune into the game today on Fox Sports at 2:30 CST.
