How is Nic Shimonek Stacking Up

There are a lot of misconceptions about Nic Shimonek’s performance thus far into the season. There is some truth that the 5th year senior starts out fine but then fades late as the games get close. Part of this has to do with adjustments in coverage the opposing defense employs to try and slow down Tech’s high powered attack.

I went back to look at previous quarterbacks who wore the Scarlet & Black to see just how Nic Shimonek is stacking up. Of course, certain years and certain quarterbacks won’t be a fair comparison, so for our purposes, I wanted to look at perceived successful quarterbacks, many with winning records, along the same stat line as Shimonek this year. Here is what I found.

Nikopoia

Shimonek has played 6 games thus far, so our projection was just to double that output.

Shimonek has the best completion percentage outside of Seth Doege in 2012. Tied for second most touchdown passes with 36 and has the fewest interceptions of the group with 8. Now I know what you’re thinking... “High completion percentage and low interceptions is because he’s too conservative. All those other quarterbacks pushed the ball down the field.”

Well, let’s look at the yards per attempt category. Shimonek leads this category at 9.1 YPA. That’s on par with Patrick Mahomes in 2016 when he recorded a 9.2 YPA.

Though we think we’ve seen all there is to Shimonek and his lack of “Mahomes-ness” has us ready for the next Mahomes (Duffey?) to play, Shimonek has led Texas Tech to a 4-2 record, ranking 7th in total offense, 4th in scoring and is taking care of the football. Yes, he tends to take sacks easily and throw the ball away, but he’s not exposing himself to injury and by throwing some away is giving the team a chance on the next down.

Nic Shimonek seems to be doing his part to become the next in a good line of not only 5th year senior quarterbacks at Texas Tech, but just a good quarterback.