Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater entered the 2013 season as one of the top Heisman Trophy candidates but ever since the Cardinals were upset by UCF and knocked out of the BCS championship picture, regardless of how much of a shot they had to start with, it seems as though the college football world has sort of forgotten about Bridgewater. Bridgewater is still widely considered to be a potential top draft pick, if he does indeed decide to turn pro and skip on his final year at Louisville, so he has not exactly fallen off the map.
As far as the college football world is concerned, Bridgewater has been overlooked in the second half of the season.
He was not among the six players invited to New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation. The American Athletic Conference gave UCF quarterback Blake Bortles the nod as the conference’s offensive player of the year and all-conference first team despite Bridgewater having better number sin a variety of passing categories and actually turning in a better statistical game in their head-to-head match-up.
Some seem to think Bridgewater struggled down the stretch of the regular season because he failed to throw a 300-yard game. At a glance I felt that way as well. Watching Bridgewater in the second half of the season you saw some throws he would have liked to have back for sure, but he also had a handful of plays that show why he is so attractive to NFL scouts. The UConn game may have been the worst game of the year for Bridgewater, as he completed just 56.8 percent of his passes and he was intercepted once, but he led the team to victory with 288 yards. For the season though, Bridgewater was successful inside the red zone. Bridgewater only completed 55.6 percent of his passes inside the 20-yard line, but he tossed 16 touchdowns and zero interceptions. That prove he is smart with the football and avoids making mistakes at the worst possible time, and that means something at the next level as well.
Bridgewater’s completion percentage dipped about 11 points in November, but a completion percentage 64.7 in November was just three points lower than Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston at Florida State and was higher than Heisman finalists AJ McCarron of Alabama and Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M. As has always been the case for Bridgewater, and Louisville, being guilty by association has been the biggest detriment when it comes to appreciating what has gone right. Because Bridgewater and Louisville played a schedule without many challenges, our perception of the numbers can be skewed at times.
Bridgewater may be playing his final game as a Louisville Cardinal today against Miami. I encourage you all to just sit back, relax and enjoy it while you can.