Munchie Legaux Was Even Better Than You Think He Was

In Saturdays game there were a lot of remarkable performances by Bearcats. Three Cats took home Big East player of the week honors, but there were other performances Greg Blair turned in a 13 tackle performance, a career high, Walter Stewart got back on the sack train. Parker Ehringer got his second career start, his first at RT, and played exceptionally. George Winn ground out 76 yards on 17 carries, all of them hard. Damon Julian and on, and on. But the player I want to talk about, is the player that everyone is talking about; Munchie Legaux.

A consensus was reached on Munchie Legaux somewhere around the middle of the Delaware State game. The consensus was that he, and by extension the offense, could be stopped by stacking the box against the run game, blitzing frequently, and by pressing the receivers at the line of scrimmage to take away the short and intermediate passing game.

It wasn't without reason. Through the first two games Munchie had attempted 55 passes, 43 of the attempts traveled less than 10 yards in the air. Of those 43 attempts, 19 were attempted behind the line of scrimmage. Here is Munchie's passer rating by depth through the first two games.

Now all those numbers are from my breakdowns, and charting, of the Bearcats passing game. And it paints a dim picture of a passing game that gets less efficient throwing down the field, even though the passer rating formula gives greater weight to longer throws.

It was plain to see that Foster and crew had studied the tape, and done the breakdown's themselves. They came out with a gameplan that would force Munchie to beat them by making difficult throws. Throws that twitter offensive coordinators throughout Bearcat Nation were convinced he couldn't make.

For most of the game Tech played a psuedo five man front, at least five guys rushed the quarterback throughout the game, sometimes more. Alot more. Virginia Tech overplayed the run. There were always 8 guys in the box, sometimes more. Rare, was the single high safety in the Tech defensive backfield. On almost every play you saw the Bearcats receivers with their arms extended crossing them back and forth, which is the sign, at least in that game, for man coverage.

Bud Foster, and the Munchie doubters, were convinced that if he had to make plays, down field, against man coverage, that he couldn't do it. They were wrong, obviously. One does not throw for 376 yards without going down field. But it was only in watching the game again last night that it became clear just how down field the passing game was last night.

19 is the number of passes that were attempted, through two games, behind the line of scrimmage by Munchie Legaux. I bring it up again, because it is important. In the first two games passes behind the LOS accounted for 36 per cent of the Bearcats offense. I kind of expected those numbers to translate over to the Virginia Tech game. Watching it live it was obvious they hadn't. But rewatching it, to chart plays, I was shocked by the numbers.

In a game where Munchie Legaux attempted more passes, and threw for more yards, than at any other point in his career all of 3 passes were behind the LOS. Three. From a guy who was basically averaging three such attempts every quarter through two games this year.

Here is Munchie's complete chart from the Virgina Tech game, broken out by where the intended receiver was on the field when Munchie threw to him.

Same numbers, in passer rating form.

One commenter on College Football's 4Chan EDSBS described Munchie's statline from Saturday as "the ultimate fuck it i'm going deep line." And it was. And it worked.

After Saturday, I can't imagine that there is a soul left on the Brendon Kay for QB bandwagon. The only people that should be left on that cart now should be Brendon's family, his girlfriend and the fine people of Marine City, Michigan. Everyone needs to take notice of what Munchie did against the Hokies.

Its very, very easy to get esoteric, and wax philosophical about Saturday's game, shit I am emphatically guilty of that sin myself. But that game, and Munchie's performance therein, can be boiled down to a simple sentence. Virginia Tech came into the game with a gameplan designed to exploit Munchie's weaknesses; he took said game plan and delivered a soul crushing win with it.

If that wasn't enough to convince people that Munchie is the right quarterback for the Bearcats, then some people need to start looking for a new team. Viva La Munchie

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