Through the first two weeks of college football, Louisville’s sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson’s statline looks like a long list of careless typos.
So far this season — and, keep in mind, this is through just two games — Jackson has 697 passing yards, 318 rushing yards and 13 total touchdowns.
To put those numbers in perspective, here’s what Jackson has managed to accomplish this season:
- His 610 total yards against Syracuse in his second game of the season not only set a new school record, but it set a new ACC record.
- Jackson’s six rushing touchdowns in two games would already rank him 46th in Louisville history amongst every player’s career totals. Jackson’s actual total, 17 touchdowns, ranks him 17th all-time in career touchdowns at Louisville and first among quarterbacks. Jackson has played 14 total games for the Cardinals.
- If Lamar Jackson were a school, he would rank 9th in the FBS in rushing touchdowns. Jackson would also rank 32nd in total yards. He has more total yards than Michigan, Alabama, Texas and LSU.
- Jackson’s 9.9 yards per run is the most among players with at least 25 runs in the FBS. He’s third in the FBS in rushing yards. Nick Dylan Fitzgerald, the quarterback out of Mississippi State, has 112-fewer rushing yards than Jackson. Fitzgerald is second among FBS quarterbacks in rushing yards.
But what makes Jackson extra exciting is not just the outrageous stats, but the overall flashiness to his game.
Jackson’s thrown a 72-yard touchdown pass. He’s also ran for a 72-yard score of his own. But nothing tops his 9-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter of his game against Syracuse.
Jackson bounced out to the left side of the field on a scramble, and, as he began to carve his way toward the corner of the endzone, he jumped clean over defensive back Cordell Hudson.
“There was nowhere else to go,” Jackson said after the game. “I couldn’t shake him. I felt like he was going low, so I just jumped.”
The flash and efficiency is eerily similar to one other scrambling quarterback from another ACC school in former Virginia Tech Hokie Michael Vick — although Virginia Tech was in the Big East when Vick attended.
But how did Vick’s numbers through two games in his sophomore season compare Jackson’s first two games? They weren’t even close.
In Vick’s sophomore year in 2000, he completed 54 percent of his passes for 1,234 yards and added another 617 yards on the ground for 16 total touchdowns. And through his first two games, against Akron and East Carolina, Vick threw for 292 yards, ran for 115 and scored five total touchdowns.
“He’s got all the tools, man,” Vick told the Courier Journal’s Steve Jones. “I think he’s got everything that it takes to develop into a great quarterback. That’s essential for any team these days, and to be in the system that he’s in, Bobby Petrino has really taken advantage of his strengths and put him in positions where he can excel. He’s obviously a very smart kid when you’re able to put up the type of numbers he’s been putting up.”
Now, it’s important to pump the brakes on any otherworldly expectations from Jackson. We can go ahead and start the Vick and Jackson discussions, Jackson still has a very long way to go. After all, Vick went 9-1 his sophomore season, leading the Hokies to a sixth-place finish. And, just last season, Charlotte, Louisville’s first opponent of the season, finished with a 2-10 record. Syracuse was 96th out of 128 teams in yards allowed last season, and the Orange have very low expectations this year. So Jackson hasn’t really faced a great opponent yet.
But Jackson and Louisville will have a real test this Saturday against No. 2 Florida State, a team with lofty goals and a much stingier defense.
The Seminoles have already faced a difficult opponent in Ole Miss, the team they opened up the season against, and they faced adversity. With just under a minute left in the second quarter, Florida State found themselves down 28-6. But the second half was a whole different story. The Seminoles would rattle off 33 straight points to swipe away the opening victory.
Jackson played against the Seminoles as a freshman. His then-unranked Cardinals took on No. 11 Florida State, losing the game 41-21. Jackson finished with 307 yards passing and 3 touchdowns, but he was held to just 32 yards rushing on 19 carries.
Florida State’s defense is tougher now than they were last year. But Jackson’s offense is more potent as well, and the quarterback, brimming with confidence, will take the exact same approach as he has this season.
“We got to stay focused,” Jackson said after the Syracuse game. “We got to score a lot of points in the first quarter. Got to stay humble and keep going.”
If Jackson is able to replicate his past performances for his next opponent, the sky’s not only the limit for Louisville, but for Jackson himself.
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