Welcome to RyanForHeisman.com

We thought it would be interesting to compare Matt Ryan's stats from this year to those of last year's Heisman Trophy winner, Troy Smith.  We will use Ryan's numbers from the first four games to project his 2007 season stat line, and will then compare this line to Smith's full season at Ohio State.  Although we fully expect BC to compete for an ACC Championship, we will project Ryan's stats through all regular season games and a bowl game.
 

Stat	Ryan's 2007 Line	Edge		Smith's 2006 Line
Games	13	=		13
Completions	364	*		203
Attempts	588	*		311
Completion Pct	61.9		*	65.3
Yards	4,358	*		2,542
Yards/Attempt	7.41		*	8.2
Touchdowns	33	*		30
Interceptions	16		*	6
TD/Int	2.06		*	5
Attempts/Game	45.2	*		23.9
Yards/Game	335.2	*		195.5

As you can see, the comparison is indeed very interesting.  The most obvious observation is that Matt Ryan is playing in an offense that passes a lot more than Smith's did; Ryan is on pace to attempt almost twice as many passes.  Their completion percentages, meanwhile, are very close, leading us to believe that both QBs operate at the same level of efficiency. 

One troubling stat is that after only four games, Ryan is only one interception shy of Smiths full season number - 6.  This is one category that is hard to blame on receivers or the O-line.  Fortunately, the two main numbers talked about when discussing post-season awards are TDs and yards.  With projected numbers of 33 and 4,358, respectively, Ryan's in great shape.

In conclusion, this comparison is not very significant.  Heisman winners are not chosen based on how they stack up against previous winners, but rather how they stack up against other candidates, and how their team performs.  However, if Ryan continues to perform at his current rate, this comparison does show that he has "Heisman quality numbers."