USF Football: 5 reasons why Quinton Flowers will win Heisman in 2017
By Zach Bigalke
3. Flowers could post even better efficiency numbers in 2017
Quinton Flowers nearly broke the 3,000/1,500 club last year. The quarterback threw for 2,800 yards and completed 62.5 percent of his passes. Flowers boosted his completion percentage by over three and a half percent and threw for over 500 more yards over the course of the year than he did as a sophomore in 2015.
Flowers could easily continue that line of progression this season and finish the year with a 65-plus percent completion rate and at least 3300 passing yards. Given his familiar group of receivers, the senior will need only to continue what he is doing to prosper in the coming year.
Related Story: South Florida Football: Two-deep 2017 depth chart projection
Of course, there is no guarantee of that happening. The one big wrinkle in the mix is new offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert. In three years as an offensive coordinator at the FBS level, Gilbert has worked at three different schools. His first gig, at Bowling Green in 2014, went sour when starting quarterback Matt Johnson was injured. In one year at Tulsa he helped Dane Evans progress as a starter. And then there was last year at Texas.
Gilbert helped create one of the nation’s best rushing attacks in the country last year in Austin. He also was not able to really generate any consistent passing game with the Longhorns. Charlie Strong has confidence in the coordinator, though, and brought him along to Tampa. It could simply be that Gilbert has had bad luck with quarterbacks and merely needed a talent like Flowers.