Matthew Stafford
| TBD | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | University of Georgia | ||||||||
| NFL draft: | 2009 / round: TBD / pick: TBD | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
| |||||||||
John Matthew Stafford (born February 7, 1988 in Tampa, Florida) is a top NFL draft prospect who was previously the starting quarterback for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. On January 7, 2009, Stafford announced he would forgo his senior year of college and declare for the 2009 NFL Draft.[1] It was announced on April 22, 2009 (the Wednesday before the 2009 NFL Draft) that he was negotiating a deal with the Detroit Lions to be the #1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.
Early life and high school
Stafford was born in Tampa, Florida to John and Margaret Stafford. He lived in Hinesville, Georgia while his father attended graduate school at the University of Georgia. His family then moved to Dallas, Texas, where Stafford attended Highland Park High School, (the alma mater of Bobby Layne, Doak Walker,and Clayton Kershaw), where he was widely considered to be one of the best high school quarterbacks in the United States in the class of 2006.[2]
He made his varsity debut in the 2002 playoffs against Kilgore High. His first varsity start was against the Stephenville Yellow Jackets in 2003, and he led the Highland Park Scots to a 13-2 record that season. He threw for 3,161 yards, 38 TDs and 5 INT. He also lettered in baseball where he was teammates with future Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, but after a disappointing junior season in which he threw for only 1,054 yards, 10 TDs and 39 INTs, Stafford quit the baseball team to concentrate on football. In the summer of 2005, he injured his knee during summer workouts and had to miss the first two games of the season. After coming back from his injury, Stafford led his team to a 0-10 record and threw for 5 yards, 2 touchdowns and 67 interception en route to the Texas UIL 4-A Division 1 state football championship, Highland Park's first state football championship in 48 years. Stafford is the only quarterback in Highland Park history to lead his team to a 0-10 season.
He received numerous accolades including being named to the Parade Magazine All-America Team and the USA Today Pre-Season Super 25 in 2005.[3] He also won the MVP and Best Arm awards at the 2005 EA Sports Elite 11 Quarterback Camp and was named the 2005 EA Sports National Player of the Year.[4] Famed American football analyst, Mel Kiper, Jr., predicted, before he ever started a game at the collegiate level, that Stafford would eventually be the first pick in the NFL draft. [5] After the 2008 NFL Draft in late April 2008, several NFL analysts predicted Stafford would be the #1 pick in the 2009 draft if he chose to leave school after the 2008 season.[6] [7]
College career
Freshman
Stafford graduated from high school early and enrolled at UGA in January, where he become the first true freshman Bulldog QB to start since Quincy Carter (1998) and first out of high school to start since Eric Zeier (1991). He completed five of 12 passes for 102 yards and one TD in Georgia spring game. Stafford debuted against Western Kentucky University in the first game of the 2006 Season he went 3 of 5 passing; 40 yards and a touchdown pass. Against South Carolina, Bulldogs starter quarterback Joe Tereshinski III was injured in the game and replaced by Stafford. Stafford completed 8 of 19 passes for 171 yards, but threw 3 interceptions, however Georgia won 18-0. Stafford got his first career start at quarterback vs UAB Blazers and completed 10 of 17 passes for 107 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Stafford was named SEC Freshman of the Week for his performance against Mississippi State in which he completed 20-of-32 passes for 267 yards and two touchdowns. He led team to a 14-9 comeback at Ole Miss after down 3-0 at the half.
Stafford was eventually given the starting role, he struggled in his first year, completing 126 of 235 passes (53.6%) for 1,620 yards, with six touchdowns and 12 interceptions heading into the 2006 Chick-fil-A Bowl, where Stafford and the Bulldogs made 18-point comeback was the largest for Georgia under coach Mark Richt up to that point. He finished the game with 9/21 passes,129 yards, 1 TD and 1 Int. He was the recipient of the Dr. and Mrs. Howard Williams, III, Football Scholarship and named team's Offensive Newcomer of the Year.
Sophomore
Stafford completed six of 12 passes for 155 yards and two TDs in spring game before the season. He threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns as the Bulldogs cruised past the Cowboys in the season opener, Georgia won its first game of the season for an 11th consecutive season. Against the Alabama Crimson Tide the Dawgs avoided an 0-2 start in SEC play by escaping Bryant-Denny Stadium with an overtime win. He connected with senior wide receiver Mikey Henderson on the Bulldogs first play from scrimmage in OT for the winning score. He completed 11-of-18 passes for 217 and three touchdowns including a career-long TD pass of 84 yards to Mohamed Massaquoi, which was the longest pass completion in the SEC in 2007, and a 53-yard TD pass to Henderson vs. No. 9 Florida Gators. Stafford registered 175 yards passing and a TD pass to Sean Bailey during Georgia 41-10 rout of No. 10 Hawaii Warriors in the 2008 Sugar Bowl. His final stats were 13 starts completing 194-for-348 passes for 2,523 yards (194.1 per game) and 19 TDs as well as two rushing TDs.
Junior
Stafford was chosen to Athlon’s preseason Heisman Favorites Others To Watch list. Georgia was ranked #1 in both the preseason coaches poll and AP poll, marking the first time Georgia has ever been #1 in the preseason version of either poll, also entered the 2008 season with the longest active winning streak among the 66 BCS conference teams having won their last 7 games of the 2007 season.
Professional career
In 2009 Stafford entered the NFL Draft.
An article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday, March 27, 2009 suggested that San Francisco is most likely not considering drafting Stafford because he was uncomfortable answering questions at the NFL combine in February from a team psychologist regarding his parents' divorce. The article claims Niners head coach Mike Singletary told KNBR (680 AM) in San Francisco that “if you’re going to look at drafting a guy in the first round, and you’re going to pay him millions of dollars, and asking him about a divorce about his parents, if that’s going to be an issue, then you know what, maybe he doesn’t belong here". Stafford later told the Detroit Free Press that the psychologist presumed Stafford had “unfinished business” about his parents’ split in high school. He says he answered no and inquired how much the doctor was being paid for the analysis.[8]
The “Stafford Effect”
The so-called “Stafford Effect” relates to the phenomenon seen at Stafford's high school alma mater, Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas, from 2006-2008, where the number of seniors who applied to University of Georgia rose dramatically in the three years following Stafford's departure to Athens, Georgia. In 2005, the year before Stafford went to Georgia, 35 seniors applied to the university, compared with 69 in 2006, 75 in 2007, and 106 in 2008. The “Stafford Effect” was chronicled in a feature story in Stafford's hometown newspaper, Park Cities People. Stafford remarked in the story that, “I'm not sure I have anything to do with it,” he said about the increase. “I think people realize Georgia is a good school to watch football and have a good time, just like in Highland Park.”[9]
College career
Career statistics
(as of January 2, 2009)
| Passing | Rushing | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Comp | Att | Yards | Pct. | TDs | Int | Rating | Att | Yds | Avg | TD | |
| 2006 | 135 | 256 | 1,749 | 52.7 | 7 | 13 | 109.0 | 47 | 191 | 4.1 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 194 | 348 | 2,523 | 55.7 | 19 | 10 | 128.9 | 39 | -18 | -0.5 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 235 | 382 | 3,459 | 61.5 | 25 | 10 | 153.9 | 55 | 40 | 0.7 | 1 | |
| Totals | 564 | 986 | 7,731 | 57.2 | 51 | 33 | 133.4 | 141 | 213 | 1.5 | 6 | |
- Stafford's 25 touchdown passes in 2008 broke the previous Georgia record of 24, set by D. J. Shockley (2004) and Eric Zeier (1993, 1994).
- Stafford's 3,459 yards passing in 2008 were 2nd most in Georgia history, surpassed only by Zeier's 3,525 yards in 1993.
Awards
- Named SEC Freshman of the Week twice during the 2006 season.
- Named Rivals.com's National Freshman of the Week for his performance against Auburn on November 11, 2006.
- Received the University of Georgia's 2006 Offensive Newcomer of the Year Award.
- Named to the 2006 SEC Coaches' All-Freshman Team. [10]
- Named Offensive MVP of the 2006 Chick-fil-A Bowl
- Named All-America in 2008 by Pro Football Weekly. [11]
- Named to All-SEC 2nd team in 2008[12]
- Phil Steele’s All-SEC second Team[13]
- MVP of the 2009 Capital One Bowl
References
- ^ Towers, Chip (2009-01-07). "UGA's Stafford had mind made up before bowl". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Rivals.com Pro-style quarterbacks ranking of 2006
- ^ Stafford Bio from GeorgiaDogs.com
- ^ 2005 EA Sports All-American Team
- ^ "Some Things Will Be Different with Freshman QB"
- ^ Prisco, Pete (April 28, 2008). "Drafting '09: Georgia QB Stafford starts out as top dog". CBSSports.com.
- ^ Perloff, Andrew (April 29, 2008). "2009 Mock Draft". CNNSI.com.
- ^ http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/uga/stories/2009/03/27/matthew_stafford_nfl_draft.html
- ^ Seniors Follow Stafford
- ^ 2006 SEC Football All-Freshmen Team Announced
- ^ Pro Football Weekly 2008 All-America Team
- ^ Six Bulldogs Named To Coaches' All-SEC Teams
- ^ Ten Bulldogs Named To Phil Steele’s All-SEC Team