Entering the 2013 season, Hundley was one of the most anticipated young quarterbacks in the nation, along with other PAC-12 passers like Marcus Mariota and Kevin Hogan. Early in the year, it appeared as if Hundley,who nicknamed “Hundini” for his spectacular escapability, would live up to his hype. To be fair, he was overhyped initially and his 2013 season was not as horrendous as it is often perceived.
The notion that Hundley had a poor season was primarily based on his subpar performances against conference rivals Oregon and Stanford. In both of those games, he threw for less than 200 yards, including a 64-yard passing performance against Oregon. If those games were to be pulled from the stat sheet, Hundley would have had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 22:5. Of course that is not the case, but there is a point to be made. Even if Hundley fails to show up against tougher teams, he has the ability to dominate average or lesser opponents.
On the flip side, beating up on lesser teams should be expected. Against the tougher opponents, it is the quarterback’s priority to carry his team. Quarterbacks, or anyone, that fail to keep up with elite opponents are not elite themselves. Hundley struggled mightily against top corners, even if they were on lesser teams as a whole. On paper, his completion percentage was typically lower against teams with top notch cornerbacks and/or safeties (Washington, Virginia Tech, Stanford). All that being said about Hundley’s numbers, stats are too superficial to be the basis of an argument. Unfortunately for Hundley, the tape shows the same story.
As stated before, Hundley looked the part early in the year. The first game of the year against Nevada was a spectacular performance, both through the air and on the ground. He was shredding Nevada’s defensive backs and a majority of his incompletions were repeated mistakes when throwing deep. The following week, Hundley lead an emotional win over Nebraska as that was the first game following the passing of teammate Nick Pasquale. Of course there were flashes of brilliance after that point, but for the most part, Hundley was not the same quarterback for the remainder of the year. His timing was shaky, he failed to complete clutch deep passes, and he threw many inexcusably horrid passes that should have been easy to complete.
Digressing back to his numbers, Hundley appears better on paper than he does on film because of offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone. As much as his offense is disgusting to watch, it is a sort of variant to Chip Kelly’s offense. The offense is reliant on swing passes and read-options (and read-option passes) that allows playmakers to get the ball as quickly as possible. Many of Hundley’s passing yards come from yards after the catch generated by the receivers. That is not to say that Hundley is entirely reliant on the system, but it is quite noticeable that he would not produce as well without it.
Hundley did not have a poor season, per say. He had an average season that looked much better on paper than it did on film. Much of that was due to Hundley being a raw passer in regards to mechanics and mental ability. Assuming Hundley puts in the work to improve, he could turn into the quarterback he is hyped up to be, but as of now, he is not that caliber of player.