My favorite QBs all time are #1 AE and #2 Richie Williams. My favorite passer was Chase Brice with his strong arm until this Cali kid named Joey "Dimes" Aguilar came along (here is to a successful great year for the young man in his last college year at Tennessee! )

Had Aguilar played 4 full years at App, I don't think there is any question he would have shattered most of the school passing records especially all time yards, TDs career. He set the single season mark with 33 TDs as well as the single season yds 3757. Quite possibly he could have set the total yds passing mark had he remained here for his last year. It's hard to fathom hypothetically that would surpass AE in just 3 seasons.

So farewell and wishing success to JA at Tennessee and welcome wishes for huge successes to AJ Swann leading us to new horizons. GO APP!!!

Todd Payton

Had to do a deep dive on the interwebs to find out who Todd Payton was. Found his 1986 stats. .503 completion percent, 7 interceptions to 9 TDs with 1307 net passing yards. I'm going to stick with AE and Chase. In all fairness, we probably ran the ball more back then though.

Black Saturday wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 20, 2025 8:14 pm

Todd Payton

Ouch

Todd Payton was the QB during most of my time at App. He handed the ball off to John Settle a lot. Nothing flashy. Here’s a good story on Todd. Also a chance to see those flying Yosef head helmets in action.

Brice

Under appreciated is some respects. I like scoring TDs and 90 of them makes me smile. Taylor Lamb

Best QB and best passer are two different questions. AE the former, consistent passer - Brice, upside - Joey, he could make throws even Brice couldn’t.

Lamb was just a winner, probably got the most of his ability of anyone we’ve had at QB.

Smartest - Taylor Lamb
Toughest - Zac Thomas
Best Athlete - AE
Best Passer - Brice
Game Manager - Lamb
Competitor - Aguilar

Lowcountry App wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 20, 2025 9:45 pm

Todd Payton was the QB during most of my time at App. He handed the ball off to John Settle a lot. Nothing flashy. Here’s a good story on Todd. Also a chance to see those flying Yosef head helmets in action.

I'm glad a took a couple of minutes to watch this video... seems like a great guy!

AppSt94 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 7:17 am

Smartest - Taylor Lamb
Toughest - Zac Thomas
Best Athlete - AE
Best Passer - Brice
Game Manager - Lamb
Competitor - Aguilar

I wonder how we might view these QBs if they had played under different coaches. Satt seemed to really understand Lamb's positives and negatives and game-planned well around that. IDK if Clark would have been able to do that. Conversely, I don't think Aguilar's passing numbers are as crazy if he plays under Satt because the run game was always first option. I could be wrong. I'm just spitballing.

MrCraig wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 8:25 am

AppSt94 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 7:17 am

Smartest - Taylor Lamb
Toughest - Zac Thomas
Best Athlete - AE
Best Passer - Brice
Game Manager - Lamb
Competitor - Aguilar

I wonder how we might view these QBs if they had played under different coaches. Satt seemed to really understand Lamb's positives and negatives and game-planned well around that. IDK if Clark would have been able to do that. Conversely, I don't think Aguilar's passing numbers are as crazy if he plays under Satt because the run game was always first option. I could be wrong. I'm just spitballing.

Outside of AE, they all had the same QB Coach/OC. And even AE was coached by Satt. Lots of crossover in philosophy.

Great story. RIP Bowie, Eggers, Owens Feildhouse and stadium parking lot.

Pat Murphy Late 60'S

Surprised no one has mentioned Zac Thomas yet, that kid was tough as nails. Will never forget watching him almost lead us to victory in Happy Valley, best games I've ever been to

MrCraig wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 8:25 am

AppSt94 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 7:17 am

Smartest - Taylor Lamb
Toughest - Zac Thomas
Best Athlete - AE
Best Passer - Brice
Game Manager - Lamb
Competitor - Aguilar

I wonder how we might view these QBs if they had played under different coaches. Satt seemed to really understand Lamb's positives and negatives and game-planned well around that. IDK if Clark would have been able to do that. Conversely, I don't think Aguilar's passing numbers are as crazy if he plays under Satt because the run game was always first option. I could be wrong. I'm just spitballing.

Of course pure speculation and very biased, but if Satt or Drink coached Joey (and he had a similar leash as Clark) Joey would have run 4-5 times more per game. I also think Joey's INT numbers would have been down about 30%. We put Joey is a tough spot more than necessary last year.

Saint3333 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 9:04 am

MrCraig wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 8:25 am

AppSt94 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 7:17 am

Smartest - Taylor Lamb
Toughest - Zac Thomas
Best Athlete - AE
Best Passer - Brice
Game Manager - Lamb
Competitor - Aguilar

I wonder how we might view these QBs if they had played under different coaches. Satt seemed to really understand Lamb's positives and negatives and game-planned well around that. IDK if Clark would have been able to do that. Conversely, I don't think Aguilar's passing numbers are as crazy if he plays under Satt because the run game was always first option. I could be wrong. I'm just spitballing.

Of course pure speculation and very biased, but if Satt or Drink coached Joey (and he had a similar leash as Clark) Joey would have run 4-5 times more per game. I also think Joey's INT numbers would have been down about 30%. We put Joey is a tough spot more than necessary last year.

Definitely think Joey would have run more under Satt.

Whether its Clarks "fault" or not, Satt and Drink had much better defenses to rely on. They, with rare circumstances , didn't need the QBs to go out and win games for them. They just needed them to play within themselves, limit mistakes and the running/defense would get take over. Someone mentioned Zac Thomas '18 against Penn State. One of the few games where a Satt QB needed to go out and try to win for us. Zac was slingin' it that game. I remember texting my buddies from before the game started being worried about replacing Taylor Lamb.

Since we started pretty much every game down 14-0 last year, Clark needed Joey to go out and try to win the game for us, which means more risks and more ints.

BallantyneApp wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 9:11 am

Saint3333 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 9:04 am

MrCraig wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 8:25 am

AppSt94 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 7:17 am

Smartest - Taylor Lamb
Toughest - Zac Thomas
Best Athlete - AE
Best Passer - Brice
Game Manager - Lamb
Competitor - Aguilar

I wonder how we might view these QBs if they had played under different coaches. Satt seemed to really understand Lamb's positives and negatives and game-planned well around that. IDK if Clark would have been able to do that. Conversely, I don't think Aguilar's passing numbers are as crazy if he plays under Satt because the run game was always first option. I could be wrong. I'm just spitballing.

Of course pure speculation and very biased, but if Satt or Drink coached Joey (and he had a similar leash as Clark) Joey would have run 4-5 times more per game. I also think Joey's INT numbers would have been down about 30%. We put Joey is a tough spot more than necessary last year.

Definitely think Joey would have run more under Satt.

Whether its Clarks "fault" or not, Satt and Drink had much better defenses to rely on. They, with rare circumstances , didn't need the QBs to go out and win games for them. They just needed them to play within themselves, limit mistakes and the running/defense would get take over. Someone mentioned Zac Thomas '18 against Penn State. One of the few games where a Satt QB needed to go out and try to win for us. Zac was slingin' it that game. I remember texting my buddies from before the game started being worried about replacing Taylor Lamb.

Since we started pretty much every game down 14-0 last year, Clark needed Joey to go out and try to win the game for us, which means more risks and more ints.

That's kind of what I was getting at. Maybe I should've said "how would these QBs be viewed differently if they were on different TEAMS" instead of coaches. If Joey isn't down 14-0 all the time, his yards and TD stats may not be as eye-popping, but I agree that he'd probably have more rushing yards, less INTs, less incompletions, etc. Most importantly, he'd have more Ws.

We’ve been fortunate to have great QB’s for most of the past 20 years. Too bad we didn’t get to test any of them against Virginia Tech had we ever played them.

AppSt94 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 21, 2025 7:17 am

Smartest - Taylor Lamb
Toughest - Zac Thomas
Best Athlete - AE
Best Passer - Brice
Game Manager - Lamb
Competitor - Aguilar

List is good overall but a couple changes and a category to add:

Toughest: Richie Williams- Zac is tough but this still isn't close when you consider Richie coming off the bench from wearing crutches in the 2005 title game to win. AE could also be mentioned here.

I also think AE and Richie were better competitors than Aguilar, who is a solid one.

One category that is important to have for a QB is arm strength:
Strongest Arm: Joe Burchette- A lot of our fans don't know this but the team his senior year had over 10 players getting legit NFL looks and Joe's arm had him high on the radar. If he had put in the work and not underachieved he would have gotten drafted and played a while. He could throw 50 yards on a rope if you asked him to.