Matt Linehan’s Potential Record Year (and Other Sun Belt Possibilities)

The Sun Belt, if you didn’t know, is chock-full of senior quarterbacks who are liable to end this season at the top of their school’s respective record books. Matt Linehan at Idaho, Brandon Silvers at Troy, Trent Rogers at New Mexico State, and Taylor Lamb at Appalachian State are all over the Sun Belt Conference record books as well as the record books at their respective schools.

Every one of these guys needs only an above average season to become statistically one of the ten best quarterbacks in conference history, and with the right breaks could be top five or even top three. So what are the odds?

Matt Linehan

This quarterback’s son has the chance to rewrite as many records as possible on his way out the door. To date, he is currently in the top five of every statistical category at Idaho; attempts, completions, yards, interceptions – except he’s sixth in touchdown passes. Linehan could have career lows in completions, attempts, and yards and still finish first all-time at Idaho in all of those categories; these are all “which game will he set the record in” categories. He’ll probably remain down the touchdown list, unless he chucks 30+ touchdowns this season (something everyone above him on the list did at least once).

Linehan could have career lows in completions, attempts, and yards and still finish first all-time at Idaho in all of those categories; these are all “which game will he set the record in” categories. He’ll probably remain down the touchdown list, unless he chucks 30+ touchdowns this season (something everyone above him on the list did at least once).

When it comes to the Sun Belt Conference, the touchdown title is closer (81 instead of 91 compared to Linehan’s 46), but both Silvers and Lamb are ahead of him on the list. The rest of the record book is achievable, though he’ll need a monster season to catch Corey Robinson’s 13,477 career passing yards while at Troy.

This could be challenging for a quarterback replacing as much surrounding talent as Linehan is, but if anyone can do it this guy can.

Current career numbers: 724-for-1,184 – 8,696 yards – 46 TDs – 39 INT

Brandon Silvers

So, let’s talk about Corey Robinson for a minute. He’s currently #1 across most of the Sun Belt’s records, and he’s Brandon SIlvers’ predecessor at Troy. Silvers has been good, but he hasn’t been “out of the gate” good like Robinson was, so none of Robinson’s records – completions, attempts, yards or touchdowns – are within reach for Silvers. Brandon won’t be quite as historically great within his program as Linehan will be, but he’s right up there and will still be lighting up the scoreboard this season.

Current career numbers: 685-for-1,060 – 7,387 yards – 54 TDs – 22 INT

Taylor Lamb

Lamb is probably in between Linehan (arguably the best Idaho QB of the last 20 years, on his way to best all time discussions) and Silvers (good but statistically not great because he was a late bloomer).

Taylor is already “the best App State quarterback ever not named Armanti Edwards.” He’s not a pass-first quarterback and he’s behind Linehan and Silvers in most categories, but he could still crack Robinson’s career touchdown mark with a good year. The school records are an interesting case though, one of “will he or won’t he catch Armanti” across the board.

Will he catch Armanti in passing yards? This one seems unlikely, as Lamb has thrown for somewhere between 2,280 and 2,390 yards every season so far and would need 3,244 to pass Edwards. He’ll move into second place before conference play starts, though.

Will he catch him in attempts and completions? Probably but not guaranteed. Edwards was a more accurate passer, so Lamb is further behind on completions than attempts. Obvously though, if he gets the former he’ll get the latter.

Touchdown passes? Well he broke Edwards’ single-season record back in 2015, and as a result only needs 12 this season to set the career record – I’ll be shocked if he hasn’t achieved that by mid-season.

Current career numbers: 545-for-900 – 7,026 yards – 63 TDs – 26 INT

Tyler Rogers

Here is another instance where history comes into play. Rogers is only in his third season at New Mexico State after spending a year at Arizona Western, so perhaps that makes his likely climb to second-best quarterback in Aggie history more impressive. Despite that, there’s about a snowball’s chance in hell that he even gets within sight of all the records Chase Holbrook set under center for NMSU.

Holbrook, like Rogers was a three-year starter for New Mexico State whose career wrapped up nearly a decade ago, after absolutely lighting the school record books on fire. This was back when the Aggies were still in the WAC, but the Rushmore of WAC quarterbacks is Timmy Chang, Colt Brennan, Ty Detmer and Holbrook. His senior year was his worst statistical year, and he still threw for 3,361 yards and 25 touchdowns with a robust 67/6% of his passes completed. Holbrook’s final career line included almost 12,000 career yards and 85 touchdowns, and he is across the board a top-four quarterback in WAC history (another story for another day).

Rogers would have a pretty mediocre season and still wind up in the top two across all categories, but I’m not holding out hope that he gets the 5,500 pass yards and 44 touchdowns he would need to catch Chase.

Current career numbers: 563-for-974 – 6,348 yards – 42 TDs – 38 INT

Larry Rose III

Oh, and there’s also one extremely talented running back we should talk about if we’re discussing records being broken. As good as players like Marcus Cox, Matt Breida and Elijah McGuire have been in recent years, Rose is probably better than all of them. He’s already a top-ten back statistically within the Sun Belt record books, and he has yet to play a snap of his senior season.

Rose needs 1,023 yards for the conference all-time record, and 1,075 for the school record, both of which he’ll get if he stays healthy this season. He’s also only 11 touchdowns away from the school record and 22 away from the conference record, though that latter will be harder since Georgia Southern’s LA Ramsby is ahead of him on the list.

He even has an outside shot at a respectable place on the all-time NCAA list. He would need a 2,000 yard season to crack the top 10 in yards, but another 1,500 yard season would get him comfortably within the top 15.

Current career numbers: 584 carries – 3,624 yards – 27 TD

There are probably as many records – both within school records and conference records – up for grabs in the Sun Belt as there are within all of the other G5 conferences combined. Some of that is because the potential record setters in CUSA and MWC (Brent Stockstill, Richie James and Brett Rypien) are underclassmen who might not stick around long enough to set records, but the Sun Belt is the place to be for record-breaking offensive football this season.

Can you believe our first snap is only three weeks away?