Graham Harrell vs. BJ Symons

I was just looking at Graham's statistics for this past season, and it really just hit me that Graham had an amazing season.  Even with the speedbump games of Mizzou and Colorado Graham had one of the best statistical seasons in the history of college football.

Now let's look at the stats per ESPN.com

Graham Harrell stats 2007:
512/713 5705 yards 71.8% cmp% 48 TD 14 INT 16 Sacks 157.31 QB Rating

Graham Harrell stats 2006:
412/617 4555 yards 66.8% cmp% 38 TD 11 INT 18 Sacks 145.54 QB Rating

BJ Symons stats 2003:
470/719 5833 yards 65.4% cmp% 52 TD 22 INT 22 Sacks 151.26 QB Rating

Now, if you remember, BJ Symons holds the NCAA record for passing yards in a single season with 5,833.  Harrell threw for exactly 128 yards less that the all-time single season record.  Damn!  I mean, I really like Harrell and think he is an awesome QB, but he had a spectacular season!  He somewhat flew under the radar when you think about how well Harrell played for the season as a whole.  Harrell had exactly 6.4% better completion % this season than BJ had his senior season.  BJ had 4 more TD passes than Harrell, but was sacked 8 more times and had 6 more interceptions that Harrell had this season.  The fact remains that BJ had one of the most storied seasons for a Tech quarterback EVER, and Graham almost met or surpassed BJ's numbers in almost every category!

Let's say for example that Harrell continues to work hard and makes the same kind of improvements that he made from 2006 to 2007.  
This is what Harrell's 2008 senior season should look like:

6855 yards 76.8% cmp% 58 TD 17 INT 14 Sacks 169.08 QB Rating

Of course, this is purely fictional and an example of what the numbers would be if Harrell were to make the same improvements that he made for this season.  Honestly though, I don't see this being too far from what really could happen.  I see a 6,000 yard season next year, and the 58 TD's is obtainable.  The 76.8 completion percentage would be insane, especially for how many times we throw the ball.  the QB rating could be reachable, but Harrell would have to cut down the INT's.  For comparison purposes, Colt Brennan had a 185.96 QB Rating in 2006.  So the QB Rating is a possibility.

I think we can look forward to a season for the recordbooks next year.  I expect Harrell to be a top 5 Heisman candidate next year, and if he exceeds the 6,000 yards mark, that trophy has his name engraved on it.