IMO and if I remember correctly, we had two retarded special teams plays that ultimately killed us. One being a roughing the kicker penalty on what would have been an 3-and-out for the defense. Orwin also had a bad fumble. There's two losses of possession right there.
If anything Joshua and Stephen kept us in the game with their 40 yard touchdown pass to get it to a 3 point game. Yes, that's right lady and gentlemen, touchdown pass.
So while I agree Nesbitt wasn't exactly a spectacular passer, a lot of incomplete passes last season were on the WRs. I especially loved the one where a pass bounced off of Kevin Cone's chest into the air for an interception. I forgot which game it was.
Imo, we wouldn't have been down to Kansas (and the game wouldn't have been close) if Nesbitt did better than 15 carries for 33 yards. Even taking away the one sack, Nesbitt was 14 carries for 38 yards (sub 3 average). Everyone else: Allen (8.1 avg), Peeples (9.2 avg), Roddy (5.4 avg), Orwin (7.4 avg), Wright (7.0 avg). Not to mention Nesbitt's 5-15 passing. So there was a single touchdown pass in there once we were already down more than one possession to KANSAS (a team that lost 4 of the next 5 games by an average score of 47.5 -10). That doesn't excuse the rest of Nesbitt's passing game - 4-14 for 76 yards and no TDs - particularly against a team like Kansas that gave up 65+% passing and ~225 yards per game the whole season.
I'll agree with you that a lot of incomplete passes were due to things beyond Nesbitt's control BUT had Nesbitt qualified, his
105.4 rating would have been 112th in the NCAA, ahead of only the QBs from Buffalo, MTSU, UConn, Akron, and Vanderbilt
37.1% completion rating would have been 117th (i.e. dead last) in the NCAA by OVER TEN percent. Larry Smith (Vandy) was the worst at 47.4%. In fact, Tevin Washington - who nobody has ever accused of being a great passer - completed almost 4% more of his passes than Nesbitt.