Made a post in the winning is all that matters thread and started wondering if my mind was remembering correctly, so I checked the stats. Below is a list of multiple year starting QBs and their average yards per attempt for their career.
Litton - 6.86
Cato - 7.43
Anderson - 6.39
Morris - 6.75
Leftwich - 8.24
Pennington 8.51
To me, the number to strive for to have offensive effiency is 8.0 yards per attempt. if you break down seasons and lump them by YPA ranges, you get this for W/L records
8.0 + YPA - 58-8, 5 seasons, 5 championships
7.00 - 7.99 YPA - 46-41, 7 seasons, 1 championship
6.99 - - 53-48, 9 seasons, 0 championships
The point to all this is that to average 8 yards per attempt you have to do one of two things, throw the ball downfield or complete a remarkably high percentage of your passes. Pennington did both, Leftwich threw the ball downfield, and Cato had great short and intermediate accuracy. Cato was at 8.65 his senior year, he threw for less yards, but was much more efficient. That compares favorable to Leftwich' senior year at 8.69 (jr year 8.79 for Lefty), but not quite other worldly Pennington at 9.5 his senior year.
In order for Litton to get to 8 YPA, in our offense, he needs to complete right at 70%. That's why our offense is not working efficiently.