Matt Scott is fourth nationally with 352.3 passing yards per game. Photo by Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE
I talked to Rob Rang of NFLDraftScout.com last week about Matt Scott — “Raw, but talent worthy of developing” — and then Rang wrote more about Scott on his blog at CBSSports.com.
Rang, after having viewed Arizona’s 54-48 overtime loss to Stanford in which Scott completed 45 of 69 passes for 491 yards, wrote “talent evaluators couldn’t help but be impressed with the unique skill-set from the Wildcats’ quarterback.”
More from Rang:
“Scott is leaner than scouts would prefer at 6-2, 198 pounds but demonstrated the toughness, mobility and most importantly the arm talent to reward an NFL team willing to gamble on his upside. Scott was particularly impressive during the third quarter of this contest. He showed off his legitimate NFL arm on a pair of 3rd quarter touchdown passes to wideout Austin Hill to twice give the Wildcats the lead in the back and forth game.
“Scott was the beneficiary of good pass protection on both plays, as he had the time to fake the hand-off to Ka’Deem Carey before setting his feet and throwing perfect strikes. On the first touchdown, Scott rolled to his left and drilled the ball into Hill, who’d himself started left and was then crossing back over the middle heading right. It was a difficult throw and one easy to nitpick if Scott’s accuracy and arm strength hadn’t been up to the task, but they were.
“Scott demonstrated the same intriguing combination of zip and ball placement on Arizona’s next drive, firing a deep ball between Stanford’s cornerback and safety playing in a Cover-2 to hit Hill for a 17-yard touchdown.”
You can check out both touchdown throws to Hill in the highlight video below.
Here are the latest projections for draft-eligible quarterbacks from NFLDraftScout.com. Scott is listed as a fifth- or sixth-round pick for now, but there will be many updates over the next several months.
For the season, Scott has completed 186 of 289 passes for 2,099 yards, with 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, after the Stanford game, called Scott “an absolute stud.”
Highlights from the Stanford game: