Football Sports

UH football 2020 season grades: Quarterbacks

Junior UH football quarterback Clayton Tune gets set to throw against Hawai'i in the New Mexico Bowl | Courtesy of UH athletics

Junior UH football quarterback Clayton Tune gets set to throw against Hawai’i in the New Mexico Bowl. | Courtesy of UH athletics

With the 2020 Houston football season in the books, it is time to look back on how each position group performed.

First up is the quarterback groups, focusing on junior Clayton Tune, who started all eight games for the Cougars in 2020.

Tune’s season in review

It was an up-and-down season for Tune in his full first season as the starting quarterback for the Cougars.

In eight games, the 6-foot-3-inch junior completed 59.6 percent of his passes and threw for 2,048 yards, 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Tune’s numbers serve as a good indicator for the UH offense’s production as a whole.

Offensively, the Cougars struggled to put together a full 60-minute performance, especially in the first quarter as the UH offense only produced 30 first quarter points all season.

As a result, the Cougars often found themselves in big deficits early in the game and was a key reason they finished 3-5.

While not all of UH’s offensive struggles fall on Tune, the Carrollton native does have to accept some of the responsibility as the leader and signal-caller of the offense.

The good and the bad

The biggest thing that jumps out when looking at Tune’s stats is the 10 interceptions. Tune threw an interception in six of UH’s eight games, including three multi-interception games.

A big reason for the high number of interceptions is Tune’s relatively low completion percentage, ranking 86th in the FBS.

Tune struggled developing chemistry with his receivers, partly because a different group of receivers took the field every week due to COVID-19 issues and injuries.

While Tune was inconsistent in the passing game, he did make some solid throws throughout the season and exceeded 250 passing yards in five games, but what he really excelled at was using his legs.

With an offensive line that shuffled in a new combination of five guys every week, Tune was often forced to scramble and create plays with his legs to extend drives.

He typically did a good job using his mobility to create a positive play out of what appeared to be a giant mess.

Tune finished the season with 253 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 72 carries.

Performance grade

Having games eight canceled and key guys being in and out of the lineup throughout the entire 2020 season made Tune’s job difficult, and never really allowed him to establish a rhythm which resulted in an inconsistent year throwing the ball.

With that being said, Tune showed some flashes of brilliance, particularly using his mobility to extend plays and create something after nothing.

Overall, Tune showed struggles that would be expected of any quarterback who was in their first full year as the starter but also displayed some positive signs that he hopes to build on in 2021 for the UH football team.

Overall Grade: B-

For more of The Cougar’s 2020 UH football offseason grades, click here

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