What if Micale Cunningham had played a full 2019 season?

What had Micale Cunningham's stat line been had he played a full season in 2019 for Louisville Football?

Rebuilding a college football program is hard enough, doing so without consistency in the quarterback room in year one makes that job even harder.

Thanks to injuries as well as head coach Scott Satterfield trying to figure out who is best to lead his team, the Cards saw action from three different signal callers: Jawon "Puma" Pass, Micale Cunningham and Evan Conley.

Pass started the first couple games of 2019, before a toe injury sustained in the season-opener caught up to him and forced a season ending surgery. Injuries limited Cunningham in the games against Boston College & Wake Forest, and Satterfield decided to split reps between him and Conley against Clemson & Virginia before deciding to go with Micale the rest of the way.

Even in a year where he was not always the guy under center, Cunningham still put up solid numbers and eventually established himself as Satterfield's guy. He threw for 2,061 yards and 22 touchdowns while only tossing five picks, also rushing for 482 yards and six scores.

Perhaps what is most impressive is that his passer efficiency rating of 194.79 would have placed second in the nation has he qualified (min. 15 attempts per game, must in 75% of team's games), behind only Heisman winner and No. 1 overall 2020 NFL Draft pick Joe Burrow.

So what would his full stat line looked like had he been the full time starter and injuries not affected him in 2019?

To figure it out, we'll do the following:

• Assign Pass' reps vs. Notre Dame (27 passing attempts, 16 rushing attempts) to Cunningham.
• Flip the script vs. Eastern Kentucky. Pass started while Cunningham came during garbage time.
• Pass had 19 passing attempts, Cunningham had one. So add 18 to Micale's new total.
• Both had 4 rushes each, so no change here.
• No change vs. Western Kentucky. Cunningham started with Conley coming in for garbage time.
• No changes vs. Florida State. Cunningham accounted for all QB pass & rush attempts.
• Assign all of Conley's reps vs. Boston College & Wake Forest (34 passing attempts, 8 rushing attempts) to Cunningham. Conley had came in relief due to an injury to Cunningham both times.
• Assign all of Conley's reps vs. Clemson & Virginia (15 passing attempts, 9 rushing attempts) to Cunningham. Satterfield had split reps between the two for these games.
• No change vs. Miami. Cunningham started with Conley coming in for early garbage time because of the blowout loss.
• No change vs. NC State, Syracuse, Kentucky, or Mississippi State. While Conley saw action vs. Kentucky partially because Cunningham had a stomach bug, he would be coming in for garbage time anyways due to the blowout nature of that game.

It sounds complicated (and probably overly so), but I went this route so that we could properly account for garbage time backup reps and gadget plays (looking at you Chalifoux & Atwell) and not just blindly plug in all of Louisville's passing reps to Cunningham.

Adding it all up and he now has an additional 94 passing attempts and 33 rushes to his ledger, bringing his new total to 272 and 155 respectively.

Last season, Cunningham competed 62.36% of his throws, averaged 18.57 yards per completion, threw a touchdown every 8.09 attempts and a pick every 35.6 attempts. He also averaged 3.95 yards per carry and a touchdown every 20.33 attempts.

In a hypothetical 2019 where he was the full time starter and suffered no injuries, he would have thrown for 3,150 yards, 34 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. The yardage would have been good for No. 27 in FBS, and the touchdowns would have been tied for No. 6.

On the ground he would have rushed for 612 yards and 8 scores, bringing his total offense to 3,762 yards and 42 touchdowns. 

The yardage would have been good for sixth in UofL history, behind Lamar Jackson in 2017 & 2016 (5,261 & 5,114), Teddy Bridgewater in 2013 (4,048), Chris Redman in 1998 (4,009) and Brian Brohm in 2007 (3,978).

The 252 points coming as a result of the 42 touchdowns would have been third in Louisville history for points responsible for (points scored and passed for), behind Lamar Jackson in 2016 & 2017 (308 & 272 respectively).

Even if Cunningham does not improve any facet of his game over the offseason and can simply stay healthy, he is already bound to have a special 2020 season.

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