QBs who are 'small' relative to the rest of those on the field start with a competitive disadvantage. Exceptions can be found certainly but all things being equal, you want a QB that is NOT undersized by comparison. Turner Gill was about 6', 190 lbs as I recall. His O line was probably about 6-2-1/2 and 285l. RBs were around 5-11 195 lbs. Receivers were 6' 185 or so. LBs were 6-1 220. Secondary around 5-11 185. D line were 6-2 probably on average.
30 years later, the numbers are probably 2 inches taller and 25 or 30 lbs heavier all over the field 'on average', especially in LBs and lines. Receivers are certainly taller and 15 lbs bigger as are tight ends, etc. RBs under 200 lbs are becoming fewer and the 220 lb RBs more common.
Frankly, average height and weight is up considerably while I suspect the speed numbers may actually be going down a tad as those extra pounds and so on will tend to slow many guys down some. There may be a tendency by more coaches to prefer a bigger guy that is reasonably quick/fast over a smaller one that is exceptionally fast. I don't agree with that as I believe that there is no substitute for speed and quickness when building a championship caliber team. This is particularly true in a Frost type (sandlot style) offense with hurry up and players running all of the field as opposed to the old power - physical domination style - of the glory days of Osborne/Devaney. Speed can help players overcome mistakes and misreads and prevent the extra long runs, etc. It is better to run somebody down than not make the tackle at all.
I would prefer more power but like the speed first emphasis as I believe you can add some good pounds to a fast player and retain most of that natural speed but you just can't make a big slow guy enough faster to compensate. Ideally you want bigger, faster, stronger but I will sacrifice some bigger and focus on stronger and faster until you can find the size as well. It takes time to build up a team in size while improving conditioning, etc. (years, not weeks or months in my view) but I believe there is some serious short term improvement that can be realized in the current roster with the kind of hard and intense work that apparently is being done right now in Lincoln. Our team, in my opinion, was just not in great shape and didn't show it in the games against any of our opponents, in the Riley era with a couple exceptions (UCLA farmers bowl, for example) which may be more attributable to our opponents being even less well conditioned than we were. If the players work their butts off, we can atleast enter most games without a fitness deficit to overcome along with all the other things.
At the QB spot, height and weight enable better game vision and durability of course. Mickey Joseph was an example of a lightning quick QB who was just too small to get the entire job done effectively. His running ability, albeit exceptional, did not outweigh his and deficiencies (his hands were so small he could not really grip the ball well enough to throw decent passes) and he was never gonna push the pile and end up falling forward to get that extra 4 feet in a given run play. Those last few feet add up over a game and career and make a big difference in down and distance and first downs gained.
