Malik Willis vaulted up NFL draft boards after a huge senior season at Liberty University in 2021. While Liberty hasn’t been known as a football factory, the school’s fortunes improved greatly in recent years after hiring former Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze, who has led the Flames to back to back bowl games.
After beginning his collegiate career at Auburn, Willis transferred to Liberty in 2019 where he eventually rose to fame. Willis arguably had a better season in 2020 than in 2021. In 2020 he put up a passer rating of 156.2 and had a 20/6 TD to interception ratio. In 2021 those splits were 27/12.
Despite the NFL removing the Wonderlic Test as a component of the combine in 2022, many players still took the test, and scores leaked to the public just prior to draft week. When the information came out, it was reported that Malik Willis scored a 32 on the Wonderlic. This was near the top of the pack for 2022 QB draft prospects, with only Bailey Zappe and Sam Howell putting up higher scores (more on that below).
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More on Malik Willis’ Wonderlic Score
In comparison to 2022’s other quarterback prospects, Malik’s score was pretty impressive.
- Bailey Zappe (Western Kentucky) – 35
- Sam Howell (North Carolina) – 34
- Carson Strong (Nevada) – 22
- Desmond Ridder (Cincinnati) – 19
- Kenny Pickett (Pittsburgh) – 17
- Matt Corral (Mississippi)– 15
Follow the link to learn more about historic Wonderlic test scores by quarterbacks.
What is the Wonderlic Test?
The Wonderlic Test is a cognitive abilities test that has been used by employers for decades to assess the mental acuity of employees. Famous Cowboys coach Tom Landry was the first to use it as a tool in evaluating players in the NFL. As the Cowboys became more successful, other teams adopted the test, and eventually, it became a part of the NFL combine player evaluation process.
Over the years the test’s ability to correlate to player performance has been questioned, and ultimately the test was removed from the official evaluation process in 2022.