It's kind of amazing how decent they still look running the option during the 5 plays a year they call them vs osu then never touch them again
Smothers
- Thread starter SkerInCo
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Maybe some tendencies are hard or impossible to coach out of an individual player, sure. But by and large, I completely disagree. Just look at the time and resources available in a college program vs a high school program. Fundamental issues can and are fixed with good coaching.
On deeper throws I think it has regressed. Mario has them working on their "stroke" and all I've seen is them short arming the ball with very little follow through. That's going to lead to both weak and inaccurate passes.
We used to run it out of split backs Frost first couple years and it was always effective. If we are going to keep using RB’s as QB’s, we need way more of it.
He was the kid Leach talked about, big kid, strong arm but inaccurate and poor decision making.
Had a defense that got 3 and outs like Sam Keller got blow....had an Oline and RB that won Big games with guys like Matt Turman playing qb if needed. Different animal. Bottom line is its clear as day that an accurate thrower would change this offense, even if that meant sacrificing qb run game.
Oh Farmer's Dog, how I've missed you......
Not facts - He likes mobile QBs, Milton not a running QB, Mariota not a running QB, Vernon Adams not a running QB.
I believe a few things could be happening at the QB position. 1) Frost thinks he and the nutty professor can take a guy who runs well but struggles to throw and make him a better thrower. 2) Frost has bought into the theory that you have to have a running QB at Nebraska in order to win and/ or 3) He is not getting or not maintaining interest from the top dual threat guys that are better passers because so far at Nebraska he runs the QBs 15 or more times per game.
This is pretty much the same reason there are hundreds of 90+ mph pitchers who never make the majors. Throwing accuracy is unteachable but critical to success. The coaches failed to identify throwing talent and instead recruited talented athletes that would thrive on the old option teams but are unsuitable for this offense.
Wandale is a better athlete, capable of outjumping the LB and will be slowing up to steady and time his leap. The LB at best would knock it away but I seriously doubt he'd come down with the ball 1-1. A lot of good QBs will actually underthrow intentionally knowing their receiver will win the matchup battle 9/10.
So again clap clap clap G - O, which was it? 3/4 of the way through the season basically game 9, or 3 games into his tenure as starter? You continue to just make stuff up and hope no one fact checks you.
I don't believe you can manufacture new mechanics for a qb, but that doesn't mean that a qb can't improve his accuracy over time. Not only has AM's accuracy not gotten better, it's actually gotten worse since his freshman year. I'd like to see these qb's with a real qb coach and see if they get any better or not.
When has he ever done that? That out route to the sideline is one of the most dangerous throws you can make. If you underthrow it, it's going to be a pick a high percentage of the time. AM put that ball in the proper place and it hit the receiver in the hands. The receiver needs to come up with the catch.
When you're staring at number 99 coming at you as fast as he can go, "QB fundamental coaching" all goes out the window and you revert to what feels natural. I'll listen to guys who have proven they know what they're talking about when it comes to evaluating QBs. Mahomes got passed over because of his poor fundamentals and size. How did that work out for the teams that passed over him? His fundamentals are still bad OTHER than his ability to deliver an on target bullet from really awkward positions while sometimes running for his life.
Lee's problem was between his ears. Not his arm. When put under duress and hit a few times he fell apart. He was a good enough practice player to get signed and stick around for a cup of coffee in the NFL. Not so much on game day. Super good guy. I thinks he takes too much abuse from our fans given what a crappy O line he played behind.
AM has happy feet , yes. But that does not change the fact that he can NOT hit the broad side of a Barn with a Football
Truth is we don’t have a QB in our 2 deep that can run this offense. Period.
The best QB’s left the program over the favoritism toward AM, Gebba and Vedral. Both are proving they can throw in Games this year.
Vedral is very erratic with his accuracy as well and throws a lot of balls he shouldn't. I've watched several of his games this year. I would support his whole heartedly IF he was here, but I don't think he's better than AM. Gebbia no doubt is more accurate. I'm not sure what his bailing out on his team means about his character. IF he had stayed he would have played a lot and more than likely would have won the job with his play that first year. Make no mistake, Frost and Verdusco tried to keep him but when a kid won't return your calls there's not much you can do. I don't think there's any doubt that Riley etal were recruiting him before he decided to look around.
The tell on AM is that even when he DOES get set and has plenty of time, he often delivers a poorly thrown ball that is off the mark. There's yer sign.
While I don't think Martinez is very good, both Vedral and Gebbia have worse statistics than Martinez.
By a lot.
Their QBR's rank them at 105 and 103, respectively, out of 124 FCS QB's ranked. By comparison, Martinez is ranked 38th.
To be clear, I don't think any of them are performing at a level that they should be starting here. Between the three of them, they have about 6 wins on the season.
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Actually it's more like 4 wins, because Martinez didn't play against Penn State and Vedral wasn't on the field for 2 of Rutgers' 3 wins. Gebbia leads this stellar pack with 2 wins in 2020.
I was with you until the favoritism and Vedral and Gebbia being good QB’s part. Don’t see it that way at all.
We have our very own Mitchell Trubisky situation in Lincoln. Everything you're saying is the reason I threw my phone and stomped out of the room when the Bears drafted Mitchell. Big, athletic kid, strong arm but UH OH, he isn't accurate. He's just about finished costing Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy their jobs.
"Oh but look at his stats from yesterday, that's what he's capable of!" Good for him, he managed to not screw up against a horrid Texans team. He'll regress back to his norm.
Nice kids who say all the right thing and "have all the tools" and you're just waiting for them to put it all together. Which they sometimes do...but they mostly don't.
What's killer with Adrian is that it's his mind causing his problems, not his body. He just gets in his own head and melts down before your very eyes, he overthinks every throw and all it takes is a couple bad plays to derail him.
Whatever the issue, it's a crime at this point they're not running a ton of option out of pistol and split backs. How many times do your guys have to prove to you they can't throw before you'll believe them?
I thought Lee was a trooper and tough as nails. He took an absolute beating behind that OL and kept getting back up and never complained or threw his OL under the bus. He accuracy and decision making left slot to be desired, but he seems like a good teammate and a mature kid.
He obviously doesn't have poor fundamentals. The most important attribute of a qb is decision-making. I really don't care what their throwing motion is as long as it works. From what I've seen, Verduzco is making our qb's mechanics worse. AM had a decent throwing motion his freshman year, and had decent accuracy on long throws. Mario thinks he needs to screw with his throwing motion though and it just keeps getting worse.
The number one "fundamental" as far as the passing game goes for a QB is to be able to deliver the ball accurately. Adrian almost looks like a golfer who lines up to hit his driver, takes it back then looks back to see where the club is at. Then he takes a practice swing and finally tries to hit the ball. WAY too much thinking going on. It might be nothing more than paralysis by analysis but I don't think he was an accurate passer to start off with. Stanley used to make some spectacular catches.
I will also add that I know Martinez has had at least one surgery on his throwing shoulder so far and has been playing with it dinged up most of this year. Man, I've had a labrum tear and it's a ***** to throw with that even after it's healed. It's just never the same.
It does look that way, and I think that's squarely on MV. He's thinking way too much about the wonky mechanics Verduzco teaches. His freshman year he didn't think, and his accuracy, although not great, was much better.
I do recall that he was also only given one read on pass plays his freshman year. He was told if it wasn't there, take off with the ball. He's clearly thinking a lot more in the passing game and not always making good decisions or throws.
I thought I heard or read that we have a whole new passing scheme under the new OC. This could explain some of the overthinking.
Even hs quarterbacks are expected to make more than one read. If that's true, maybe the staff is babying him too much and should hold him to higher expectations.
To be fair that freshman year was like his senior year of high school. He had his junior year basically at QB before the injury and I don't think high school QBs face anything remotely similar to what B1G defenses can throw at them. For God's sake, Lovie Smith was coaching in the B1G. Say what you want about him as a head coach or Illinois's talent but man that guy can coach defense. The same goes for Fitz and Northwestern etc. etc. The B1G doesn't lack for defensive coaching talent.
I doubt that. It's Frost's offense. They might have tweaked some things but I doubt things were much different. Troy was the OC in name only.
Most of the time sources of information like that are inaccurate. Why don't we just give Smothers a chance instead of listening to wannabe experts.
Just watched his Hudl film. Doesn't look like he is a horrible thrower of the football.... We've got a game to try it out.
If that's true
1) It explains a lot and
2) It's quite concerning that he's still the starter
I'm not sure why you tell a kid something like that unless he's incapable of making more than 1 read.
Remember, he didn't play football his senior year of high school because of his injury. We got a kid who had a major injury and hadn't shown what he could do as a senior. Not probably the best recipe for success BUT remember Frost was scrambling to find a QB in that class and Martinez was/is a very talented kid. I'm not sure but I believe some of his problem is probably a combination of his injury and and a lack of confidence.