Reading the article about the kicker commit and he commented that he got to meet Minshew, was apparently here in his RV. Coach bringing in the big guns to close the deal on transfer QBs? Pretty cool.
Gardner Minshew on campus?
- Thread starter GAMAROONDAWG
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I met Gardner a few times when he was a recruit. Talked to him in LFL for a while when he was a senior in HS and nobody could figure out why Mullen wouldn’t offer the kid. I guess because he wasn’t 6’4.
Interesting, when NFL scouts began calling Leach to ask about Minshew they’d always ask “how tall is he?” And Leach would answer, “Just slightly taller than the NFL’s all-time leader in career passing TD’s , career completions, completion percentage and passing yards. Any other questions?”
Mullen hit on some diamonds in the rough but he whiffed big time on that one.
Interesting, when NFL scouts began calling Leach to ask about Minshew they’d always ask “how tall is he?” And Leach would answer, “Just slightly taller than the NFL’s all-time leader in career passing TD’s , career completions, completion percentage and passing yards. Any other questions?”
Mullen hit on some diamonds in the rough but he whiffed big time on that one.
Can you really see Gardner running the read option 10-15 times a game. I can’t, and that is why he wasn’t offered.
Not sure he would have had to. Mullen won 8 games in a year that Tyler Russell had minus-5 rushing yards on the season.
He also just went 11-2 with Kyle Trask, who was rated the 92nd-best pro-style QB as a 2016 recruit. Trask amassed 8 yards rushing on the season.
Minshew was rated the #70 pro style QB in 2015. We signed the #56 Pro Style QB (Nick Tiano) that year instead.
I don’t mind defending Mullen normally, but this was a huge miss, especially considering what a huge MSU family the kid came from, and how successful Mullen was at adapting his offense to fit personnel (when he would do it)
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Mullen did have Tyler Russell, and there were lots of complaints that year about Mullen running the read option with him a few times a game and not adapting his offense to fit Tyler’s skill set. You act like it should have been obvious to Mullen that Gardner should have been signed, but apparently it wasn’t obvious to anyone else either. Gardner ended up going to JUCO, then still had no P5 offers, was a part-time starter at East a Carolina, but wasn’t really putting up any big numbers. It was only when he got to WSU that Gardner actually looked like a P5 QB. Nobody in college football thought Gardner was a P5 QB until Leach took a chance on him and coached him up. He comes from a great family and I am ecstatic for his success, but to act like Mullen missed on this obvious QB he should have signed is just not true.
That’s all true, just wish we’d have found him a spot somewhere in the process. Seems very much like a State guy.
What if we had hired Leach instead of Moorhead two years ago and he had brought Minshew, The Leach Offense and #1 Defense in the country?
Gardner visited State, Vandy, and Ole Miss without anyone offering a scholly. He did receive offers from Akron and UAB and in the end got an offer and signed with Troy. Did not play for them and transferred to NW MS CC, then E. Carolina, then Washington State. He did well at NW MS, ok at E. Carolina, and great at Wash St and had a very good rookie year with the Jags.
Mullen chose to sign Nick Tiano instead who was a 3* pro style QB out of TN and ranked 825 overall and 32nd best QB. Gardner was a 3* pro style QB, unranked overall but was the 70th best QB per the *experts*. Everyone missed on this guy. Mullen did have Dak and Nicky Fitz on the roster at the time. I'm not sure if Gardner would have started over Fitzgerald due to the offense Mullen wanted to run, but he would have been hands down the best passer of the group.
Mullen chose to sign Nick Tiano instead who was a 3* pro style QB out of TN and ranked 825 overall and 32nd best QB. Gardner was a 3* pro style QB, unranked overall but was the 70th best QB per the *experts*. Everyone missed on this guy. Mullen did have Dak and Nicky Fitz on the roster at the time. I'm not sure if Gardner would have started over Fitzgerald due to the offense Mullen wanted to run, but he would have been hands down the best passer of the group.
You claim it was a huge miss, then you immediately agree with and say its true that nobody saw Minshew as an elite(or even servicable) P5 QB.
One thing is consistent- you really wanted him just because has an MSU family. Thats just not a good enough reason to offer scholarships.
Is it not ok to agree if someone makes a good point? He’s right that everyone missed on Minshew, not just State. However I do still think it was a huge miss to take Tiano over Minshew and I thought so at the time as well. I thought Minshew had the “it” quality after meeting him, he seemed like an impressive guy, team leader type.
Mullen won 8 games against an extremely weak schedule and our offense was basically covered up by solid defenses. Granted that was probably due more to our WRs not being SEC quality outside of Bumphis more so than the offense, but I'm not sure Minshew would have gotten to throw to any better WRs.