QB play

[RUChoppin]

Talk to the coaches. They don’t want that.

Coaches are calling plays to the perceived abilities of the players. When Bolin was in the game, they were calling ~30 pass plays per game... with Gio in the game, they're calling ~15 per game.

The OLine has been a problem in pass protection, but they have been showing improvement since the start of the year - they gave Gio more time against PA State than they have against other opponents. The WRs have also been doing a touch better getting separation from their defenders. I just don't think there's confidence in Gio to make the throws, so they aren't calling those plays.

Now, Bolin was given a lot more passing plays, and threw a bunch of picks... but it seems they were still more confident in his arm than Gio's, since they're not letting Gio sling it around at all.

Gio's got grit - he runs the plays, manages the game, reads coverages, and can gain some positive yardage with his legs. What he hasn't really ever shown is the ability to pick a defense apart from the pocket. He's throwing 47% right now... we're not likely to suddenly go "pass heavy" or really even "balanced attack" with him at the helm.

 

[NewJerseyGuy]

#FreeBolin?

 

[RUChoppin]

I like Sitkowski a lot, but if he is sitting behind a D1 walk-on at IMG, the odds of him being able to turn around a poor B1G offense are low. I hate when we (I say "we" because we all do it) put unrealistic expectations on a young guy.

I think Rutgers' best shot for success next year is finding some receivers who will make their quarterbacks look better than they are since, as of now, the receivers are part of the problem.

From what I saw, he got pulled from a game in September because of a deep shoulder bruise, which also then likely limited him in practice. Link

Latest I saw was that he's sharing time with Annexstad (PWO to Minnesota), but may be having more trouble adjusting to man coverage and throwing into tight windows Link

Hopefully he's getting better experience even as a backup at IMG practicing against their defense than he would if he'd stayed at Old Bridge, which will just help him in the long run. He'll have the spring semester here to work with our coaches, get acclimated to college life, and to learn the playbook, which should also help him.

If he and Lewis are still not better options than Gio by September, it's going to be a rough year... because while Gio is a solid QB from a game management perspective, he's not winning games with his arm right now.

 

[mildone_rivals]

Oh there's totally other problems at play too, but you can't discount the fact that sometimes gio has time with an open guy, and still doesn't get the ball anywhere near his target. I can understsnd a freshman having these accuracy issues, but a junior starter in B1G has to hit those throws most of the time.

There are few times a WR has been wide open with time to throw and Gio has missed. A couple long balls have been off. A couple of times there was miscommunication between the receiver and the QB about where the ball was going. But mostly, there was just too much pressure and no open receivers.

I’m not saying we couldn’t benefit from better QB play. But I think Gio would be doing a lot better with better protection and receivers who get open more quickly. Given that most of the time, we have poor protection and no open receivers, it’s kind of hard to blame the QB.

 

[NBKnight]

Tyrel Pigrome started as a true frosh at Maryland

The dinosaurs in this board act like starting a true frosh is unthinkable

And Pigrome was a kid we recruited at the same time as oden and preferenced oden instead.

JLewis is not allowed to throw, neither was oden...I think this may be more an indictment on Mehringers eye for talent, so maybe the fanboys in here can wrap there minds around the fact that Sitkowski or Chatman are probably our best option at QB next year bc clearly Gio is not.

believe both will be early enrollees as well

He started one game.