Its All About QB Play

[F18Bundy]

Take a look at what's happened at Michigan, Texas, and UF and it becomes apparent the importance of solid play from the QB position. Though each has had other issues, the correlation between their demise and the sorry performances at QB is too strong to ignore. Michigan had a nice run of NFL caliber QBs; Texas had Simms, Vince, and the Major; UF had Shane thru Tebow. Now they are all struggling and the QB play for each has been putrid.

Another interesting point about the QB significance is the problem with QBs who are highly ranked recruits. When a school recruits a top 10 QB it has a tendency to chase off other potential competitors. Then if the highly rated guy doesn't work out (Driskel, anyone?) you are left with a mess that drags a program down for years. Check out the top 10 QBs on the Rivals rankings for the last 10 years; it is amazing the failure rate, over 90%. Guess who was the number one ranked QB in his recruiting class: JD. Maybe Saban intentionally goes after lower ranked QBs to ensure he has competition at the position. He did pass on Jameis Winston.

 

[Gator Fever]

14-4 as a starter - people are saying

 

[TheDouglas78]

I would say it is also about getting quarterbacks that fit your system. Driskel was brought in for the Spread ran by Addazio and he was then being forced into a Pro Style quarterback. Michigan tried to turn Pro-Style quarterbacks into Spread Quarterbacks (Rich Rod) and now trying to do the opposite. Texas is just a cluster, that needs to be cleaned up. Strong has his work cut out for him, the last three Heisman winners Brown told them they didn't have the ability to play QB at Texas and recruited them as defensive backs.

 

[t-gator]

This is why you hire a guy who can plug anyone in their system and still be successful. Though I agree that a good qb can make a coach look a whole lot better.

 

[Gator Fever]

I think Saban was after Winston

That is bad about the top rated QB's but 09 had a few that ended up pretty good.They are probably focusing on the physical too much and its hard to tell with the upstairs with the competition some are playing in high school.

 

[F18Bundy]

This is why you hire a guy who can plug anyone in their system and still be successful. Though I agree that a good qb can make a coach look a whole lot better.

That is the important point about the QB position in my view. A good one makes every position look better, offense and defense (Saban paraphrase). A bad one gets his coach fired. It is such an important position that it almost begs a coach to be more like Spurrier and utilize the quick hook if the player isn't performing. This will be Muschamp's demise; he's staying with a failed QB for too long. With better QB play, I think we would all be amazed at the talent that is actually on this team. Look at how rapidly FSU went from average and calling for Jimbo's firing to the National Championship and Jimbo is suddenly a great coach. All they did is finally find a QB.

 

[Gator Fever]

This is why you hire a guy who can plug anyone in their system and still be successful. Though I agree that a good qb can make a coach look a whole lot better.

like Roper

 

[GatorFin]

14-4 as a starter - people are saying

I could have probably gone 8-4 if I played on 2012's team.

 

[Gator Fever]

That is the important point about the QB position in my view. A good one makes every position look better, offense and defense (Saban paraphrase). A bad one gets his coach fired. It is such an important position that it almost begs a coach to be more like Spurrier and utilize the quick hook if the player isn't performing. This will be Muschamp's demise; he's staying with a failed QB for too long. With better QB play, I think we would all be amazed at the talent that is actually on this team. Look at how rapidly FSU went from average and calling for Jimbo's firing to the National Championship and Jimbo is suddenly a great coach. All they did is finally find a QB.

Starting Driskel will definitely seal Muschamp's fate. FSU did improve a lot from 2011 to 2012 also before Winston. Winson is what separates them from that 2012 season to the 13 Championship however (well him and Benjamin did).

 

[ufgator812]

It's all about coaching.

 

[Gator Fever]

It's all about coaching.

I am not sure in Driskel's case but that is mostly true - I doubt any coach could do much with him but Muschamp isn't the best coach to have for a young QB I would think.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I would say it is also about getting quarterbacks that fit your system. Driskel was brought in for the Spread ran by Addazio and he was then being forced into a Pro Style quarterback.

Great point. Except he sucks at spread also. You know, because the read option requires "reading".

 

[Swamp Donkey]

This is why you hire a guy who can plug anyone in their system and still be successful. Though I agree that a good qb can make a coach look a whole lot better.

Maybe, but first and foremost you have to hire a guy who knows how to evaluate players and not insist on playing terrible ones.

 

[Coach9]

No player can elevate a team like the QB. We got nothing out of the QB position against Bama and it showed. Hopefully they give the freshman enough snaps to see if they need to give him more snaps.

 

[Gator Fever]

No player can elevate a team like the QB. We got nothing out of the QB position against Bama and it showed. Hopefully they give the freshman enough snaps to see if they need to give him more snaps.

Muschamp already said Driskel is our best chance to win right now so that should be good enough shouldn't it ?

 

[t-gator]

This is why you hire a guy who can plug anyone in their system and still be successful. Though I agree that a good qb can make a coach look a whole lot better.

Maybe, but first and foremost you have to hire a guy who knows how to evaluate players and not insist on playing terrible ones.

True

 

[soflagator]

I would say it is also about getting quarterbacks that fit your system. Driskel was brought in for the Spread ran by Addazio and he was then being forced into a Pro Style quarterback. Michigan tried to turn Pro-Style quarterbacks into Spread Quarterbacks (Rich Rod) and now trying to do the opposite. Texas is just a cluster, that needs to be cleaned up. Strong has his work cut out for him, the last three Heisman winners Brown told them they didn't have the ability to play QB at Texas and recruited them as defensive backs.

My biggest criticism of Muschamp--and to me his biggest mistake--was his insistence on transforming UF into something that we'd never been, and something we weren't equipped to run personnel-wise. Your RichRod reference is a perfect example of what not to do. You can't effectively mortgage 2-3 seasons, while being gutted with transfers, and expect a fanbase to sit idle as you tell them to trust you. It doesn't work. Neither does morphing a school that is in a hotbed of speed skill players and athletes into a grind'em down and slowly win 13-10 type of offense.

JD has been terrible thus far. No question about that. But WM and the different OCs have a hand in his failures. We didn't have the ingredients to make what they wanted to make. And as unpopular as this may be, I do think he would've been a lot better in an offense like we ran from '05-'10.

 

[GIGator]

I think Saban was after Winston

That is bad about the top rated QB's but 09 had a few that ended up pretty good.They are probably focusing on the physical too much and its hard to tell with the upstairs with the competition some are playing in high school.

Yeah, Saban really wanted Winston.

 

[Gator Fever]

Yeah, Saban really wanted Winston.

I have read many places that it is a myth Saban wasn't after Winston

" Scott, Winston's coach at Hueytown who is now at Gadsden City, gets bothered by what he calls "conspiracy theories" about why Winston didn't choose the Crimson Tide.

"What happened is the truth of that story is not sexy enough for everybody," Scott said. "Everybody wants to say he didn't go to Alabama because they didn't let him play baseball. That's ridiculous. That's 100 percent false. Coach Saban said he could play baseball. We had a plan mapped out on how he would do that.

Another issue tossed around in recruitment was the presence of other highly-recruited quarterbacks with the Crimson Tide. That included AJ McCarron, who joins Winston as a Heisman Trophy finalist this week but isn't considered an elite NFL prospect compared to the Florida State quarterback.

It's one of those intriguing, what-if questions in recruiting that will never be answered. Would Winston, who redshirted at Florida State as a freshman, have been willing to sit two years until McCarron left, or would Winston be playing right now for Alabama if he had joined Saban?

"Jameis was smart enough to know who's in front of me at Alabama and who's in front of me at Florida State," Patterson said. "At Alabama, he might still be sitting on the bench with McCarron playing there, and that was one of the things. He wanted to play. I think he understood the redshirt year."

Scott said McCarron's presence had "zero bearing" on Winston's decision not to sign with Alabama.

"He really liked the idea of coming in and learning under (former Florida State quarterback) E.J. Manuel, and he would have done the same thing under AJ," Scott said. "There's no telling how many times Jameis went to Tuscaloosa and he loved it. At the end of the day, he felt like Florida State was just the best fit for him."

Auburn wanted Winston -- his mother, Loretta, is an Auburn fan -- but ran into a major hurdle. In 2010, two Auburn assistants had impermissible contact with Winston at his high school and later that evening with a booster at an Auburn fan event."

 

[TN G8tr]

This is a scrong thread.