Backup QBs

[OldJacketFan]

While I wasn't on hand last night in reviewing the highlight video and perusing the board comments is looks like both Lucas and Tobias did some good things! I think folks seriously underestimate how good Lucas is with the ball in his hands. Tobias is elusive as can be, would have liked to have seen more of his arm in the highlights. Both were handicapped by their respective O lines

Would love to get more feedback from those who were there.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

While I wasn't on hand last night in reviewing the highlight video and perusing the board comments is looks like both Lucas and Tobias did some good things! I think folks seriously underestimate how good Lucas is with the ball in his hands. Tobias is elusive as can be, would have liked to have seen more of his arm in the highlights. Both were handicapped by their respective O lines

Would love to get more feedback from those who were there.

Well stated. I agree with what you have perceived. Lucas came out terrible and settled down. Tobias came out strong and settled down. They both did some good things, and they both did some bad things. Taquon may have hurt his cause in the long run, although obviously there was nothing he could do about being sick.

 

[Techster]

While I wasn't on hand last night in reviewing the highlight video and perusing the board comments is looks like both Lucas and Tobias did some good things! I think folks seriously underestimate how good Lucas is with the ball in his hands. Tobias is elusive as can be, would have liked to have seen more of his arm in the highlights. Both were handicapped by their respective O lines

Would love to get more feedback from those who were there.

I've heard a lot about the backup QBs struggles, but the bigger issue for me is the backup OLs. Looks like both QBs couldn't really execute because the backup OLs were having a hard time. We really need to develop better at the backup positions along the OL. We can't count on our 1st OLs to stay healthy all season. That's unreasonable at any program, not just GT. Hopefully both OL coaches see that and get to work.

On the bright side, maybe CNW's defense was why our backup OLs weren't doing too well.

 

[danny daniel]

While I wasn't on hand last night in reviewing the highlight video and perusing the board comments is looks like both Lucas and Tobias did some good things! I think folks seriously underestimate how good Lucas is with the ball in his hands. Tobias is elusive as can be, would have liked to have seen more of his arm in the highlights. Both were handicapped by their respective O lines

Would love to get more feedback from those who were there.

Inconclusive because Tobias was handicapped by the touch rule, Lucus was handicapped by the hand inury, and both were victims of the porous OLs. What we did learn was Tobias can really run, Lucus is underrated as a runner, Tobias as yet to show he can pass consistently, and Lucas has his passing moments but needs to be more consistent. IMO we could be OK long term with either of them. I am more concerned about the lack of ball distribution from all three QBs to the ABs....play calling or bad habits or dictation from the D which we have to overcome somehow. QBs running around with their hair on fire looks too much like the Duke game O.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Inconclusive because Tobias was handicapped by the touch rule, Lucus was handicapped by the hand inury, and both were victims of the porous OLs. What we did learn was Tobias can really run, Lucus is underrated as a runner, Tobias as yet to show he can pass consistently, and Lucas has his passing moments but needs to be more consistent. IMO we could be OK long term with either of them. I am more concerned about the lack of ball distribution from all three QBs to the ABs....play calling or bad habits or dictation from the D which we have to overcome somehow. QBs running around with their hair on fire looks too much like the Duke game O.

I thought there was more distribution to the A-backs last night than pretty much all of last year.

 

[CuseJacket]

Not that anyone is going here (yet), but I'll go in for a preemptive strike.

Marshall was handicapped last year by injury too. We had injury issues on the OL as well. Yet that context didn't matter to some who took their best shots at Marshall for the last 4 months.

We now have data for Lucas and Tobias. Read: something other than Hudl and pre-game warm-ups. Neither surpassed the mystical 37% in a game where they had no fear of getting hit. Let alone against a new defense that was missing 3+ starters and scrimmaged together a handful of times... if we want to normalize against the OL injuries. I am not drawing definitive conclusions off of a single spring practice, but it is at least interesting to me.

Some additional data:

(posted by @tech_wreck47 in the Offseason thread)

For what it's worth, I am not in favor of one QB over another. If forced to project, based on the fact that none of these guys had P5 offers at QB that I recall, I don't expect one of the backups to be head and shoulders above the incumbent. I expect that Marshall has a strong lock on the starting position as it stands today.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Not that anyone is going here (yet), but I'll go in for a preemptive strike.

Marshall was handicapped last year by injury too. We had injury issues on the OL as well. Yet that context didn't matter to some who took their best shots at Marshall for the last 4 months.

We now have data for Lucas and Tobias. Read: something other than Hudl and pre-game warm-ups. Neither surpassed the mystical 37% in a game where they had no fear of getting hit. Let alone against a new defense that was missing 3+ starters and scrimmaged together a handful of times... if we want to normalize against the OL injuries. I am not drawing definitive conclusions off of a single spring practice, but it is at least interesting to me.

Some additional data:

(posted by @tech_wreck47 in the Offseason thread)

For what it's worth, I am not in favor of one QB over another. If forced to project, based on the fact that none of these guys had P5 offers at QB that I recall, I don't expect one of the backups to be head and shoulders above the incumbent. I expect that Marshall has a strong lock on the starting position as it stands today.

"As it stands today" being the operative words. I don't disagree.

 

[ATL1]

LJ is fast and elusive. More elusive than I previously thought. He is also a big body. What separates him from prior qb’s is his passing and without his passing the Blue team would not have put up 24pts. He went 5-17 but the O called 17 passing plays with him splitting time, with a make shift oLine, an injured hand, & with him not being able to practice much during spring. When he did run he got yards. There was some timing issues and lots of issues with receivers being on the same page, particularly Dolphus. There was not a lot of triple option with him but overall I thought he did well. CPJ thought so as well. There’s a lot there that he can clean up. He needs reps.

TO similarly. The D didn’t respect the pass with him at all but he scrambled and made plays. He presses the D more downfield as a runner. He’s more elusive than fast. Really good runner. He did practice throughout camp so his struggle is a bit more disappointing but again the OL was gobblygock so ....
I’d like to see TO on the field as an aback if he doesn’t win the backup position. He’s nice as a runner.

 

[ilovetheoption]

I remain unconvinced as to the importance of completion percentage, especially in this offense.

Yards per attempt to me is a more telling stat because it combines completion percentage with yards per completion.

Tqm averaged 8 yards per attempt last year, good for third in the ACC.

Yes, he could be better, but I don't think he was as catastrophic as you guys make him out to be.

If the purpose of any play is to advance the ball down the field, tqm passing plays were, on average, more successful than most quarterbacks in the ACC.

 

[ilovetheoption]

Similarly, LJ's numbers were 8.6 yards per attempt last night.

 

[ATL1]

Benson sat halfway through the 2nd quarter so he had no bback support for the rest of the game. I forgot to mention that.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I remain unconvinced as to the importance of completion percentage, especially in this offense.

Yards per attempt to me is a more telling stat because it combines completion percentage with yards per completion.

Tqm averaged 8 yards per attempt last year, good for third in the ACC.

Yes, he could be better, but I don't think he was as catastrophic as you guys make him out to be.

If the purpose of any play is to advance the ball down the field, tqm passing plays were, on average, more successful than most quarterbacks in the ACC.

I have said many times, that IMO it was not TM's passing last year (although it would be nice if it were better), but his failure to pitch the ball, and that was, in a manner of speaking, a catastrophe.

 

[iceeater1969]

Not that anyone is going here (yet), but I'll go in for a preemptive strike.

Marshall was handicapped last year by injury too. We had injury issues on the OL as well. Yet that context didn't matter to some who took their best shots at Marshall for the last 4 months.

We now have data for Lucas and Tobias. Read: something other than Hudl and pre-game warm-ups. Neither surpassed the mystical 37% in a game where they had no fear of getting hit. Let alone against a new defense that was missing 3+ starters and scrimmaged together a handful of times... if we want to normalize against the OL injuries. I am not drawing definitive conclusions off of a single spring practice, but it is at least interesting to me.

Some additional data:

(posted by @tech_wreck47 in the Offseason thread)

For what it's worth, I am not in favor of one QB over another. If forced to project, based on the fact that none of these guys had P5 offers at QB that I recall, I don't expect one of the backups to be head and shoulders above the incumbent. I expect that Marshall has a strong lock on the starting position as it stands today.

I agree that we run the ball w the qb as a vital - first step of the offense and if tqm can improve at reads and passes he is a lock.
However to quote the end of season 37% as the starting point is not correct.
First 6 games 51% completions on 9 attempts per game with 5 TD and ZERO interception.
Then they let Shamire Sr. Start over will Bryan and he subd for stick and Shamire (except for Vt on the 2 death march drives- got to love the ol coaching. And no will was not injured.). So the plan based on good passing so far was to open up the passing a bit.
Final 5 games 24% completions on 13 attempts per game with 5 TD and 5 INT. The taking out Will Bryan for Sham was logical for better pass protection but it did not improve the passing stats.

IN The LAST three games Tqm COMPLETED 7 TO OUR GUYS AND 4 TO THE OTHER GUYS!!! .

LAST 3 GAMES === ALL CAUGHT == THE OTHER TEAM CAUGHT 36% and GT CAUGHT 64 %!!
This face plant end of season passing negates the first half excellent stats.

In the fall Camp If Lucas is hot in THEC REAL SPEED scrimmage passing and tqm is not we have a qb battle.

We all know this TQM is a warrior and it's damn hard to take him out.

I trust coach to make sure we have a good to great starting ol and the right QB. I am pretty sure the back up qb will be good AND A GREAT CHANGE OF PACE.
As NAVY has said it sure would make for tougher prep by the defense

 

[bravejason]

I remain unconvinced as to the importance of completion percentage, especially in this offense.

...

I’ve become convinced that if the completion percentage is worse than about 50%, the offense becomes one-dimensional because you miss too many of the big plays in the passing game once the completion percentage starts dropping into the mid-forties.

 

[AE 87]

Yards/Att is the most important stat for off efficiency but comp% is also important. If comp% falls below 45% it means we're not hitting the drive saving, ball control passes.

 

[GTFLETCH]

I am glad TM was sick... our Oline has no depth, and I am not sure why... I mean we red shirted a ton of guys... not sure if it is difficult system to pick up or not but we have 4 OL guys out for the spring game and we see the younger guys not ready...

As far as LJ or Tobias goes... I find it more interesting that LJ received all the snaps with the 1st team O... not sure if that means LJ is the backup or not....

If I had to say what QB played better, I think TO being behind that pourus line and doing what he did and seeing the few passes being dropped, he played better... LJ did some good things but he missed a lot of easy passes and missed some reasy reads and he was playing with the 1s ... the same folks TM played with...

If anything I think the backup battle will go into fall and I do not see anyone beating TM out... I like TO upside to LJ, however I think we could win with LJ or TO at QB.

Really it will be up to CPJ, does he prefer LJ passing or TO running...or will he play both like Tevin and Vad...time will tell.

 

[stech81]

Either I'm a complete idiot ( which my wife agrees with ) but most worry about who is the QB. Right now the only thing I worry about is our OL. Just last year most said the this was our best OL in years while that could have been true, injuries kept me from seeing that with no depth on the OL last year. Now this year I'm a little like GTFETCH I still see no depth on the OL. If we can get through the 2018 season with no injuries this could be a special year if not 6-7 wins would be all I can see. I don't care who the QB is next year if our starters on the OL stay healthy any one of 3 our QB's would be fine. Yes 37% completion rate is bad. But with good pass blocking I really think we could be in the high 40's or maybe very low 50's. Yes I would love to see us in the high low to high 60's but to get there we would need more short to medium passes and I know that ain't going to happen.

 

[TheSilasSonRising]

Don't understand how, at this juncture, our OL could have no depth.

If we do not complete 50% of our passes in this O (opponents not expecting it, coaches calling smarter pass plays) then we will still be in trouble.

 

[1939hotmagic]

I'm going to put any concerns in abeyance until the final week of August. Plenty of reserves got extra snaps this spring and Friday night; they'll have learned something, and they'll learn more in August. In September too. They'll have a glorified scrimmage for the opener against Alcorn State, probably plenty of snaps against Bowling Green in game 5, and -- if USF is more in "rebuilding" than "reloading" mode -- possibly more snaps in game 2. It appears there's a very good possibility that all squad members will be back and ready to go in August.

Stiff upper lip and all that -- at least there's a shot at a solid season next fall.

For those of you wanting to look ahead at USF, here's a recap of their spring game:
https://www.thedailystampede.com/20...-brett-kean-jordan-cronkrite-randall-st-felix

And more: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/bulls/2018/04/14/takeaways-from-the-usf-football-spring-game/

 

[UgaBlows]

I was surprised at how smooth of a runner LJ is, and he makes some great cuts. If Tobius doesn’t make it as a QB then he might make a very dynamic AB, very quick and elusive in tight space