James Graham is the future

[RickStromFan]

This suggests there's no difference between their starters and their backups.

No it doesn't. The only difference between the starters and their backups is Talent (which includes size, speed, and everything else that makes one player better than the other).
There's ZERO difference in effort.

If anything, the starter still playing up 35-0 in the 2nd is possibly putting in less effort than a 3rd stringer looking to impress would be.

 

[MaconBacon IM88]

We gotta pick a QB to develop as we need to win some games this year. Not gonna happen platooning 3 or 4 guys. IMO - which doesn't count for sh*t - is it would be JG. Integrate TO into offense some other way. LJ now has another year of eligibility (for 3 more) and could transfer. We still have Yates and Gleason coming in.... I think it's interesting to see which way they go - build an O to suit JG and then Yates - or build an O around LJ and then Gleason.

 

[kalld12]

For those people downplaying James Graham, get a life. Dude was absolutely the best looking QB of the 3, and I bet he’s not that much slower than Tobias, Arm + Legs is lethal. Coming from a guy who played QB in college at a D3 school, the kid has the intangibles. People saying he can’t be an excellent pro style QB is just plain ignorant. Kid is a Freshman in a hostile environment playing against 2/3rd string 4 star talent. From what I saw JG should be the starter w/ Tobias coming in with certain packages to keep the D on their heels. Lucas Johnson ship has sailed.

Go Jackets! It was one game, lots to be excited about moving forward. Excited to see the maturity from this game to the next.

 

[kg01]

No it doesn't. The only difference between the starters and their backups is Talent (which includes size, speed, and everything else that makes one player better than the other).
There's ZERO difference in effort.

If anything, the starter still playing up 35-0 in the 2nd is possibly putting in less effort than a 3rd stringer looking to impress would be.

My point was that one QB was generally playing against less talent than the other. Sounds like you actually agree with me.

 

[g0lftime]

Let the coaches watch the film and then decide who ran the plays the best. The QB rotation may look different next week. Mason looked good. Smith is a deep threat. I was disappointed we couldn't score with 1st and goal after the INT. That was bad on the OC. 4 tries from the 3. The trick play formation wasn't a bad idea to get one on one but execution was not clean. They were just better than us in all aspects.

 

[Jacket4Life]

I won’t trash TO because he is a hell of an athlete and on a team that desperately needs more players with his athletic ability. That being said, QB is not the best spot to utilize his skill set in this offense. Teams will continue to just load the box to take away his ability to beat them with his legs. Didn’t see enough of LG to really evaluate him, but he really did look nervous. JG looked the complete opposite. He was poised and cool in the pocket. Say all you want about it being against backups etc. he looked the part.

 

[panther42]

It’s not ...Clemson has 2nd & 3rd string...disappointing they didn’t give Lucas a chance...makes no sense!

Lucas looked like he had **** running down his leg. I don't think I have never seen a player take the play clock all the way down on multiple plays while trying to execute a 2 min drill.

 

[g0lftime]

My bad. Brown is a deep threat with his speed. Need to get beťter at LB. Gave up some big runs up the middle. The college game has gotten frustrating to watch the way they allow holding now. Have to literally tackle someone or chop block to get a call.

 

[WreckinGT]

From what I saw, I would have Graham at QB going forward and have Oliver in for wildcat packages and maybe as a slot receiver. He needs to be on the field, he just doesn't need to be the QB if passing is a thing we are going to do this year.

 

[Jacket05]

TO is a fantastic RB but he is not a QB especially at the P5 level!!! Everyone that thinks he should continue to play talks about how good he is running the ball but that should not be the defining skillset of a QB. When he was in it just looked like a CPJ offense out of the gun and worse playcalling. Whenever he did go to throw the ball he looked lost and not only made terrible throws but terrible decisions. He can not read the defense and has no idea where the defensive players are when he goes to throw. Even Mason called him out in the post game about being great at running but still needs work on the passing game.

I am still pushing for LJ. I will say he didn't look good when he was in but TBF he was put in a horrible position coming in cold with 1 min left in the half and was given terrible play calls. Even if LJ is not up to par, Graham is heads and shoulders a better QB than TO. At this point I think Graham earned the next start and bulk of playing time.

 

[smokey_wasp]

QB doesn't look so deep anymore if Oliver is simply a wildcat package guy and the staff doesn't trust Lucas. Start Graham and get Yates up to speed on that playbook ASAP.

 

[Jacket05]

Lucas looked like he had **** running down his leg. I don't think I have never seen a player take the play clock all the way down on multiple plays while trying to execute a 2 min drill.

I am almost certain that the play clock call was on the coaches not LJ. Coach P put in arguably the best passer we had at our own 20 (or wherever we were) with 1 min left in the half and then called plays like he was just trying to run the clock out. I was at the game so it was hard for me to judge how scared he played but the playcalling did not take advantage of the situation and set him up for failure.

 

[Chas_Jacket]

The thing that impressed me with Graham was how quickly he was looking downfield after the ball was snapped. He also seemed to not be focused on one area but quickly looked at the entire field. That’s promising.

 

[inGTwetrust]

His foot worked seemed a bit shakey, but the talent is there. I hope he gets the fall next week to start. Opens up the playbook more.

 

[YJMD]

From what we've seen, he's the only guy with the complete package talent wise. Not that others can't be better leveraging other strengths, but when you are trying to build a team, it's hard to pass on someone who has the total package.

But for me the most important is who steps up in the locker room. If Graham continues during practice with how he acted on the field, then he should be allowed to wrangle the team and make it his. As a RS-Fr, he has enormous potential. Let's meet him with the opportunity if he does his part.

 

[GT_receivers]

Its true

He should start.

 

[gtpi]

Only QB who played with poise. Don’t care it was vs the 2s

while i completely agree with you there is some thing to be gained for having had a chance to sit on the sidelines and watch the game from the sidelines for a half + plus hear the half time locker room talk

 

[lv20gt]

It's very hard to draw good conclusions from this game about the QBs. It is very obvious that the gameplan was to run the ball, likely because of a lack of faith in our ability to pass against clemson. That is almost certainly about a combination of factors, including OL and WR ability. IMO Oliver likely got the nod because he was the best runner while Johnson getting the least would make sense if he's our best passer but worst runner. It doesn't make much sense to play the best passer if you don't think you can block or run the routs needed to take advantage of it.

That probably also should be taken into consideration when evaluating Oliver's performance and use in this game. If we were opening up with the Citadel, he'd probably be used a good bit differently.

But we need to come to terms with the possibility that none of the three are the long term solution at QB. It's too early to make that call, but it is a possibility

 

[gtpi]

Dabo is a great coach who specializes in motivating guys to give their all. I highly doubt the backups in the game were mailing it in.

We will still need TO’s ability to run the ball this season. But I agree that JG looked poised and threw some good balls. Kept his eyes downfield too.

+1.

anybody see venables relaxing drinking a margarita at half time? i didnt . he was intense the entire game.

 

[mts315]

CGC said after the game that when Graham went in was when he was scheduled to go in during the pre-game preparations. The fact that Lucas Johnson didn't have a scheduled time to go in the game should tell us all something. I don't think it is that Lucas is necessarily worse than the other two but just like when we were running the TO is skill set mixed with the players around him isn't going to give us an opportunity.

I, after last nights game think, that Graham is the guy to give us the best opportunities on offense. He may not be the runner Oliver is or the passer that Johnson is but I don't think that the margins for either are all that great. All that being said with a shaky option recruited O-line breakdowns are going to happen and we need a runner but if we are going to make a real attempt to pass then we need a competent passer as the QB.