QB Situation

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Good memory. What message board was that back in 96/97? The Hive? That's about when they started IIRC.

Yeah the Hive. He disappeared about the time Lil Joe started heating up. I remember I was questioning Hamilton and Godsey their first few games.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

We are looking at it from a fan point of view. I think Collins may be looking at the one that keeps control of the ball and gives us the best chance to win.

 

[Jerry the Jacket]

Face it, we don't have a QB that can run the offense Coach Collins wants to run. At this point he is going to mix and match and hope to get the most he can out of what he has. If you look around, really good college football teams are quarterback centric. We are not. We are going to have to settle for scrambling for wins and lot of losses until we find a quarterback. Not going to happen this year unless we have a guru on the staff that fast track development of QB skills.

Go Jackets!

 

[RamblinCharger]

To be honest I just want whoever is the kicker to make kicks, but what you’re saying is that for everyone else on the team practice matters but nor for Wells? Just hw do you sell that to the team?

If we had a RB that averaged 30 yard per carry last year on 30 carries, and then he didn't play this year I'd be upset about that too, we have tape on wells and king. One makes kicks, one misses kicks.

 

[GTFLETCH]

I hear what he’s saying, but I truly believe if he does this with his QBs for his entire tenure at Tech we will not be very successful on offense. Just my opinion.

I agree.... Has there been any teams in the modern era that rotated 3 QBs the entire season and made a bowl?

 

[GTFLETCH]

Face it, we don't have a QB that can run the offense Coach Collins wants to run. At this point he is going to mix and match and hope to get the most he can out of what he has. If you look around, really good college football teams are quarterback centric. We are not. We are going to have to settle for scrambling for wins and lot of losses until we find a quarterback. Not going to happen this year unless we have a guru on the staff that fast track development of QB skills.

Go Jackets!

I agree and am Hopeful that Tucker Gleason is that recruit for next year...

The question becomes can we win during ACC play this year playing 3QBs and not sticking to one?? I guess we will find out soon enough.. Go Jackets!

 

[Techster]

Watched the Saints - Texans game last night. Sean Payton had Taysom Hill play QB in certain situations. He also has Drew Brees who is easily one of the top 5 QBs in the league, and a surefire HOF'er. I think have a true QB1 is a benefit to the team, but there's a time and place to "change it up" if you have an effective game plan.

Right now, we need our Drew Brees.

 

[bobongo]

We should keep in mind that there's a big difference between what is optimal and what is reality. Optimally, I think just about all of us can agree that it would be best to have a solid offensive line and one QB who has emerged to take the reins. But we don't have that. We have a very thin offensive line which is probably better at run blocking than pass blocking but not too hot at either. We have one QB who is a very good runner and an experienced gamer to boot, but who is lacking in the passing game. We have two other QB's who have little experience but may have a bigger upside potential, especially throwing the football.

The coaching staff has to deal with what is reality while striving toward the optimal. To that end, and in preparing for the future instead of looking only at the short term, they have made a decision which is reasonable under the circumstances, which is to prepare for what's ahead. A strong case can be made to play all three QB's in order to give experience to the other two and prepare for that future. We should be doing what is best in the long run rather than what is conventional, and I think that's what we are doing. All three QB's are young. The least any one of them has left here is two more years beyond this one. Just looking one or two games down the road is to ignore the forest for the trees. Yes there are certainly downsides to this approach, which have been well enumerated in this thread. Practice time spread too thin, and issues of continuity, among others. But the upside is that we get experience for these QB's who will all be here next year and the next and we find out how they will perform under live game conditions.

This is an experimental year. OL is the most important area on a football team, and we don't have the numbers there. Our OL is at a nadir mostly because we just don't have enough of them. We've already seen injuries to some of our best linemen. We hope to make a bowl game this year but personnel-wise it doesn't add up. We barely have enough OL to make a two-deep roster out of our scholarship linemen, if we had a two-deep. Realistically, I think it makes sense to have done what we have done as pertains to the QB situation. Play calling and general coordination are other issues, but playing three QB's is something that fits our present situation, all things considered.

Most of us have expressed a preference for one QB over the other two. I've previously said I think James Graham is the guy I would like to see on the field. Others have expressed a preference for either Oliver or Johnson. But after thinking about the whole overall situation, I do understand why the coaching staff is doing what it's doing. I think it makes sense in the long term. Think of 2021, and 2022. Even if one QB emerges, won't it be a good thing to have an experienced backup or two? This is a rebuilding year, mainly because of the situation on the offensive line. In order to properly prepare for the future, we should have patience in the present.

 

[UgaBlows]

Can we talk about the great downfield passes that Graham completed in the CU and USF games when he had protection? I want to see alot more of that, i wish we would go max protect some to try and give him more time, and do some rollout passes similar to how we used JT quite a bit. Also the fake run then dropback to pass would kill if TO could pull it off, everybody in the stadium is expecting him to run it 90% of the time

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Will we see Yates this week? Time to give him some PT.

Coaches can’t decide from three. Adding another into the mix......probably won’t help them.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Listening to GT:60 this evening, CGC said, "If I've got three QBs who have worked hard all week to earn the right to be Above The Line players for the upcoming game, then why would I not play all three of them in that game?"

CGC is clearly laying out that the coaches' mindset regarding who plays is very different from the typical 'first string, second string, third string' football mindset.

Lack of leadership and decision making from the top guy imo. Guess we will just have to hope whoever gets the nod from practice starts hot out of the gate on game days.

This QB carousel only makes sense if all 3 QBs have no separation between them. Hard to imagine that’s the case. If this continues past the Temple game the results will probably continue to be ragged.

 

[FlatsLander]

This is my big concern. 3 QBs getting first team snaps in practice is a lot less reps for each.

They don't really have "first team reps" in practice. It sounds like they scramble everyone who is ATL across 2-3 groups and are constantly running plays with different combinations.

 

[ncjacket79]

I hear what he’s saying, but I truly believe if he does this with his QBs for his entire tenure at Tech we will not be very successful on offense. Just my opinion.

I agree but I also don’t believe this is what we will see. Hr didn’t do this at a Temple so no reason to think this is a long term strategy.

 

[FlatsLander]

I think that TO at QB gives us the safest, most consistent production on offense, but having him as the guy may not work for the whole year. I think that JG should be starting with TO in the slot like we saw in the USF game. JG has been the only QB to even attempt a pass of 20+ yards that I can think of, and having TO in to get some runs and be an outside threat will slow defenses down. I really doubt we will see Yates for a while mainly due to the OL situation and not having a clear fall back solution among the older QBs. They will keep him developing safely (outside of games) until we can actually pass protect and as he comes up to speed in the college game. It's definitely going to get awkward next year when we have 5 QBs on scholarship, with the oldest being a double redshirt JR (Johnson with the 6th year).

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

I agree but I also don’t believe this is what we will see. Hr didn’t do this at a Temple so no reason to think this is a long term strategy.

Hopefully. His messaging indicates otherwise.

 

[g0lftime]

Coaches can’t decide from three. Adding another into the mix......probably won’t help them.

Just figured this would be best chance for Yates to get some time. He can play in 4. The schedule doesn't look great after this week.

 

[Dustman]

Hopefully. His messaging indicates otherwise.

Glad you brought that up. Here’s what I’ve learned from Collins in the 9 months since he was hired. He’s going to remain positive in his messaging. Period. He may not like what he sees, but we aren’t ever going to hear him say that.

Yesterday I said that the tea leaves pointed to Lucas because he seemed to get the most reps against USF. I’ve changed my mind. I think Graham gets the starting nod this weekend with the majority of snaps, and pending the results we have a 2 headed QB at Temple. And that’s no different than many teams that use a wildcat. I think it’s clear that Oliver is our wildcat.

I told some friends earlier this morning that the coaches see everything we see, and they also see things we can’t see.

 

[malak05]

I think you got to get Graham out there in prolonged play to see just how well he can move the ball running and passing sadly Citadel not prime competition for measuring that but it's all we have right now and hopeful if he does and plays well the things you can gleam from it is he making good decisions with the ball and making plays. You can then go from there as far as development. If LJ hasn't and won't win the job then not worried about his 5th year spot on the team he's not going to be anymore then a back-up if others are outplaying and better then him.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Just figured this would be best chance for Yates to get some time. He can play in 4. The schedule doesn't look great after this week.

I’d rather see him get his playing time after we have settled things at the QB spot more.

 

[GT_EE78]

If this continues past the Temple game the results will probably continue to be ragged.

You got it... This is the week to let them fight it out if he's really that undecided . Fine tune the starter against Temple and be ready for the ACC . Go jackets