Starting QB speculation

[boger2337]

You may be right, but how do you know he is the 2nd most cerebral?

From the interviews with coach P and several others have said he has been involved with the offense since high school. His HS coach worked with him on some college level drills and breakdown of the game.

 

[orientalnc]

From the interviews with coach P and several others have said he has been involved with the offense since high school. His HS coach worked with him on some college level drills and breakdown of the game.

Who do you think is the first "most cerebral?"

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

Just a guess, but the pecking order from reading the tea leaves, seems to be:
Gleason
Sims
Yates
Graham
If Graham was the starter, they would flat out say who was in the running for backup.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

If you take 4 guys and split reps with the starters your inexperienced QB only gets 1/4 the amount of time to develop as the normal practice competition. You start off inexperienced, then you do that and what do you expect in the game? You end up with 4 slightly ready guys which equals no guy. You end up with P’nut’s mess from last year.

The back ups need to be practicing with 2nd string.

CGC needs to pick a horse to ride, not switch horses every 5 mins. We saw how that worked out last year. He gets paid to make the hard decisions if his OC does not know what to do. In this case it’s pretty clear, pick your best QB and get him practice and game experience now.

Honestly last year to me it seemed like PNut refused to share the playbook with our team and most of the time they didn’t know what the plays were.

 

[BuzzThePlumber]

If our OL doesn't improve from last year he might want to move "Ability to run" up the list LOL. Granted we had a lot of injuries to our OL last year, but still.

Given the fact that we have more help this year in the form of returning player who was injured last year, a transfer who will be a starter, and a true freshman who will most likely start at Tackle —our OL will most certainly be different, and almost definitely better.

 

[jacketBMR]

Heard from a friend who works for the football team that it’ll be Yates with Gleason getting some time as well. Was unsure about JG and sounds like Sims is doing ok but is behind Yates/Gleason

 

[Gtech50]

Heard from a friend who works for the football team that it’ll be Yates with Gleason getting some time as well. Was unsure about JG and sounds like Sims is doing ok but is behind Yates/Gleason

FWIW I’ve been hearing it’s Gleason but that’s from second hand sources.

I was bored so I went back and looked at the TDs posted on twitter during camp and the breakdown looks like this:
Yates: 12 (6 first team)
Gleason: 8 (4 first team)
Sims: 9 (6 first team)
Graham: 6 (2 first team)

This obviously doesn’t tell the whole story and they might not have posted every TD but based only on this, the depth chart looks to be Yates, Gleason/Sims, Graham.

I expect them to take the same approach as last year. Rotate 2-3 guys until they find the best one. It doesn’t seem like there is a lot of separation but the freshmen probably have the most upside long term. I just hope we don’t rotate guys mid drive and kill any momentum/chemistry.

 

[Techfan02]

FWIW I’ve been hearing it’s Gleason but that’s from second hand sources.

I was bored so I went back and looked at the TDs posted on twitter during camp and the breakdown looks like this:
Yates: 12 (6 first team)
Gleason: 8 (4 first team)
Sims: 9 (6 first team)
Graham: 6 (2 first team)

This obviously doesn’t tell the whole story and they might not have posted every TD but based only on this, the depth chart looks to be Yates, Gleason/Sims, Graham.

I expect them to take the same approach as last year. Rotate 2-3 guys until they find the best one. It doesn’t seem like there is a lot of separation but the freshmen probably have the most upside long term. I just hope we don’t rotate guys mid drive and kill any momentum/chemistry.

It might just be me but Yates reminds me of Russell Wilson so I don't hate it

 

[mtodd30]

I think that makes sense, go with the guy who has been in the system the longest in Yates, and if the younger guys who might be more talented catch up in practice and in games they should play

 

[BCJacket]

Heard from a friend who works for the football team that it’ll be Yates with Gleason getting some time as well. Was unsure about JG and sounds like Sims is doing ok but is behind Yates/Gleason

Tracks with what I've gathered (third-ish hand). Yates may start due to having some experience and the effort he's put to learn the offense, etc. But that Gleason is the top performing guy at the moment.

Heck, this might all be a misinformation campaign orchestrated by 'Morpheus'. Tobias Oliver might come out to run the flexbone for all I know.

 

[orientalnc]

I am glad this thread is about qb speculation, because that's all we have right now.

 

[LibertyTurns]

I am glad this thread is about qb speculation, because that's all we have right now.

We’ll know in 6 days. The suspense is killing me.

 

[dmel25]

We’ll know in 6 days. The suspense is killing me.

Same. Can it be Saturday yet?

 

[Gtswifty81]

At this point unfortunately, the coaches have nothing to gain by announcing the starter publicly. Last year we went with the safe choice at QB for the first game, and then 2 or 3 games later Tobias was no longer a QB. If we don’t think JG or Yates is the right guy, they need to move on and give a freshman a shot. I honestly don’t think there is going to be a huge performance difference between the 4 QBs due to their youth, but that is a vast improvement over last year.

 

[orientalnc]

I decided to look back at 2019 and recap the QB rotation. Oliver started the Clemson game and Graham came in later. Johnson barely played.

Johnson started the next week against USF and played most of the game. Graham and Oliver both played a little.

Johnson started against The Citadel and alternated with Oliver for most of the game. Graham did not play(???). Johnson was injured.

Against Temple Oliver started and was a disaster. Graham came in late in 1st half.

Graham stated the rest of the season. Why? Johnson was injured and Oliver's skills did not fit the offense going forward.

What that says to me is that Graham was always the #3 choice behind Oliver and Johnson. Johnson's injuries ruined his chances and Oliver, a great athlete, was just not suited to be QB in this system. I am beginning to come around to the idea that Coach P doesn't really have a ton of confidence in Graham. I wonder why Yates did not play more as a freshman. Were they saving his eligibility? Or was he just not ready to play? Probably some of both. Once they committed to Graham, only he and Yates played (save a brief appearance by Johnson in the Pitt game, his last snap as a Jacket). The staff certainly wants something Graham did not offer. Did Yates have it? If so, why recruit two vastly different skill sets in Sims and Gleason.

This is mostly me just trying to think through the question. I am not making a prediction at this point. For those nitpickers who will scroll back and find my prediction, I am withdrawing it. I have no frigging idea.

 

[dmel25]

I decided to look back at 2019 and recap the QB rotation. Oliver started and Graham came in later. Johnson barely played.

Johnson started the next week against USF and played most of the game. Graham and Oliver both played a little.

Johnson started against The Citadel and alternated with Oliver for most of the game. Graham did not play(???). Johnson was injured.

Against Temple Oliver started and was a disaster. Graham came in late in 1st half.

I believe Graham was supposed to start in the Citadel game but his ankle was injured which is why he did not, and that is why he struggled against Temple because he wasn't 100%. Johnson was good in practice but in actual games looked like a deer in headlights, the pressure looked like it got to him.

I definitely think they wanted to give every guy a chance to see who would win, but Graham got his chance late because of his injury. I do agree though that I don't think Graham is the guy they want to go with in the end.

 

[CuseJacket]

This thread is ripe for a poll. Added one up top. Get your votes in before Friday afternoon.

 

[slugboy]

We’ll know in 6 days. The suspense is killing me.

Calls for the classic WW gif


__________________
So, from some of the other posts from other people: You can get some ideas from practice based on who is getting the reps and where they get them, but it’s not unheard of for a player to find out that they’re starting the morning of the game or the day before. With a week left, coaches can change their minds. If any player has a blowout week of practice—WR, OL, LB, whoever—coaches will sit up and take note and possibly swap out a starter or two.
I’m sure the players and grad assistants and staff all have a guess who’ll start, and might feel really sure, but unless Patenaude or Collins has pulled them aside to tell them, I’d bet the players are wondering themselves. I’m sure they all think they’ve shown enough to start.
Coaches don’t usually like to change their minds, but they will.

 

[UpperNorth]

I decided to look back at 2019 and recap the QB rotation. Oliver started the Clemson game and Graham came in later. Johnson barely played.

Johnson started the next week against USF and played most of the game. Graham and Oliver both played a little.

Johnson started against The Citadel and alternated with Oliver for most of the game. Graham did not play(???). Johnson was injured.

Against Temple Oliver started and was a disaster. Graham came in late in 1st half.

Graham stated the rest of the season. Why? Johnson was injured and Oliver's skills did not fit the offense going forward.

What that says to me is that Graham was always the #3 choice behind Oliver and Johnson. Johnson's injuries ruined his chances and Oliver, a great athlete, was just not suited to be QB in this system. I am beginning to come around to the idea that Coach P doesn't really have a ton of confidence in Graham. I wonder why Yates did not play more as a freshman. Were they saving his eligibility? Or was he just not ready to play? Probably some of both. Once they committed to Graham, only he and Yates played (save a brief appearance by Johnson in the Pitt game, his last snap as a Jacket). The staff certainly wants something Graham did not offer. Did Yates have it? If so, why recruit two vastly different skill sets in Sims and Gleason.

This is mostly me just trying to think through the question. I am not making a prediction at this point. For those nitpickers who will scroll back and find my prediction, I am withdrawing it. I have no frigging idea.

Thanks for sharing this. I had forgotten exactly how each of those early games shook out and totally forgotten that Graham had a banged up ankle against the Citadel.

I do want to share this because I think it’s good to understand that while the jury is still out on Coach Patenaude and some of QB roulette last year seemed random and clueless, I was told by a source close to the program early last summer (and I shared it on here) that the coaches liked James Graham best but he was not ready. They knew they wanted to ride with Graham most of the season but wanted to bring him along slow. It was also clearly stated by the coaches following the Clemson game that they went with Oliver because they wanted to protect the offensive line that was still developing and not ready to pass protect against Clemson’s pass rush.

All of that tells me that the coaches knew that Graham would be the guy and that’s how it played out. It wasn’t some random decision they made after the Temple game. I’m also deducing this, but that tells me that Oliver didn’t win the competition in Fall camp, he simply was the best athlete and the best at doing what they felt they were capable of early in the season.

I think it’s important to view last year through that lens. That our coaches had more of a plan than many of us try to say.

 

[georgytech]

I don t have much knowledge of all four but from what I saw of Yates in HS he has that winner charisma.