Starting QB speculation

[WreckinGT]

David Curry who some have beaten to death with disparaging remarks over the years, is a great example of CGC playing the best guy available.
Demetrius Knight who came in as a QB, and CGC moved over to LB is another.

CGC recruited 3 LBs in the 2020 class who were all higher rated than those guys, and this year is a "freebie", so the staff could have easily gave the young guys playing time to build towards the future. That they didn't is proof this staff is putting the best guy in to win.

In regards to Jeff Sims, you have to be blind not to see he's completing passes with ease that our QBs last season struggled to even see. Look how many different receivers have catches every game compared to last season. Sims is making freshmen mistakes, but QB play is night and day better compared to last year.

He went 6-15 in the 2nd half against UCF with no TD and an INT. We only scored on one of our last 8 drives. He’s not making look quite as easy as people seem to think. He has a world of potential but I think people are overblowing his performance so far.

 

[smokey_wasp]

He went 6-15 in the 2nd half against UCF with no TD and an INT. We only scored on one of our last 8 drives. He’s not making look quite as easy as people seem to think. He has a world of potential but I think people are overblowing his performance so far.

For a true freshman with no spring ball, I don't think people are overblowing it at all. No guarantees for the future, but darn impressive so far.

 

[Lee]

He went 6-15 in the 2nd half against UCF with no TD and an INT. We only scored on one of our last 8 drives. He’s not making look quite as easy as people seem to think. He has a world of potential but I think people are overblowing his performance so far.

If you can’t get excited watching Sims play then you’re looking for something to complain about.

He has poise, makes throws with ease, extends drives with his legs, and pretty good pocket awareness (especially for a freshman).

Does he have room to grow? Yes. But that’s what’s even more exciting. Imagine how good he will be if he continues to progress.

Unless you’re related to Graham (who I chose in this poll), there is no way you can’t see that Sims is the better option. I had high hopes for Graham making a big jump this year. The fact that Sims beat him out is even more impressive.

 

[takethepoints]

This is such an absolutely ridiculous take. It’s absolute nonsense to think a coach would rather play a guy that he recruited over another player who is clearly better. Sims, Yates, and Gleason are probably ALL better than Graham. Everyone understands that Graham played behind an atrocious OL last year, but that’s not an excuse to miss on the majority of his short to intermediate length passes. It’s obvious that the intermediate passing game is what CDP’s offense relies on. Sims seems to be the most capable of doing that, as well as being more than adequate with his legs.

If Collins only wants to play “his”guys, why didn’t J. Griffin get the majority of carries last year? Why isn’t Miles Brooks playing? Why hasn’t Nate McCollum been on the field? Michael Rankins hasn’t sniffed the line. Billy Ward, the only “natural” TE on scholarship that was available Saturday received less playing time than a converted long snapper.

No coach worth his weight in would play a guy he recruited over another player that is better, simply because he recruited one of them. That notion is BS, and anyone who believes it full of themselves.

Well … there isn't much I can do if you don't, you know, read the post. And I quote:

" If the difference isn't that great - probably isn't between Sims and Graham - he'd start Sims and hope he develops quickly."

And, on Griffin,

"(No coach in his right mind would sit Mason down.)"

I didn't say Collins would go with players who couldn't win the game. I said that, all things being close to equal, he would go with a player he recruited. I also said that this is SOP. And it is. This usually happens because new coaches have new ways they want to do things and they recruit players to do them. If those players test out, they get the reps. If others show up better in practice or, less commonly, in games, they get the nod instead. We have a lot of guys on D starting who are from the old regime because we haven't changed what we are doing all that much and we have good players over there left over form Paul's days. But, given their druthers, most coaches will go with the players who they've recruited, all other things equal. If you haven't noticed this, you haven't been watching football very carefully.

 

[WreckinGT]

If you can’t get excited watching Sims play then you’re looking for something to complain about.

He has poise, makes throws with ease, extends drives with his legs, and pretty good pocket awareness (especially for a freshman).

Does he have room to grow? Yes. But that’s what’s even more exciting. Imagine how good he will be if he continues to progress.

Unless you’re related to Graham (who I chose in this poll), there is no way you can’t see that Sims is the better option. I had high hopes for Graham making a big jump this year. The fact that Sims beat him out is even more impressive.

I am excited about Sims and I said just last page that he should start over Graham, I just think people are overblowing what he has done so far. Claiming he is easily making throws other QBs couldn’t and that there is no way Graham could have done as well as 18-36 with two INT and a fumble in a 28 point loss is kind of nonsense. We are mostly enamored by potential right now. It will be amazing when he reaches it. Right now, he is still a bit of a mess.

 

[Jacketman]

He was a 4 star recruit as a WR iirc

No, he was a QB in high school. Some schools wanted him as a WR or DB, but he played QB.

 

[Techster]

He went 6-15 in the 2nd half against UCF with no TD and an INT. We only scored on one of our last 8 drives. He’s not making look quite as easy as people seem to think. He has a world of potential but I think people are overblowing his performance so far.

LOL...you may want to check the stat lines of our QBs the last few years. You're talking about a true freshmen making his second start.

No one is anointing Sims the second coming of Deshaun Watson...at least I'm not. Sims is a vast improvement over what we had last season. Some people have short a memory of how excruciating our offense was last year.

 

[takethepoints]

If you can’t get excited watching Sims play then you’re looking for something to complain about.

He has poise, makes throws with ease, extends drives with his legs, and pretty good pocket awareness (especially for a freshman).

Does he have room to grow? Yes. But that’s what’s even more exciting. Imagine how good he will be if he continues to progress.

Unless you’re related to Graham (who I chose in this poll), there is no way you can’t see that Sims is the better option. I had high hopes for Graham making a big jump this year. The fact that Sims beat him out is even more impressive.

I said it an earlier post; one good game doth not a season make.

We don't know how Sims will turn out. If I had a nickel for every frosh QB who looks good for a game or two then flubs, I'd be waiting on the cornice at Nice wondering when my friend Johnny was going to show up for lunch. Same for every frosh QB who goes out and lights things up for a whole season. You just can't know, especially after two games.

I think what will tell us something is if Sims and the coaches can adjust. A frosh QB is like a rookie pitcher in the majors. The way you tell if you have a potential winner is what he does after the batters figure out how to hit his best pitch, as they always do. As was pointed out earlier by someone else, UCF was pretty effective in holding us up once they packed the box and dared us to throw long. Completing short/intermediate passes is no big whoop once the other side figures out how to stop them for 2 or 3 yards. I think one of the things we'll try to do this week is hit Brown long. I said earlier that I doubted that Sims lacked the arm strength to do this; he was following a game plan that the coaches thought he could execute. Now that has to change and we'll see what happens. If I'm right, that is.

Personally, I think Sims could be a good, maybe a great QB for Tech. But it's too early to tell.

 

[takethepoints]

No, he was a QB in high school. Some schools wanted him as a WR or DB, but he played QB.

And was he ever. If you want to know why we went after him look at his junior year stats; he missed about half of his senior year. As a junior, he threw for 1725, ran for 956, and accounted for 39 TDs. The main question is why any school anywhere would want him for anything else.

 

[BleedGoldNWhite21]

Anyone who actually believes our coach is picking starters based on who recruited them has been on this site too long and fallen in the rabbit hole.

 

[neb llarmus]

Anyone who actually believes our coach is picking starters based on who recruited them has been on this site too long and fallen in the rabbit hole.

 

[ramblinwreckguru]

I for 1 am not sold on our starter yet. Too many overthrows that remind me of recent qbs gone by. Absolutely no reason to leave the starter in the game after the score had gotten out of hand.

 

[neb llarmus]

Agree. The players know who the best QB is. If coaches push someone else into that spot, they run the risk of losing the team. Just ask the unspeakable one, B*** L****. This staff will not take that risk.

 

[FrostedOrange]

My "take it like a man" reference was prompted by a famous article in the AJC the year Billy Lotheridge took over the QB position from Stan Gann. I cannot find the article now, but Bisher (or one of the AJC writers) had a column referring to the fact that Stan Gann, often called Stan the Man, "became a man" when he accepted the fact that Lotheridge was replacing him. In spite of losing the starter job, he remained loyal both to Tech, Dodd, and Lotheridge. I would hope that JG can do the same, unless he gets an opportunity to transfer to a school where he might once again start.

Stan "the man" lives down the street from me. I can confirm that he bleeds gold to this day (the correct shade even)! Him, his son and grandson use my tix last year to attend a game. Since Taz died, a lot of our historical players have lost their connection to the program.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

David Curry who some have beaten to death with disparaging remarks over the years, is a great example of CGC playing the best guy available.
Demetrius Knight who came in as a QB, and CGC moved over to LB is another.

CGC recruited 3 LBs in the 2020 class who were all higher rated than those guys, and this year is a "freebie", so the staff could have easily gave the young guys playing time to build towards the future. That they didn't is proof this staff is putting the best guy in to win.

In regards to Jeff Sims, you have to be blind not to see he's completing passes with ease that our QBs last season struggled to even see. Look how many different receivers have catches every game compared to last season. Sims is making freshmen mistakes, but QB play is night and day better compared to last year.

Curry can both be the best player currently at that ILB position and also still be slow. We might easily have 8 other linebackers who are much faster, but haven’t figured out where to be yet. Also, UCFs offense was a unique challenge for someone like Curry. I think their offense put a highlight on him that won’t normally be quite so bad.

 

[bke1984]

FWIW, my observation has been that Sims looks so comfortable delivering the ball on short and intermediate routes with excellent accuracy and a really quick release. Part of the reason we struggled to move the ball last year was an inability to complete these passes for one reason or another. The one area that I’d say needs improvement through two games is the deep ball, but it’s probably a little to early to throw that out as a weakness IMO. Against UCF we had some opportunities that were missed due to some obvious no call pass interference. If those get called maybe we look at this differently.

I’m guessing that he lights it up on Saturday against Syracuse, particularly if we get the TE’s back.

 

[Deleted member 2897]

FWIW, my observation has been that Sims looks so comfortable delivering the ball on short and intermediate routes with excellent accuracy and a really quick release. Part of the reason we struggled to move the ball last year was an inability to complete these passes for one reason or another. The one area that I’d say needs improvement through two games is the deep ball, but it’s probably a little to early to throw that out as a weakness IMO. Against UCF we had some opportunities that were missed due to some obvious no call pass interference. If those get called maybe we look at this differently.

I’m guessing that he lights it up on Saturday against Syracuse, particularly if we get the TE’s back.

Yep. When you complete 35%-45% of your passes, you can’t sustain drives - you can’t convert 3rd downs. Which is exactly what happened last year. Our offense looks light years ahead of last year.

 

[kalld12]

For a true freshman with no spring ball, I don't think people are overblowing it at all. No guarantees for the future, but darn impressive so far.

LOL...and where was this forgiveness for JG? Yall are hypocrites

 

[kalld12]

LOL...you may want to check the stat lines of our QBs the last few years. You're talking about a true freshmen making his second start.

No one is anointing Sims the second coming of Deshaun Watson...at least I'm not. Sims is a vast improvement over what we had last season. Some people have short a memory of how excruciating our offense was last year.

Where did our oline rank last year? This argument gets old and is biased

 

[kalld12]

I said it an earlier post; one good game doth not a season make.

We don't know how Sims will turn out. If I had a nickel for every frosh QB who looks good for a game or two then flubs, I'd be waiting on the cornice at Nice wondering when my friend Johnny was going to show up for lunch. Same for every frosh QB who goes out and lights things up for a whole season. You just can't know, especially after two games.

I think what will tell us something is if Sims and the coaches can adjust. A frosh QB is like a rookie pitcher in the majors. The way you tell if you have a potential winner is what he does after the batters figure out how to hit his best pitch, as they always do. As was pointed out earlier by someone else, UCF was pretty effective in holding us up once they packed the box and dared us to throw long. Completing short/intermediate passes is no big whoop once the other side figures out how to stop them for 2 or 3 yards. I think one of the things we'll try to do this week is hit Brown long. I said earlier that I doubted that Sims lacked the arm strength to do this; he was following a game plan that the coaches thought he could execute. Now that has to change and we'll see what happens. If I'm right, that is.

Personally, I think Sims could be a good, maybe a great QB for Tech. But it's too early to tell.

This ^^^^ Great Post!