Tobias Oliver: The Passer

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746
Next year we get Lucas Johnson back in the mix. Nobody will say he’s not got an arm. A lot of injury bad luck has plagued this team. And I was a little too tough on the recruiting a little while back. We have recruited guys that could have really helped this offense go, but for one reason or another they’re not here anymore. Mills was one of the best runners we’ve had in multiple decades. Lucas Johnson is a true dual threat quarterback. Marcus Marshall could’ve helped us big time. AJ gray… The list goes on and on.

Now I know injuries and off the field crap happens at all programs, it just can’t happen here if we want to be successful. We need all the stars to lineup. Some years they have. (’09, ‘14). It just hasn’t happened enough. It is what it is. We’re gonna need stars to line up no matter who the coach is.

Next year will be TO's team. LJ may very well be passed by Graham. I feel bad for LJ - bad timing on injuries and not sure why we didn't see more of him last year. But given CPJ's love affair with the non-throwing TQM, I don't see him suddenly deciding to roll with a QB with an arm (LJ) over a pure runner like TO.

Next year will almost certainly be identical to this one, though our Defense will be better. Unlike the O, they appear to be making some real strides each week.
 
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746
Amen.

One thing: losing your best players - and that is who has been hurt or fired - is death to any program, besides the top 5 or so. We lost Mills, the next real Adrian Peterson and just what the offense needed. We lost Benson and, probably, 1500 yards rushing. We lost Jordan and a beast offense with him and Mills. We lost Lucas, who, probably, would be starting today, if he was healthy. (This is not a knock on TM. Losing Benson has made him less effective, but he still is on track for 1000 yards rushing.) And, as you say, A. J. right when we changed D schemes. You just can't lose people like that and prosper.

And, yes, if I were to handicap the QB race for next year I would say it was a contest between Johnson and Graham. It will depend on whether Coach decides to go all Hawaii on us. And, btw, I expect he will, to some extent.

Respectfully, why do you think CPJ will suddenly change things, 12 years into his term here?

I see more of the same, with TO doing what TQM is doing: A bunch of QB Keepers and almost no passing.

I mean, I HOPE you're right (I'm in the "CPJ is here thru at least 2019" camp) but I don't have any optimism that you will be.
 

Whiskey_Clear

Banned
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10,486
I'll bite...
If he (and the OL, WR, etc) were a downfield throwing threat, there wouldn't be 8.5 guys in the box lighting our mesh and pitch lanes up. It's not his fault -- he is one of our most talented players -- but he is not able to hit the passes needed to keep the numerical advantage in our favor.

This is something I’m in agreement on. I thought that was clear in my first post Fletch seemed to disagree with.

We have to be able to make teams pay when we do throw. Right now we aren’t or can’t.
 

Whiskey_Clear

Banned
Messages
10,486
Nothing would be different. We'd likely have the same record.

I tend to agree. It’s impossible to know. Maybe we would have even more turnovers. Maybe fewer TDs.

If TO wins the starting job and balls out we will have a better barometer. If he plays more at all we will have a better barometer.
 

tmhunter52

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,449
Next year will be TO's team. LJ may very well be passed by Graham. I feel bad for LJ - bad timing on injuries and not sure why we didn't see more of him last year. But given CPJ's love affair with the non-throwing TQM, I don't see him suddenly deciding to roll with a QB with an arm (LJ) over a pure runner like TO.

Next year will almost certainly be identical to this one, though our Defense will be better. Unlike the O, they appear to be making some real strides each week.
Pretty tough 2019 schedule...
 

iceeater1969

Helluva Engineer
Messages
9,668
Next year we get Lucas Johnson back in the mix. Nobody will say he’s not got an arm. A lot of injury bad luck has plagued this team. And I was a little too tough on the recruiting a little while back. We have recruited guys that could have really helped this offense go, but for one reason or another they’re not here anymore. Mills was one of the best runners we’ve had in multiple decades. Lucas Johnson is a true dual threat quarterback. Marcus Marshall could’ve helped us big time. AJ gray… The list goes on and on.

Now I know injuries and off the field crap happens at all programs, it just can’t happen here if we want to be successful. We need all the stars to lineup. Some years they have. (’09, ‘14). It just hasn’t happened enough. It is what it is. We’re gonna need stars to line up no matter who the coach is.
Perhaps we could hack the acc coastal s dc 's computers and plant a virus to stop them from getting better at scheming against us. We need a Cyber coachto stop the other teams from improving.
!
 

Heisman's Ghost

Helluva Engineer
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Albany Georgia
I disagree. Having a capable dual threat QB solves a lot of problems. I think I recall CPJ commenting on TM’s inability to hit a simple short out route, saying, you have to be able to make that throw in college...
I understand your sentiments but a dual threat quarterback running for his life has lost one of his um...threats wouldn't you say?
 

LongforDodd

LatinxBreakfastTacos
Messages
3,195
In terms of running the ball, I think we can all see he's a talented runner. He may not know our offense as well as TQM, but when the ball is in his hands, he's tends to make good positive gains

I want to talk about Tobias the passer. He's not polished, and his throws are sometimes off the mark where the receiver has to adjust, but I think he understands where the ball needs to go. Several of his passes (to Lynch and Malachi Carter), had they been a foot higher or lower, would have been good passes. Overall, I think Tobias should get more snaps. Rotate him and TQM like we did with Vad and Tevin in 2012.

There's just something about Oliver when he has the ball in his hands.

Until yesterday I had never seem him throw a pass. He needs some work.

He threw two passes that I've never seen a D1 player throw. I was in the upper east, north end about 30 yd line. One was to the south end zone, west side. A duck that wasn't even close. He was trying to throw right down my line of sight. The ball just seem to come out of his hand all wrong. Same thing with another throw. His better passes were very nose-down. I don't know about TO. Perhaps he was nervous but man oh man he threw some bad stuff.
 

danny daniel

Helluva Engineer
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2,613
He's only thrown 2 or 3 passes. How do you know he's not good enough? It sure seems to me that the entire offense plays with more of a spark when he is in there.

IMO we have not seen enough of Oliver's passing to judge his performance level. He was a little off in accuracy against Duke but what I liked was that he seems to know where his receivers are, and that is an upgrade in our passing game.
 

UgaBlows

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,831
I know a lot of yall are madly in love with TO but he is a worse passer than Taquon, he does not have a D1 arm he’s never going to be the starter here unless nobody else is left or were trying to save Graham’s redshirt. imo there’s no way in hell that CPJ is going down that road again after 2 years of this sh!tshow, i mean we all know the man is stubborn but he ain’t dumb. You can’t win with a running back playing QB.
 
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