Zach Gibson is not as bad as he looked.

[Frenchise]

I know everyone has had a couple beverages, and seeing a guy go 0/13 or whatever seems irredeemable. All that being said - I don’t think this actually proves Zach is horrible.

Point 1: delivery required - Imagine coming in as the backup and realizing you have to score some points or your team loses. You own this game now.

Point 2: your line is crap. Let’s face it. This is one of the worst o-lines in the ACC, maybe the worst

Point 3: Your OC calls deep shots???? Multiple play-actions, double-moves, and calling 3 pass plays in a row. Why would you ever want a guy to come into a game with this line and have to wait for a slow developing play? Or put every play on his shoulders?

Point 4: Our WRs dropped the ball. Malachi should have caught the fourth down ball. Full stop. We don’t blame him for the loss, nor should we. Several other balls were poorly thrown but catchable. None were caught. WRs gave Zach very little help. I don’t think we’ve got bad WRs; I I think there’s 0 chemistry and history between Zach and them. Tough on both parties.

Counterpoints:

Zach can’t throw a screen.
Zach often held the ball too long.
Zach didn’t throw a 70 yard Hail Mary 10 yards short and instead ran out of bounds.

I think the moment was too big and he tried to do too much. I wouldn’t write someone off from this performance. He made passes on screens later, it’s not a consistent thing.

If any of you thought a hail Mary from 70 yards was a possibility….log off. You can join our OC in lala land.

All this comes to a single point…have patience. Zach isn’t Peyton. But I do think he can better than he showed tonight, especially given some first team reps. Take it easy on him and stop the poor behavior online. He’s a kid, he took 8 sacks tonight. He’s not a coward.

Lastly, take a deep breath and realize your happiness is not correlated with GT football. It’s a game, don’t take it out on real people.

 

[JacketFan137]

maybe he isn’t THAT bad, but i still fail to see what he brings to the table.

nothing about his throwing seems any better than sims who is frequently (and deservedly) criticized for missing easy throws. he did have a few decent balls but he missed a couple throws that were gimmes and had some bad ball placement.

he has no second gear running whatsoever. there were several plays that i think sims, yates, or any other qb we have seen in recent history turn into chunk yards and gibson barely gained anything. he also was running to the sideline when there was green in front of him if he got north-south. he doesn’t have the speed to get to the edge and burn someone but he was still running sideways like he was gibbs

i feel bad and i have been too mean as well as many others but the kid just doesn’t look like a qb at this level of play.

maybe a week of game planning with the intention of him starting will yield different results but it’s not like we saw much to build off of and i don’t think we asked him to do anything a competent qb would be unable to do

 

[Gt2019]

Point 2 and 3 and possibly even 4 all are true yes but aren’t exclusive to Gibson. He was truly abysmal tonight.

 

[WreckinGT]

He was pretty bad tonight. If there is any hope, it is in the 2nd to last drive. All of the sudden he kinda looked decent out of no where. If he can build on that then he could be decent. The start of the 2nd quarter to that point though was some rough football to watch.

 

[jgtengineer]

You dont throw the hail mary in that situation because you think it will work you do it to try to draw a penalty

 

[Frenchise]

You dont throw the hail mary in that situation because you think it will work you do it to try to draw a penalty

That’s a strategy I guess. Officials almost never call penalties on those plays, and it’s not a spot foul.

 

[85Escape]

That’s a strategy I guess. Officials almost never call penalties on those plays, and it’s not a spot foul.

You. Don't. Give. Up.

Give your team a chance and go down fighting. Anything else is soft. Full stop.

 

[bikeseat]

I love the contrarians that are willing to dismiss the fact he fell down to avoid a sack, couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, moves like he has a dog and white cane in the pocket, quit on his team.

As a former GT athlete who was never blessed with buckets of ability, I cannot stand here and forgive this guy for being a quitter. I can forgive someone maxing out their abilities and leaving it all on the field and just not being very good...just not quitting on their team in the face of adversity.

Burn the freshman's shirt and tell him it's time to grow up for the rest of the season. That's it. Gibson will get someone hurt out there. Sad it's come to this. This is an indictment of the Geoff Collins Cake eater culture. Look at the tweets from CGC players "if you're loved you've already won"... you won less games on the flats in 3 years than we did in 2016

 

[FolkHall]

I know everyone has had a couple beverages, and seeing a guy go 0/13 or whatever seems irredeemable. All that being said - I don’t think this actually proves Zach is horrible.

Point 1: delivery required - Imagine coming in as the backup and realizing you have to score some points or your team loses. You own this game now.

Point 2: your line is crap. Let’s face it. This is one of the worst o-lines in the ACC, maybe the worst

Point 3: Your OC calls deep shots???? Multiple play-actions, double-moves, and calling 3 pass plays in a row. Why would you ever want a guy to come into a game with this line and have to wait for a slow developing play? Or put every play on his shoulders?

Point 4: Our WRs dropped the ball. Malachi should have caught the fourth down ball. Full stop. We don’t blame him for the loss, nor should we. Several other balls were poorly thrown but catchable. None were caught. WRs gave Zach very little help. I don’t think we’ve got bad WRs; I I think there’s 0 chemistry and history between Zach and them. Tough on both parties.

Counterpoints:

Zach can’t throw a screen.
Zach often held the ball too long.
Zach didn’t throw a 70 yard Hail Mary 10 yards short and instead ran out of bounds.

I think the moment was too big and he tried to do too much. I wouldn’t write someone off from this performance. He made passes on screens later, it’s not a consistent thing.

If any of you thought a hail Mary from 70 yards was a possibility….log off. You can join our OC in lala land.

All this comes to a single point…have patience. Zach isn’t Peyton. But I do think he can better than he showed tonight, especially given some first team reps. Take it easy on him and stop the poor behavior online. He’s a kid, he took 8 sacks tonight. He’s not a coward.

Lastly, take a deep breath and realize your happiness is not correlated with GT football. It’s a game, don’t take it out on real people.

I need whatever antidepressants you're on....

 

[awbuzz]

You dont throw the hail mary in that situation because you think it will work you do it to try to draw a penalty

This!! Get PI or defensive holding, then you only need a 55 HM pass attempt. No pass = no chance.

 

[sonngy]

Just learned he was the back up at Akron where they went 0-13…

 

[bobongo]

This!! Get PI or defensive holding, then you only need a 55 HM pass attempt. No pass = no chance.

Did he perhaps think there were still a couple of ticks on the clock? I would guess that's why he went out of bounds.

 

[TooTall]

I'll give him credit for owning up to the mistake in post-game. But the good thing is he did show flashes that he can play and he did hit several receivers in the hands. But when you're second string, your second string for a reason.

 

[AugustaSwarm]

Prove it. It's all talk until it happens on the field. He looked poorly prepared and ill-equipped for this offense. The one saving grace I've heard about him is his accuracy, but I saw throws behind open receivers and screen throws that hit receivers knees. He looked like a deer in the headlights...

 

[85Escape]

Did he perhaps think there were still a couple of ticks on the clock? I would guess that's why he went out of bounds.

Nope. He said he knew that time had run out and decided to just end the game instead of make a bad play...

 

[UgaBlows]

Burn the freshman's shirt and tell him it's time to grow up for the rest of the season. That's it. Gibson will get someone hurt out there. Sad it's come to this. This is an indictment of the Geoff Collins Cake eater culture. Look at the tweets from CGC players "if you're loved you've already won"... you won less games on the flats in 3 years than we did in 2016

This, lets see what Pyron has got

 

[JacketFan137]

Did he perhaps think there were still a couple of ticks on the clock? I would guess that's why he went out of bounds.

i wanted to give him that benefit of the doubt too but this is a pretty damning quote

 

[AugustaSwarm]

i wanted to give him that benefit of the doubt too but this is a pretty damning quote

Yeah...they shouldn't have let him talk to media IMO. Especially with the final play...

He's young and screwed up. He made it exponentially worse with his comments. He was woefully unprepared to play, but showed some fire on that run in the red zone. Next game, I fully expect to see a different QB.

 

[JacketFan137]

Yeah...they shouldn't have let him talk to media IMO. Especially with the final play...

He's young and screwed up. He made it exponentially worse with his comments. He was woefully unprepared to play, but showed some fire on that run in the red zone. Next game, I fully expect to see a different QB.

i do agree you gotta media coach him up or send a different guy to the podium. i would have lied and said i thought i could get out before i admitted to just taking the loss. based on what key has said about playing to win and not going out there to not lose/make a mistake it would be a pretty damning move for key to let this guy see the field again.

also he’s not young. he’s a year ahead of sims and almost 2 whole years older than him

 

[jacketup]

Gibson's QB rating of 74.3 was better than Sims' QB rating of 72.3. Both suck, however.

Why can't people understand that the OL is the problem? I'll disagree with OP about the OL being one of the worst in the ACC. It is likely the worst in FBS. And that is not Key's fault--or Collins' fault. The OL is FR and SOPHS at a position where experience counts, and we don't have JR or SR that are talented enough to see the field. It was going to take at least 5 recruiting years to fix this OL and we've only had 3.

But fans (and apparently the administration) want instant gratification. People forget that Dabo lost to SC the first five times he faced them. Beamer struggled when he went to VT. Ross struggled when he came here. A transition can take time, but fans are more impatient than ever.

Transfers and NIL may change things, but not when you spend your money firing coaches instead of paying players.