Zach Gibson is not as bad as he looked.

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Ash

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The playcalling all game was questionable, and especially didn't do Gibson any favors. But wow...I have not seen a QB in over his head so far so fast. I felt bad for him. He was in a bad situation and there was no way out.
 

AugustaSwarm

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Even on that play, he was hesitant to run. Ended up a yard short of the 1st down. So frustrating.
But he took a big hit and it wasn't for a lack of effort. He just looked hesitant in everything all game, which screams he wasn't well prepared. It's not all on him as a player, the staff failed to prepare him and that is unacceptable.
 

wrmathis

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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.
If he was woefully unprepared to play, that’s in the coaches. They knew sims was hurt and might not play. They should have prepared the back up more.
 

leatherneckjacket

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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.
Let's remember that Zach completed 67% of his passes last year at Akron. He can pass if given the time and support. I do not blame him completely for his failures last night, but he is also not blameless. Our OC put him in a position to fail with the horrible play calling and the receivers kept dropping too many passes. The OL is so bad it is unworthy of comment. Having said that, he held the ball too long, did not look for his check downs, and showed no pocket presence or ability to avoid the rush.
 

jacketz212

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But when you're second string, you’re second string for a reason.
Not in the slightest. He’s second string because coaches are still star gazed at Jeff Sims 4* high school rating and blind folded to his just as many turnovers to touchdowns in his 3rd year of starting.

Everyone on here was/is still accepting of Sims and his lackluster play even up to now. And Gibson gets his first actual minutes of game time against better competition since being at Akron and everyone expects him to play to their expectations of Jeff Sims.
 

GTBandit22

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He was as bad as he looked. He sacked himself a couple of times.
For as much junk as was(rightfully imo) talked about Jeff not running hard early this season, running oob with no time and down 1 TD is much worse and a cardinal sin. From his post game comments, he gave up. I don’t see how you let him take the field again.
 

JacketFan137

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Not in the slightest. He’s second string because coaches are still star gazed at Jeff Sims 4* high school rating and blind folded to his just as many turnovers to touchdowns in his 3rd year of starting.
if you really watched that game last night and your takeaway was the only reason he’s not starting is because sims was rated higher out of college then idk what to tell you.

the kid isn’t good and is a quitter. not much else to say he just isn’t a capable player at this level and frankly he wasn’t good at akron either. padding stats in mop up minutes in the mac isn’t something to write home about
 

thebull35

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Please stop making excuses for this dude. He was missing screen passes, sacking himself, throwing deep balls 3 yards out of bounds, and running out of bounds voluntarily with the game on the line. This wasn’t a matter of play calling. He’s just not equipped to play quarterback at this level. Did it ever dawn upon some of you guys that this was the absolute most the staff could have gotten out of him? You can question a couple of calls here and there but for the staff to have started Sims, knowing how injured he was, they absolutely knew that putting the game in Gibson’s hands would look something like it did.
 

GoldZ

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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.
Key
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.
Collins and Key are not without responsibility for a Fr/So OL in 4th year of change. We should at a minimum be a So/Jr line at this stage---greatest transition BS or not.
 

gt02

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Pretty obnoxious thread, in my opinion. He had a bad game. At the end of the day, he is still a kid and there were plenty of other mistakes in this game as well. This entire scenario is an indictment on the coaching staff, not Gibson. Funny thing is that the majority of the posters riding him hard in this thread had their head so far up Collins's *** talking about how he was such a great recruiter.
 

GT33

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We've basically been lied to & those responsible need to go.

Key was AHC, he had to know we've recruited back up QBs that cannot play even in an emergency. If the Akorn kid is #2, the Clemson kid #3 must be really pathetic. Not sure if that gives us concern about Pyron, but the decision to run off Oliver, Johnson, etc looks pretty damn foolish now.

Then we have the OL debacle. Key's story he was AHC and not OL coach. Weak sauce.

Key said he "fixed" Special Teams with Semore. Back to normal last night. Blocked punts, missed FGs. poor punt coverage. We did have a blocked punt.

The missed assignments, whiffs on tackles, bad penalties, no accountability with players being put back in when loafing, etc returned.

What's Weinke doing? Nothing it appears. Sims still has bad footwork, throws behind open receivers by a lot, can't progress thru reads, throws into triple coverage, etc.

Long is sad & we thought the other dope was bad. We run our tiny back up the middle, leave Smith on bench. The TE play is garbage. It must be we need to wait a LONG time to score must be what that dude's all about.

Thacker's the only one that didn't look like a clown last night. We had a pick 6 and several turnovers. That being said, zero sacks. Armstrong moved resulted in multiple jockstraps left on field. He gets a pass.

Batt probably shatt. Hope he's got a good potential coach rolodex.
 

JacketFan137

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Pretty obnoxious thread, in my opinion. He had a bad game. At the end of the day, he is still a kid and there were plenty of other mistakes in this game as well. This entire scenario is an indictment on the coaching staff, not Gibson. Funny thing is that the majority of the posters riding him hard in this thread had their head so far up Collins's *** talking about how he was such a great recruiter.
collins is a good recruiter and to deny that is kinda revisionist history. that being said getting a guy on campus isn’t enough. still have to develop them and fit them into a gameplan which was two things he was awful at
 
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