Let's talk football: MU game matchups

[srod1220]

I can't find too much to disagree with. Except...there's no way we don't absolutely dominate in special teams. Henery and Kunalic are easily the best kick/punt combo in the country.

 

If you gain a significant advantage on special teams it will be on kickoff returns most likely. If your punter is so much more superior, why do we rank 14th and you 64th. And our punter is pretty good at pinning teams deep too. Lastly, let's say your kicker is really good, what evidence do you have? It's hard to do much better than 100% as our kicker is.

I'm pretty sure ours is 100% this year also. How many of your field goal kickers are +50?

 

also as far as punts go.

Henery's punt stats are misleading. He has an uncanny ability to coffin corner punts inside the 5 to 10 yard line area. Punt stats are unfortunately based on net yards per punt.

[RedDenver]

I don't get to see too much local coverage due to living in California. But the national press has been pretty admiring of Gabbert, and I've already seen him high on draft charts. Plus, the stats are impressive. Top 10 in yardage, total offense and passer rating means he's not just all pro potential and no college impact like Josh Freeman.

 

But I think one thing that separates Gabbert from Lee are the measurables. I'll take your word for it that Lee has a monster arm like Gabbert, but 6-5 240 is pretty nice compared to 6-2 210. But of course that matters more at the next level. But also, Gabbert is really fast. 4.5 40 yard dash. It's pretty common for defenders to take the wrong angle on him. Most of that speed is straight ahead, he's not a slasher or juker so much. But he beat Jacory Harris in the 40 yard dash at the elite 11 camp, and most consider him a great running QB.

I agree until the part in bold. I don't know anyone or thinks either Jacory Harris or Blaine Gabbert are "great" running QB's. And I'd argue vehemently against anyone who even said said they were "really good" running QB's. They are both primarily passers with above average scrambling ability. And I've seen Gabbert in several games now, and he's not much of a running threat. I thought he looked really fast against Illinois, but it turns out that they're a really slow B10 defense. He's looked decent running against the other teams - about as good as Zac Lee actually. Neither will scare a defense, but they can pick up a 1st down scrambling on occasion.

 

But your point about the measurables not mattering as much until the next level is spot on. I think a great example from our own conference is Josh Freeman vs. Chase Daniels (or Joe Ganz or Todd Reesing or...). Freeman is apparently the better NFL talent (based on the draft and who is still on a team). But would anybody anywhere take him over the others as their college QB? Not many.