Jamal Turner QB "experiment"

[Mavric]

Kind of makes a person wonder why the coaches waited until Jamal's senior year to put him back at QB. A guy who originally was recruited as a QB and has the arm strength to stretch the field with the pass yet also has the athletic ability to be a dual-threat and take it the distance.

Up until now no Big ten teams have game film from the past 3 years on him playing qb. This tells me Bo and co. are utilizing what we have while we still have it to add another peice to the 2014 offensive puzzle.

Don't quote me on this but I think I remember Beck saying during bowl prep that they've had a package for him for a long time now - just haven't found the right time to use it.

Pretty sure I read that in a couple of the first articles after the reports of him playing QB in spring ball. He's taken some snaps there on and off for a couple years. Just now we know more about it. #MediaAccess

 

[Hunter94]

i hear they were going to give Imani Cross some reps at qb too....

 

[Whistlebritches]

If Turner is going to expand his roles with the team it seems like punt returner would be a great place for him. I'd much rather hear about him fielding punts than battling it out for 3rd backup quarterback.

 

[Mavric]

Turner didn't take any reps at QB today. Worked at WR and punt returner.

Pelini also confirmed that Turner has taken snaps at QB here and there since he's been here.

 

[Landlord]

If Turner is going to expand his roles with the team it seems like punt returner would be a great place for him. I'd much rather hear about him fielding punts than battling it out for 3rd backup quarterback.

He's been right at the top of our punt returner depth chart for a while now - when he's been healthy.

 

[True2tRA]

Kind of makes a person wonder why the coaches waited until Jamal's senior year to put him back at QB. A guy who originally was recruited as a QB and has the arm strength to stretch the field with the pass yet also has the athletic ability to be a dual-threat and take it the distance.

Up until now no Big ten teams have game film from the past 3 years on him playing qb. This tells me Bo and co. are utilizing what we have while we still have it to add another peice to the 2014 offensive puzzle.

Don't quote me on this but I think I remember Beck saying during bowl prep that they've had a package for him for a long time now - just haven't found the right time to use it.

Pretty sure I read that in a couple of the first articles after the reports of him playing QB in spring ball. He's taken some snaps there on and off for a couple years. Just now we know more about it. #MediaAccess

It's really paying off.

 

[funhusker]

You do understand that Nebraska cannot control everything that happens to it, creating situations that are less than optimal. Darlington would have had the opportunity to compete for the starting spot this spring but he suffered a nasty head injury, the third time he's been concussed. So we are now faced with just an Armstrong/Stanton battle for the starting spot, which is less than ideal but far from being under our control--we can't tell a high school to not play there best quarterback.

That damn bastard Bo, he never should have been a man of his word and honored Darlington's scholarship, it's all about the rings.

Or, he should have kidnapped another top QB cuz we're Nebraska, we deserve it.

This isn't the first time Bo has punted his QB recruiting, I seem to remember him being the only person on the planet thinking Bubba Starling wouldn't take several million dollars from the Royals and would rather be Taylor's backup for a few years.

Yeah, what were the coaches thinking....

Sure would have been nice if they took another QB in Startling's class. Possibly an athletic type that could play another position to get his athleticism on the field....sure would've been a good idea....

 

[tmfr15]

Wasn't Clester Johnson an "emergency QB" at one point. I could have swore I remembered that.

 

[Hujan]

One of Bo's biggest problems is moving players around too much, IMO. He did well moving Amukamara from RB to CB, but after that, it's been a train wreck. Musical chairs on the O-line, switching DBs back and forth between corner and safety, moving safeties to linebacker and back again, moving Braylon Heard from RB to corner then back to RB again before he finally peaced out, and now moving Turner from QB to receiver and back to QB. Have we found a spot for Charles Jackson yet?

The result is that great athletes come through the program and never really develop into big-impact players. They are jacks of all trades, but masters of none. He would do well to leave guys in a position and let them learn that spot instead of constantly moving them around.

Frankly, trying to be too "multiple" is probably Bo's biggest problem from personnel to scheme. He needs to simply focus on something and be the best at it rather than trying to do a lot of things at an average rate.

 

[zoogs]

Bo didn't move Prince from RB to CB. He did move Glenn from RB to LB though.

 

[Hujan]

Bo didn't move Prince from RB to CB. He did move Glenn from RB to LB though.

You sure? Good call on Glenn. Forgot him. I used to think Pelini was a whiz at finding the right spot for a player. Not so sure anymore.

 

[AngryHusker88]

Stanley Jean-Baptiste started out as a wide receiver, moved to DB his sophomore year. Jake Cotton & Cole Pensick were recruited as DTs, moved to OL. Eric Martin was a LB, moved to DE.

In hindsight, it was a probably a bad move to switch Jamal Turner to WR so quickly, considering Starling went pro & we had no one behind Martinez. Yes, we had Brion Carnes, but IMO its obvious the coaches didn't think Carnes would be an effective QB because they never put him in the game when Taylor was playing bad. The Braylon Heard situation was handled very poorly. I don't blame him at all for leaving the football team (I wish we still had him though...I normally could care less about players that leave the team but I hope Heard tears it up at Kentucky).

 

[Landlord]

One of Bo's biggest problems is moving players around too much, IMO. He did well moving Amukamara from RB to CB, but after that, it's been a train wreck. Musical chairs on the O-line, switching DBs back and forth between corner and safety, moving safeties to linebacker and back again, moving Braylon Heard from RB to corner then back to RB again before he finally peaced out, and now moving Turner from QB to receiver and back to QB. Have we found a spot for Charles Jackson yet?

The result is that great athletes come through the program and never really develop into big-impact players. They are jacks of all trades, but masters of none. He would do well to leave guys in a position and let them learn that spot instead of constantly moving them around.

Frankly, trying to be too "multiple" is probably Bo's biggest problem from personnel to scheme. He needs to simply focus on something and be the best at it rather than trying to do a lot of things at an average rate.

You're being inconsistent and cherrypicking players to fit your argument.

Taylor Martinez didn't start as a quarterback here, turned out alright.

Jamal hasn't actually been moved to QB, he's still a receiver. He's as much of a quarterback as Rex Burkhead was.

Cody Glenn got drafted as a linebacker after being moved his senior season and was leading the team in tackles before he got booted.

Prince is another great example.

Stanley is another great example.

Where would we have been if we didn't have the depth that Baker gave us at DT in 2012?

As was mentioned, Martin, Cotton, Pensick have all been moved effectively, as well as others.

There have been some poor decisions, sure, but you'll find that with any coaching staff.

 

[Hujan]

One of Bo's biggest problems is moving players around too much, IMO. He did well moving Amukamara from RB to CB, but after that, it's been a train wreck. Musical chairs on the O-line, switching DBs back and forth between corner and safety, moving safeties to linebacker and back again, moving Braylon Heard from RB to corner then back to RB again before he finally peaced out, and now moving Turner from QB to receiver and back to QB. Have we found a spot for Charles Jackson yet?

The result is that great athletes come through the program and never really develop into big-impact players. They are jacks of all trades, but masters of none. He would do well to leave guys in a position and let them learn that spot instead of constantly moving them around.

Frankly, trying to be too "multiple" is probably Bo's biggest problem from personnel to scheme. He needs to simply focus on something and be the best at it rather than trying to do a lot of things at an average rate.

You're being inconsistent and cherrypicking players to fit your argument.

Taylor Martinez didn't start as a quarterback here, turned out alright.

Jamal hasn't actually been moved to QB, he's still a receiver. He's as much of a quarterback as Rex Burkhead was.

Cody Glenn got drafted as a linebacker after being moved his senior season and was leading the team in tackles before he got booted.

Prince is another great example.

Stanley is another great example.

Where would we have been if we didn't have the depth that Baker gave us at DT in 2012?

As was mentioned, Martin, Cotton, Pensick have all been moved effectively, as well as others.

There have been some poor decisions, sure, but you'll find that with any coaching staff.

You ignore all the players who got shuffled around too much and accuse me of cherry picking? Sure.

Just because some of the shifts have worked out doesn't defeat the argument that Bo does it "too much." And, my particular concern is with guys he moves to one position then moves back (Turner, Heard, CJ).

Whether Turner has officially been "moved" to QB or not is not the point. The guy has a finite number of practices left at Nebraska to home his skills as a receiver. He missed a lot if time last year. Maybe Bo should have him use this opportunity to get better at receiver instead of dicking around at QB--a position it took beloved Martinez years to master--at the sunset of his career,

 

[Landlord]

One of Bo's biggest problems is moving players around too much, IMO. He did well moving Amukamara from RB to CB, but after that, it's been a train wreck. Musical chairs on the O-line, switching DBs back and forth between corner and safety, moving safeties to linebacker and back again, moving Braylon Heard from RB to corner then back to RB again before he finally peaced out, and now moving Turner from QB to receiver and back to QB. Have we found a spot for Charles Jackson yet?

The result is that great athletes come through the program and never really develop into big-impact players. They are jacks of all trades, but masters of none. He would do well to leave guys in a position and let them learn that spot instead of constantly moving them around.

Frankly, trying to be too "multiple" is probably Bo's biggest problem from personnel to scheme. He needs to simply focus on something and be the best at it rather than trying to do a lot of things at an average rate.

You're being inconsistent and cherrypicking players to fit your argument.

Taylor Martinez didn't start as a quarterback here, turned out alright.

Jamal hasn't actually been moved to QB, he's still a receiver. He's as much of a quarterback as Rex Burkhead was.

Cody Glenn got drafted as a linebacker after being moved his senior season and was leading the team in tackles before he got booted.

Prince is another great example.

Stanley is another great example.

Where would we have been if we didn't have the depth that Baker gave us at DT in 2012?

As was mentioned, Martin, Cotton, Pensick have all been moved effectively, as well as others.

There have been some poor decisions, sure, but you'll find that with any coaching staff.

You ignore all the players who got shuffled around too much and accuse me of cherry picking? Sure.

Just because some of the shifts have worked out doesn't defeat the argument that Bo does it "too much." And, my particular concern is with guys he moves to one position then moves back (Turner, Heard, CJ).

Whether Turner has officially been "moved" to QB or not is not the point. The guy has a finite number of practices left at Nebraska to home his skills as a receiver. He missed a lot if time last year. Maybe Bo should have him use this opportunity to get better at receiver instead of dicking around at QB--a position it took beloved Martinez years to master--at the sunset of his career,

I'm not ignoring them, I just didn't think I needed to list them all since you had already mentioned them and I was more countering your point specifically rather than making an all-encompassing illustration. Heard, Colbert, Mendoza, etc. There's plenty of them. The trouble is, though, that in the case of all the successes we can see "Oh. Good on Bo and staff for finding them a good home." and it's pretty simple. But with the guys that didn't pan out, we don't really know for sure one way or the other if they would have actually contributed more at a certain position if they would have stayed there. It's possible, but it's also guesswork. Maybe those guys got moved around so much because they just weren't getting it done.

To say Bo does it too much you'd need to actually fetch some concrete numbers and then compare them to other programs. I'm guessing you probably haven't done that. And maybe you are right and Bo should have him use this opportunity to get better at receiver, or maybe the coaches know more than we do and think that he has enough of a lock on his role at that position that he can afford to take the occasional snap at QB during spring practice which is the time of year that you are afforded to be able to experiment and get younger guys caught up to speed.