Mike Leach on QB Accuracy

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
This seems relevant to current discussions.

I'm not sure if it makes me feel better or worse that I agree with Leach but I've been saying this about TA since Day 1. His mechanics are so bad that it is extremely unlikely that he'll ever be an accurate passer. And it's not just completion percentage. It's how often he misses relatively easy throws and misses them badly.

Mike Leach says if a quarterback isn’t accurate, don’t bother recruiting or drafting him, because it’s not going to change.


After practice this week, Leach was asked how important mechanics are when recruiting a QB. He noted the regular keys — release, footwork — but really, it comes down to accuracy.

“It depends. You try to recruit around (throwing motions) if you can,” Leach said. “The worst thing is — people make this mistake across the country — there will be a guy that’s big, strong and athletic. If a guy’s got a super strong arm, they say, ‘All he’s got to do is work on his accuracy,’”

“So he won’t be accurate in high school, some college will take him. Then he won’t be accurate there, and someone in the NFL says, ‘All he has to do is work on his accuracy,’ and they’ll take him. He won’t be accurate there, and he’ll be out of the league.”

His message is don’t think you can fix a skill that only comes naturally.
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This rings true for many, I hope to hell Tommy doesn't fall into that category. He has one last chance at proving us all wrong.

 
What exactly is accuracy? Is it some magic dust detached from other fundamentals?

Tommy is, on his best day in the most 'pure' representation of his talent, extremely accurate. Trouble is, he often fudges it up by falling backwards, shifting his weight poorly, making poor decisions, etc.

Does that mean he's inaccurate, or does that mean that he's accurate but has other problems, or are those the same thing?

 
I would say however, that a lot of those type of quarterbacks have been successful and even been on championship teams. Unless he is talking about guys that are just grossly innacurate

 
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Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
What exactly is accuracy? Is it some magic dust detached from other fundamentals?

THE PROBLEM IS that QB accuracy doesn't take into account dropped passes/balls WR should've caught etc.

Tommy is, on his best day in the most 'pure' representation of his talent, extremely accurate. Trouble is, he often fudges it up by falling backwards, shifting his weight poorly, making poor decisions, etc.

Does that mean he's inaccurate, or does that mean that he's accurate but has other problems, or are those the same thing?
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Unfortunately the guy is just not good in the mental aspects of a throwing QB, and contrary to what some want to believe doesn't throw a touch pass well, so..........

 
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
What exactly is accuracy? Is it some magic dust detached from other fundamentals?

Tommy is, on his best day in the most 'pure' representation of his talent, extremely accurate. Trouble is, he often fudges it up by falling backwards, shifting his weight poorly, making poor decisions, etc.

Does that mean he's inaccurate, or does that mean that he's accurate but has other problems, or are those the same thing?
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No, he is not accurate. The things you mentioned are problems that make him an inaccurate thrower. His mechanics are so poor that it's basically impossible for him to be a consistent thrower.

To me, there are two parts to accuracy. Most of it can be gauged by completion percentage. It's not a perfect gauge but over time it gives you a pretty good idea. The other part of it is throwing the ball where it needs to be to protect receivers and allow them to make a bigger play after the catch. For those who want to point to receiver drops (which happen to all QBs, not just those who complete 55% of their passes) I would point to the MSU game last year (amongst others) where Westerkamp not only bailed TA out on several occasions by catching poorly thrown balls but also took several huge hits because he had to leave himself completely vulnerable to be able to make the catch. He bailed TA out of throwing a poorly accurate ball with some great plays.

 
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Tommy's mechanics were fine-or good enough-as a freshman. Same with Martinez. These guys regressed under the lack of teaching of a true qb coach. and it shows. Not sure how much blame can be put on Beck as to whether he was thrust into the role or not. But it's on pretty good truth that when these guys got here, our qb's didnt even know the most well-known basic warm up progressions. Pretyy telling. We'll see this year if Armstrong has a better year or not under a real qb guy. But to me it's no coincidence that by year 4, Armstrong had developed a lazy, off-the-back-foot motion similar to what Martinez had developed. Im not suggesting the wrong thing was being taught. I just think it was like a lot of things in the Pelini era. Lack of attention to detail. Prior to 2012, Martinez spent the summer with a true qb guru. Obvious improvements were seen. But by the end of the season, he was reverting back to his ugly 2011 mechanics.

 
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I wouldn't argue with Leach on this point. I agree that it's futile to keep hoping against hope for an improvement in accuracy. T Mart had a ceiling there, too. I just hope that this year Langs and Riley are smart enough to use the skills Armstrong DOES possess.

 
Most athletic endeavors can be improved by lots of practice. No matter how bad you are, you can improve with proper instruction. For the 'natural' the motions, footwork, coordination, etc. is already there but, even the best athlete who has never thrown a football before will not be great without some practice. Being a great QB is very difficult, period. Otherwise, there would not be such a battle to find the very few who can be truly excellent at the position. Even in the wishbone and Osbone and other running focused schemes, it requires ball handling skils. The best athlete on the team is not necessarily the best passing QB but you certainly want one of your very best athletes on the team playing QB in a wishbone or other option running attack. An option attack without a great runner handling the QB spot will be much easier to defend of course. Take out the QB as a dangerous running threat and the man advantages of the option is all but lost.

But a great thrower who can place the ball in the right location is equally as threatening to the defense as the great runner. For the passing game proponents, they would surely argue that a great arm / thrower is worth his weight in gold. The NFL where they certainly put their money on the line to field the best possible team, passing is deemed critical to success; hence we've basically never seen a true wishbone offense utilized successfully in the pros. I always thought it should have been tried but injuries and so on to the QB (the wishbone magician!) are the foremost reason given.

 
I don't think Tommy's issue has as much to do with accuracy as it does decision making and timing. That can be fixed. He can throw the ball well and is amazing on the run, but where he struggles is when he just doesn't see the defense and what they are doing. The picks against mich st and iowa to LBs who are just waiting on the ball means he just doesn't see the coverage. The deep pick against Iowa where he didn't see the backside safety just waiting on him to throw the ball. If he improves his decision making he will be a great college qb. That comes with a deeper understanding of our play book and analyzing what the defense is doing. I think he can improve in that regard.

 
Count 'Bility said:
Tommy's mechanics were fine-or good enough-as a freshman. Same with Martinez. These guys regressed under the lack of teaching of a true qb coach. and it shows. Not sure how much blame can be put on Beck as to whether he was thrust into the role or not. But it's on pretty good truth that when these guys got here, our qb's didnt even know the most well-known basic warm up progressions. Pretyy telling. We'll see this year if Armstrong has a better year or not under a real qb guy. But to me it's no coincidence that by year 4, Armstrong had developed a lazy, off-the-back-foot motion similar to what Martinez had developed. Im not suggesting the wrong thing was being taught. I just think it was like a lot of things in the Pelini era. Lack of attention to detail. Prior to 2012, Martinez spent the summer with a true qb guru. Obvious improvements were seen. But by the end of the season, he was reverting back to his ugly 2011 mechanics.
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No they weren't. He's always had terrible footwork. That's a lot of the reason why he was a 51% passer that year.

I'm pretty convinced that having such a strong arm is why he never developed proper footwork. In high school he could always just muscle the ball wherever he wanted it to go. He never had to try to develop good footwork to be a good passer because he could get by on arm strength. Plus he could could make up for lack of passing skills with being such a better athlete than most other guys he played. But once you've had that bad of fundamentals for that long, it's almost impossible to change them. You can look better in practice but when things are happening fast during games you revert back to your old habits.

 
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