Recruiting a great quarterback

[Guy Chamberlin]

Not saying we couldn't use an NFL caliber quarterback, but if you watch the NFL on a regular basis, you hear NFL caliber quarterbacks being criticized for not going through their progressions and missing wide open receivers.

Every. Given. Sunday.

 

[BigWillie]

We dont seem to develop our QBs all that well. If i remember, Martinez's biggest leap was when he was visiting Calhoun (QB trainer). Not sure if Beck needs to be more involved or maybe Ganz needs to be . Either way, we havent been excellent in QB development.

We need to move Brown to the QB coach, he seems to excel at developing players. I thought we had great TE's, McNeil and Reed, when he was their position coach The RB's have been stellar under Brown; Helu, Burkehead and now Ameer. Brown may not be a great X and O guy, but that man has a history of developing and motivating his players.

Or can Barney Cotton and actually hire a QB coach

Blasphemy!

Although it is somewhat funny to see how our OL constantly underperformed under Barney. Now that Barney has moved on to TEs, I don't think our coaches or fan base realize we even have anyone at that position anymore.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

We dont seem to develop our QBs all that well. If i remember, Martinez's biggest leap was when he was visiting Calhoun (QB trainer). Not sure if Beck needs to be more involved or maybe Ganz needs to be . Either way, we havent been excellent in QB development.

We need to move Brown to the QB coach, he seems to excel at developing players. I thought we had great TE's, McNeil and Reed, when he was their position coach The RB's have been stellar under Brown; Helu, Burkehead and now Ameer. Brown may not be a great X and O guy, but that man has a history of developing and motivating his players.

Or can Barney Cotton and actually hire a QB coach

Blasphemy!

Although it is somewhat funny to see how our OL constantly underperformed under Barney. Now that Barney has moved on to TEs, I don't think our coaches or fan base realize we even have anyone at that position anymore.

Bingo! Guy is worthless. Reason we hired him from a HS

 

[lo country]

Here is a very simple way to help TA. If his primary route is say Westy, split left doing a 10 yrs out then when the ball is hiked, IMMEDIATELY look to your right at say KB. TA has enough film that teams know his first look is his throw. This will freeze the safety, make the CB try and jump the route. Then IMMEDIATELY look back to your left and hit Westy. Even something as simple as having a pump move. TA stinks at what I call the East West throws. Westy goes into out (E/W) pump ad watch the DB's crash only to have Westy go deep (vertical) something TA does well. Now harder with no OL play, but its a start.

Mechanics are hard to improve without dedication, time, reps and a coach. teaching him to "look off" DB's at the snap is easier.

Looking one way and going another would increase his success tremendously. As would realizing he is a vertical thrower. Not side line to sideline IMO.

 

[Igetbored216]

The problem is, we might already have a great QB, but do we have the coaches to get the most out of him and use his strengths and improve on his weaknesses? Not sure that we do.

 

[JTrain]

With rare exceptions, QB coaches do not develop quarterbacks that much in 3-4 years given limited practice time. A great coach may take a 7/10 passer, refine him a bit and move him to an 8. But you generally aren't going to see anyone go from a 4 to an 8. Especially in today's age where most of these guys have gone through multiple big camps and trained with professionals before they even sign their LOIs. Think about the best college quarterbacks over the past 10 years. For 90% of them, they either have it or they don't and you pretty much know by the end of their freshman year, or within their first few starts.

Martinez had it in the running game, but not in the passing game. And even with private training in the off-season, the passing improvements in four seasons were limited. He remained inconsistent, still had trouble reading defenses and usually reverted to his old bad form in big games under pressure.

 

[Bowfin]

We didn't seem to have a seasoned quarterback ready to go this year. I don't know what happened to the quarterbacks that needed to be between Martinez and Armstrong, but it seems that we have a quarterback looking at his seventh game in his second year of starts that is still learning how to progress through his reads and learning how to pass. I am sure Armstrong could make great strides by the end of the season, but we need a finished product last Saturday, not in two more months...

 

[hskrpwr13]

When was the last time we had a quarterback that could legitimately pass the ball at an NFL level while also being a running threat? I'm talking guys in the vicinity of RGIII, Manziel, Terrell Pryor, Vince Young, Braxton Miller, Dak Prescott, etc. I would argue either it was Turner Gill (class of 1980) or we never have. I haven't seen enough of Gill to know if his passing skills were at that level. He threw a nice ball but I wouldn't put him up there based on completion percentage. I don't think Tommy will ever be there (I'd gladly be proven wrong), although with some improvement and a little help he can win a Big 10 title.

I would argue that Brook Berringer would've been the last NU QB that wouldve gone pro. I bet he wouldve gotten some starts. For the era, absolutely Gill would've been highly drafted to play QB. His preference was baseball, I think partly for health reasons.

And I agree that since the beginning of the Callahan era, you'd think we'd have had someone that could've been considered a good pro candidate. In the Pelini era, no QB has been developed well enough. Ganz is the best overall, Pelini-era QB, and Pelini only had him for one season.

 

[Stumpy1]

I agree with True when he stated that we need to recruit a passer first with the ability to scramble. A player like that in our system would be deadly, think Colt McCoy. He could make all the throws and could also move the chains with his feet if needed. To me, we don't need someone that can take it to the house everytime on zone-reads but someone that can get 5-6 yrds a pop along with making all the throws.

 

[Kernal]

I agree with True when he stated that we need to recruit a passer first with the ability to scramble. A player like that in our system would be deadly, think Colt McCoy. He could make all the throws and could also move the chains with his feet if needed. To me, we don't need someone that can take it to the house everytime on zone-reads but someone that can get 5-6 yrds a pop along with making all the throws.

I agree. We need a QB who can throw first. If we don't have one, we'll end up losing to any team who can stack the box like MSU did. Now, there's not a ton of those teams on our schedule this year, but the big games against good teams will be problems. What we need our QB to be able to do in the run game is simply to force teams to leave one defender to account for his run. The QB doesn't need to be able to run 80 yards; 5 or 10 yards and a slide will be enough.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

You don't always need a dedicated quarterback coach. You can hire one of the respected quarterback gurus to spend a couple weeks with a player over the summer. I'm not sure the team can pay for it, but it can be arranged.

The best qb whisperers don't care so much about the arm. They say it's all in the footwork. How you set your feet. Where they're pointed. Weight distribution. Etc.

They say you can teach a lot in very little time.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

You don't always need a dedicated quarterback coach. You can hire one of the respected quarterback gurus to spend a couple weeks with a player over the summer. I'm not sure the team can pay for it, but it can be arranged.

The best qb whisperers don't care so much about the arm. They say it's all in the footwork. How you set your feet. Where they're pointed. Weight distribution. Etc.

They say you can teach a lot in very little time.

I would argue that we do need a FT QB coach because we offer and sign extremely raw physically gifted athletes at the QB position who lack greatly in fundamentals and mechanics.

Sure a camp can help to establish the basics however to have someone drilling it into them over the course of the year would be substantial

 

[Danny Bateman]

If you want to continue to see improvement from your QB, you should have one on staff.

If we don't and TA gets into a bad habit or two mechanically, who is there to correct it? We have plenty of evidence that TB isn't going to get that done.

As a bonus, a QB coach could function as a second OC on the field to calm TA down if he's pressing and examine the defense to see what they are doing and feed ideas upstairs to Beck.

Sometimes autonomy over an offensive system is not a good thing.

 

[Hedley Lamarr]

If you want to continue to see improvement from your QB, you should have one on staff.

If we don't and TA gets into a bad habit or two mechanically, who is there to correct it? We have plenty of evidence that TB isn't going to get that done.

As a bonus, a QB coach could function as a second OC on the field to calm TA down if he's pressing and examine the defense to see what they are doing and feed ideas upstairs to Beck.

Sometimes autonomy over an offensive system is not a good thing.

Isn't that what Barney is for? "The big picture guy" there is a reason he failed multiple times as an OC and the fact Beck leans on him for seeing things is scary enough

 

[JTrain]

I agree with True when he stated that we need to recruit a passer first with the ability to scramble. A player like that in our system would be deadly, think Colt McCoy. He could make all the throws and could also move the chains with his feet if needed. To me, we don't need someone that can take it to the house everytime on zone-reads but someone that can get 5-6 yrds a pop along with making all the throws.

Agree. In Osborne's last five seasons, we averaged 18 pass attempts per game. It was a great system and a consistently great offensive line (and strength program). We could get by with essentially a great running back and leader at the QB spot. We no longer have those advantages. The only team from the major five conferences that throws it less than 20 times per game now is Georgia Tech.