Riley on Quarterback Competition

Wow, for a guy who was basically their position coach until two months ago, Ganz is being quite free with dishing the scoop on them.

I'd like to think this is a great opportunity for Stanton. The light bulb for Ganz himself didn't come on until the last 2-3 years of his playing career. Fyfe was #2 and got the playing time, and maybe it was just me, but he really wasn't very impressive. Would be a cool though, we love our walk-on stories at Nebraska.

 
zoogs said:
Wow, for a guy who was basically their position coach until two months ago, Ganz is being quite free with dishing the scoop on them.

I'd like to think this is a great opportunity for Stanton. The light bulb for Ganz himself didn't come on until the last 2-3 years of his playing career. Fyfe was #2 and got the playing time, and maybe it was just me, but he really wasn't very impressive. Would be a cool though, we love our walk-on stories at Nebraska.
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I wouldn't take anything Ganz said as a shot. The sentiment was that if Stanton was getting more reps through the season in practice he would have closed the gap.

 
It's amazing how much better a student can learn when he has a coach who understands how to teach and makes things make sense. I'm sure Langsdorf and Riley tower over Ganz and his complete lack of QB development

 
I can never understand why some of you guys like Stanton so much? I get it, he's not TA, but that's not enough. We're talking about a guy who couldn't beat some scrawny walk-on kid from Grand Island for the back-up role. There's obviously some sort of issues with him. I don't know what it is, and neither do the majority of us, but the fact that with a game on the line against MSU, we see Fyfe go into the game. That speaks volumes to me.

Now suddenly a kid who couldn't beat a kid from Grand Island is going to beat TA out for the starting job in a new offense? Despite all facts that TA has seen real time action against defenses he will go against next year?

I'm not seeing it.

Don't get me wrong. If he is better than TA on all aspects of the game and can play beyond the level that TA can. That's flippin' great! It really is, because it's not like TA is some Joe Dailey here. He's very productive, and has proven that in games. He's definitely been far from the reason we lost any of our games. So if Stanton is better than that, than damn, that's a great QB. However, I'm not seeing this mad jump from 3rd string behind a walk-on to starter. Chastise me all you want, but I'm just not.

 
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cg_8 said:
I can never understand why some of you guys like Stanton so much? I get it, he's not TA, but that's not enough. We're talking about a guy who couldn't beat some scrawny walk-on kid from Grand Island for the back-up role. There's obviously some sort of issues with him.
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Being a redshirt freshman in an offense that not even the coordinator had a grip on, with what appears to have been subpar QB coaching?

I didn't say at least that Stanton would start, but he was supposed to really push TA for the job last year, and with another year of seasoning and some new coaches, you'd think he'd be in the mix, right? We're talking about the "three guys" that Riley thinks it will get narrowed down to early on.

If he's not one of those three, it would be a pretty stunning fall and probably time to transfer.

 
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zoogs said:
cg_8 said:
I can never understand why some of you guys like Stanton so much? I get it, he's not TA, but that's not enough. We're talking about a guy who couldn't beat some scrawny walk-on kid from Grand Island for the back-up role. There's obviously some sort of issues with him.
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Being a redshirt freshman in an offense that not even the coordinator had a grip on, with what appears to have been subpar QB coaching?

I didn't say at least that Stanton would start, but he was supposed to really push TA for the job last year, and with another year of seasoning and some new coaches, you'd think he'd be in the mix, right? We're talking about the "three guys" that Riley thinks it will get narrowed down to early on.

If he's not one of those three, it would be a pretty stunning fall and probably time to transfer.
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But he wasn't the one pushing TA for the job last year. Fyfe was. That to me is killer, because Fyfe had the exact same subpar QB coaching under that same exact coordinator.

Will Stanton be one of the three. I bet money he will be. Will he "push" TA for the starting job. I doubt it.

If he's not one of the three, transferring would definitely be in the mix, but from what we've all heard about this kid and him being an elite 11 QB coming out of high school. If he's not one, it's time to start focusing on football. Maybe that's his problem. Maybe he didn't like Bo. Maybe he didn't like Beck. Maybe he didn't like Ganz. So he just plain didn't work hard. Perhaps this will light a fire that was a bit burnt out due to the previous staff.

But if he gets a million times better coaching from a guy who has tremendous experience coaching QB's. Remember that TA is getting that same million times better coaching, too. Also, don't count out Fyfe getting that million times better coaching...

 
Everyone that has seen practice raves about Johnny's peak capability, and pretty much says he has the highest ceiling of any of the quarterbacks, but that he doesn't hover very close to his ceiling consistently enough. Basically, when he gets it he really gets it, but he needs to start getting it more frequently.

With the hindsight of looking at how our coaches managed their depth chart and how performance in practice didn't necessarily translate into performance on Saturdays, both in good and bad directions, it wouldn't be unreasonable to think that Johnny wasn't 'getting his due'.

Anyways, crazy to think about how things change. We go from senior quarterback to senior quarterback over and over for 3-4 years, and now we're seemingly going from freshman starter to freshman starter.

 
Open competition. Yes, please.
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cg_8 said:
zoogs said:
cg_8 said:
I can never understand why some of you guys like Stanton so much? I get it, he's not TA, but that's not enough. We're talking about a guy who couldn't beat some scrawny walk-on kid from Grand Island for the back-up role. There's obviously some sort of issues with him.
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Being a redshirt freshman in an offense that not even the coordinator had a grip on, with what appears to have been subpar QB coaching?

I didn't say at least that Stanton would start, but he was supposed to really push TA for the job last year, and with another year of seasoning and some new coaches, you'd think he'd be in the mix, right? We're talking about the "three guys" that Riley thinks it will get narrowed down to early on.

If he's not one of those three, it would be a pretty stunning fall and probably time to transfer.
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But he wasn't the one pushing TA for the job last year. Fyfe was. That to me is killer, because Fyfe had the exact same subpar QB coaching under that same exact coordinator.

Will Stanton be one of the three. I bet money he will be. Will he "push" TA for the starting job. I doubt it.

If he's not one of the three, transferring would definitely be in the mix, but from what we've all heard about this kid and him being an elite 11 QB coming out of high school. If he's not one, it's time to start focusing on football. Maybe that's his problem. Maybe he didn't like Bo. Maybe he didn't like Beck. Maybe he didn't like Ganz. So he just plain didn't work hard. Perhaps this will light a fire that was a bit burnt out due to the previous staff.

But if he gets a million times better coaching from a guy who has tremendous experience coaching QB's. Remember that TA is getting that same million times better coaching, too. Also, don't count out Fyfe getting that million times better coaching...
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Somewhat speculating but it's also the difference between Fyfe being in the system for a couple years versus Statnton basically coming in cold as I believe his redshirt year was spent running the scout team thus not really getting to run our offense. So Stanton basically had one third of the reps in spring plus a short stint in the fall to make up a couple year's ground.

Maybe Stanton will push TA and maybe he won't. My main thing is I think TA is serviceable but has too many mechanical issues to ever be a consistent passer. Especially now in a system that focuses more on passing. I just don't think TA can be consistently good enough to get us over the top. I'd rather see a guy with a higher ceiling as a passer.

 
cg_8 said:
zoogs said:
cg_8 said:
I can never understand why some of you guys like Stanton so much? I get it, he's not TA, but that's not enough. We're talking about a guy who couldn't beat some scrawny walk-on kid from Grand Island for the back-up role. There's obviously some sort of issues with him.
Click to expand...
Being a redshirt freshman in an offense that not even the coordinator had a grip on, with what appears to have been subpar QB coaching?

I didn't say at least that Stanton would start, but he was supposed to really push TA for the job last year, and with another year of seasoning and some new coaches, you'd think he'd be in the mix, right? We're talking about the "three guys" that Riley thinks it will get narrowed down to early on.

If he's not one of those three, it would be a pretty stunning fall and probably time to transfer.
Click to expand...
But he wasn't the one pushing TA for the job last year. Fyfe was. That to me is killer, because Fyfe had the exact same subpar QB coaching under that same exact coordinator.
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Fyfe has also been in the system a year longer than Stanton. So he probably knew the playbook better and had gotten more coaching, subpar or not.

 
"It's probably encouraging for the backup quarterbacks to know it's a clean slate," the coach says. "But I also think if I'm Tommy, I have the benefit of lots of games behind me, and there is no substitute for that."


He emphasized the words "no substitute." Bottom line, I like Tommy's chances.

Even so, Armstrong faces formidable challenges this spring — perhaps none bigger than improving his accuracy as a passer. He's completed only 51.9 percent of his throws in his two college seasons, with 31 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.

"If we're over 60 percent, that's probably going to be a good goal," Riley says.

More than anything, Riley wants a good decision-maker at QB.

"That kind of trumps it all," he says. "No matter your arm strength, your accuracy, your athletic ability. ... If you make make bad choices, it just kind of messes everything else up."

No. 2, Riley assesses a quarterback's ability to complete a pass under the best of circumstances — when protection is good, a receiver is open and everything else is "clean," as he puts it.

If a quarterback can't complete a pass under those circumstances, he likely would struggle with, say, Ohio State's Joey Bosa in his kitchen.

If Riley had to name the third-most-important quality, it would be managerial skills (an offshoot of No. 1).

"Give the confidence to the team that you know what you're talking about in the huddle," Riley says. "Or if it's no-huddle, you can get the team lined up and run the play, and it looks good."
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LJS

 
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Mavric said:
Landlord of Memorial Stadium said:
It's been awhile — at least six years — since Nebraska has had a legitimate quarterback competition.
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No Sipple.
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It's for sure five, right? And could be six depending on how open you think it really was when Martinez was a freshman.
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Also depends on how you define "quarterback competition" (does Zac and Cody in 2009 not count because it wasn't preseason, for example), as well as which season you're counting from, 2015 or 2014.

2010 appears as an entirely legitimate quarterback competition. I guess people can postulate that Bo knew in his head he would start Taylor from the very beginning, but that's a bit of a stretch and also conjecture even if it happens to be true.

 
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