First of all, MSU fans are some of the worst at impatience when it comes to QB's. Personally, I think Tyler has looked pretty good for a freshman. Is he Peyton Manning? No. But who is? Does he need to work on some things? Absolutely. Should we throw him to the curb? Hell no.
Is he the real deal? Time will tell. Is Dylan Favre the real deal? Time will tell. We don't know on either of them because you have to develop QB's in today's game unless you have a once in a lifetime, top 10 QB in NFL history, who grew up with a NFL QB in the house. You look at Georgia, and they're starting a freshman QB, and their team has struggled this year. And he's a good QB.
The thing people have to remember about QB's is that they have to be developed. And that takes time. Usually at least two years before a QB is even ready to take the reigns of a SEC team. A QB that comes to MSU is going to have to learn a MUCH more complex offense that whatever he ran in high school, and with that comes new terminology, new coaches that they have to adjust to, and on top of all of that, they are going to be going up against much more complex defenses with much better and faster players than what they have ever seen before and defenses being cooked up by football geniouses like Nick Saban and on top of all of that adjust to college life and life as a college football player. That's a LOT to ask. And many- like Tyler Russell- need a year in the weight room.
Then after their redshirt year, they get into games, and all of a sudden, they find out that some of the things that they could get away with in high school- like throwing into triple coverage, throwing a ball up in the middle of the field to make a play- thay can't get away with that in college. It also may be that they had a great o-line in high school and they could hold the ball all day, and now all of a sudden they can't get away with that.
Of course, we fans see the gross errors that I mentioned above and we get pissed off, and we're ready to assume that the guy is a bust and throw him to the curb and want to try the next guy. That's stupid. What we have to do is protect and develop our QB's, because if you throw a guy out there too soon, you may very well destroy their confidence for good. That means redshirting QB's, and that also means using them as back-ups as freshmen, and then by year three, they should be competent enough to start, and then by their junior year and senior year be really good.
So, back to Tyler and Dylan, here's what I think:
I think Tyler will be a very good QB for us. I think he will replace Relf, and I think when he gets to his upperclass years, he will be one of the better QB's in the SEC. His QB rating is very good as it is. I have been really impressed with his arm strength- he may have the strongest arm of any MSU QB I've ever seen, and he has a knack for making plays. If you have a guy like Tyler who can stretch the field vertically, and can make the short passes and complete 60% of his passes, it is going to make our running game that much better because all of a sudden, if someone stacks the box, we're going to burn them like Derrick Taite burned Tulane in 1994. They back out, and then we hand the ball off to Ladarius Perkins or whoever, and then we burn them on the ground. People see us getting these WR recruits, I have to think that some of that is because of Tyler because they have seen him play and they know he can get them the ball downfield. It ain't because they want to block for Relf.
I'm not wild about Dylan Favre. I do think he is too short to play in the SEC, I think he has/had poor throwing mechanics, and I question his arm strength. But, nonetheless, that doesn't mean that he can't be a serviceable QB. I remember Stewart Patridge at Ole Miss who was a below average athlete, but he was a good QB. I could see Dylan possibly being sort of like that. Someone who as a fifth year senior can run the offense and make the right plays and make very few mistakes. And I'll say this- he's a better passer than Relf.
And about the high school stats- uh.....most SEC QB's had great high school stats. Yes, Dylan had great high school stats. His team also got beat by Jackson Prep. Tyler led his team to a 5A Championship- the highest class in Mississippi at that time- and beat a South Panola team that probably a lot of people thought was invincible and had a winning streak of infiniti going into that game. And Tyler led that team to the win. Both were Parade All-Americans.
And I'll say this- both have a great QB coach in Dan Mullen working with them. We all have that going for us.
