Tommy isn't the greatest QB ever, but he was the reason we got back in a lot of games too. I really hope O'Brien outperforms him in the consistency department because we need an upgrade, but its hard to discount TA keeping us in games before ultimately losing them for us. Not sure if we feel better about the Husker future if TA doesn't lead a number of comebacks that made a lot of our losses respectable in the points margin.
Junior college QB visiting this weekend?
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Yep.. You live and die by Tommy. We he has his head on straight and gets a few breaks... Man he looks good. When it goes south, it goes way south. Until we get a better O-line, I actually like having someone like Tommy who is able to allude the rush, and make some plays with their feet. It's too bad Tommy can't get the consistency and learn to take the coaching to help with his decision making. He could be a well respected Husker and could take us to the next level if he just made good decisions. What three years of play has told us, is that he can't do it. Sucks for the kid because you know he wants it. I don't care what message board dumbasses say.. The kid is a competitor and I know he wants it..
There will always be good Tommy and bad Tommy.
Having seen multiple years of him, I'm confident his senior year will not bring us a playoff shot.
Time to switch horses.
Having seen multiple years of him, I'm confident his senior year will not bring us a playoff shot.
Time to switch horses.
One thing we were discussing today....
What does "outside" influences look like.
Folks were calling for Riley's head this year. Supposing he knows he needs to win 7-8 games next year to keep his job, does he hand the reigns to an unproven true frosh and declare his make or break year a "start fresh" year? Or does he hope that in Year 2, TA improves a handful of plays a game and gets him the time needed on the coaching contract to bringing in the O'Brien era for a couple years.
I would suppose that if Eichorst and Riley know that Riley has at least 2 more years, he may well just start over. If the guy is coaching week to week, I think its less likely he declares a do over unless O'Brien is really freaking polished out the gate.
1. Tommy is a QB at a power 5 school and he has a winning record. He is a legit D1 QB.
2. Tommy is not representative of the future QB type at NU as long as Riley is the coach. He was recruited for a different type of offense.
3. If a younger guy (who is obviously currently not on the roster) beats TA out, we should be happy as that kid should be a really good ballplayer in the system Riley wants to run. I am not putting any money on that happening so I hope Tommy makes substantial progress in his decision making in the next 9 months.
4. A more dynamic run game could help out regardless of who is QB.
5. Better playcalling in critical situations could help out regardless of who is QB (like running the ball when it's second and 2 and you are playing Iowa and behind by one score).
2. Tommy is not representative of the future QB type at NU as long as Riley is the coach. He was recruited for a different type of offense.
3. If a younger guy (who is obviously currently not on the roster) beats TA out, we should be happy as that kid should be a really good ballplayer in the system Riley wants to run. I am not putting any money on that happening so I hope Tommy makes substantial progress in his decision making in the next 9 months.
4. A more dynamic run game could help out regardless of who is QB.
5. Better playcalling in critical situations could help out regardless of who is QB (like running the ball when it's second and 2 and you are playing Iowa and behind by one score).
Funny how different this conversation about Armstrong would be if a certain Spartan doesn't drop an EASY interception in the endzone.... Good QB's don't consistently rely on luck, magic, or fairy dust. They make consistently good decisions .... consistently.
No -- I don't award Tommy extra credit points for helping the team lose respectably in games where he made a litany of terrible decisions prior to not sucking for awhile.
POB gets here in January. There will be ample time for evaluating him and time for him to learn some things. I suppose that if into fall camp Riley thinks POB can win the same amount or more games than TA, he would pull the trigger. And in no way is that an easy pull of the trigger, benching a three year starter for a frosh.
Agree. But at this point, its all just a measure of statistical likelihood. In the history of CFB, the odds stand with TA being the starter unless O'Brien really is pretty outside the norm. Would like to see how the conversation changes as folks see him play in spring and so forth.
I'm not really into awarding brownie points, but these "down about TA" discussions often wander way into extremisms. TA is not the ideal QB for us, but TA is serviceable by a number of D1 programs including our own. Its not like great QB's are growing on trees, there are any number of schools that would take TA to play, warts and all, simply because the QB situation for most schools isn't that great.
The problem is, NU is not most schools, we need TA to play on an echelon reached by few. So for us, not a great option. All I wanted to point out tangentially, for folks who go way off the deep end with these things, we know that TA is not ideal by a long shot, but its not as if any number of dudes is going to walk in here and see the kind of success he has generated in his career let alone *where we would like to be*. Fyfe has more than shown us that.
This is true. Martinez made a pretty decent jump in passing mechanics and general QB IQ when he intentionally worked on his game with a QB coach between his soph and jr year. Was All-Conference that year.
