MSU SR QB curse?....

[maroonmania]

Was just thinking back to whether MSU has EVER had a SR QB (since 1980) end their career having a really good SR year? Here are some of the names of multi-year starting QBs that I was thinking of:

John Bond - SR '83 (bad season and most MSU fans were yelling for Don Smith)
Don Smith - SR '86 (started 6-1 and Smith was playing great; ended 6-5 with multiple bad losses so the year ended so-so at best)
Tony Shell - SR '90 (5-6 his SR year; had a decent year but we had no defense)
Sleepy Robinson - SR '92 Promising QB whose career ended with a knee injury in 4th game of his SR year
Greg Plump/Todd Jordan - SRs '93 (platooned after Sleepy went down; neither did very well)
Derrick Taite - SR '96 (5-6 his SR year; had better years as a SO & JR)
Wayne Madkin - SR '01 (worst year of a good career)
Kevin Fant - SR '03 (had his most yards but threw a ton of INTs)
Omar Conner - SR '06 (back and forth with Henig but SR year was underwhelming)
Mike Henig - SR '07 (year started with 6 INTs in LSU game; Carroll took over after injury)
Tyson Lee - SR '09 (walk on QB; SR not that great but he only started 1.5 years and was 5'9)
Chris Relf - SR '11 (not starting out so great)

That is a sad list and its unreal that over the last 30 years of MSU football we have NEVER had a SR QB lead an MSU team to a bowl game though Don Smith's '86 team did at least finish with a winning record at 6-5.

 

[Goat Grindin]

and they damn near ALWAYS regress or hit some sort of roadblock. Especially the QBs. Who can explain it, but it's as consistent as gravity. Alot of times it's due to other parts of the team not pulling their own weight ie the OL this year.

 

[thatsbaseball]

"He tied a school record with 13 field goals as a junior in 1977, and as a senior, moved into the starting quarterback role, earning All-SEC honors while passing for 2,422 yards. The tally included a 429-yard single-game school record set against Alabama."</p>

 

[maroonmania]

in the 70s but I was trying to keep it to somewhat recent times. Also Marler only started for us the one year. Bruce Threadgill played most of the years Marler was around and had a pretty good career himself.

 

[AROB44]

nm

 

[jcdawgman18]

Also, including Omarr in this discussion is unfair to Omarr. He started that year off planning on playing WR, got moved back when Henig got hurt, and then played hurt for us multiple games. Omarr was a warrior that year.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

He was starter in 1997 and part of 1998, but was second-string behind Madkin in 1999. He came in and gave the team a spark in the Auburn and Kentucky games, and helped us to an 8-0 start and a 10 win season that year.

 

[Todd4State]

And that will explain some of it.

Dan Mullen is the first coach that we have ever had that has had a reputation for developing good QB's. Felker did a decent job.

Bellard ran the wishbone, which asked the QB to run a lot. It's hard to get a drop back passer in recruiting when you run the wishbone as well. A guy like Don Smith would have been awesome in the wishbone- and he actually went to the NFL as an athlete. Then Jackie- as much as I like him- was HORRIBLE at devleoping QB's. He also ran an offense that was more running back centered than QB centered. He wanted a QB that was a good athlete that was going to not screw up and complete a pass when our enormous running backs got stopped and it was third and more than three. Croom sucked. He never could get a QB that could run the WCO or any offense until he got Tyler Russell- and then it was too late for Croom.

Throughout our history, we have had way too many athletes playing QB and not enough QB's who are good athletes. And when we do have a good college QB- like Fant, Shell or even Todd Jordan, we have an incredibly crappy team and there's nothing that they can do about it except get beat up or try to outscore the other team.

And then we do stupid things like burn Omarr Conner's redshirt and then move him between QB and WR. How is he supposed to develop as a QB doing that? And yes, our offense didn't take advantage of what he could do as well atheltically.

And then you have Taite, Relf, and now Favre smoking weed.

I'll give Tyson Lee a pass since he was a walk-on.

 

[gravedigger]

just saying.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Just deal with it.

 

[maroonmania]

the same year he opened the season throwing 6 INTs to LSU. If I remember correctly though he reinjured his collar bone and Wes Carroll took over to take us to the Liberty Bowl after Josh Riddell blew out a knee. I started not to even put Conner on the list because he was so mishandled by the coaches over his career through moving him to various positions but he did end up back at mostly QB in his SR year of 06 I'm pretty sure.

 

[sparky39762]

He got injured against Florida (top 15) that year we won 30-6. Plump filled in pretty much by himself the rest of the season leading up to the Peach Bowl.

 

[maroonmania]

which only makes the SR QB curse even worse.