Twitter discussion - Fant vs Eli...

[dawgstudent]

After the 2001 season - as a State fan - did you think Fant had a chance to compete with Eli?

Fant's last two games with one beating Ole Miss and playing BYU - he was...

34-49 609 yds 4 TD/1 INT

If you remember, he split time with Madkin during that dreadful season.

Eli's stats that year were pretty damn good...

259-408 2900 yds 31 TD/9 INT

Am I off base in saying there was a decent amount of hope for Fant and what he could do after 2001?

 

[121Josey]

After the 2001 season - as a State fan... he split time with Madkin during that dreadful season.

As a State fan all of them seemed dreadful after the 2000 season.**

There was a lot of hope for Fant during his early days. But he played a lot during the 2001 season and he didn't show me anything about him being an above average SEC QB, much less competing with Eli. From what I remember he didn't make good decisions.

 

[TBone.sixpack]

Fant didn't get a lot of help from his o line.

 

[RebelBruiser]

After the 2001 season - as a State fan - did you think Fant had a chance to compete with Eli?

Fant's last two games with one beating Ole Miss and playing BYU - he was...

34-49 609 yds 4 TD/1 INT

If you remember, he split time with Madkin during that dreadful season.

Eli's stats that year were pretty damn good...

259-408 2900 yds 31 TD/9 INT

Am I off base in saying there was a decent amount of hope for Fant and what he could do?

On Eli, I think that was his best season...2001.

Even the 3rd in the Heisman voting senior season wasn't as good numbers-wise.

He threw 9 INTs that year, but 6 of those INTs were in 2 games against UGA and MSU at the end of the year. He only had 3 INTs in the other 9 games that season.

I went back and watched one of our 2002 games again, and it was really unfair what we did with Eli. I don't know that I have ever seen a team rely so much on a QB in a pro-style offense. You see teams lean heavily on athletic QBs now, but you don't see teams so dependent on a QB in a pro set like we were with Eli in 2002. Our running game was nothing. Our OL wasn't that good. It was basically Eli having to make throws under duress all year.

On Fant, he had potential, but he came along at the wrong time. Had he been given some other tools on offense, he could've been fairly good. As it stood, we'll never know because he spent much of 2002 and 2003 trying to throw from his backside. Given his lack of help, he actually put up reasonable numbers.

 

[dawgstudent]

My main question was - was it absurd to think after the 2001 season Fant could have competed with Eli especially considering the last 2 games.

 

[johnson86-1]

After the 2001 season - as a State fan - did you think Fant had a chance to compete with Eli?

Fant's last two games with one beating Ole Miss and playing BYU - he was...

34-49 609 yds 4 TD/1 INT

If you remember, he split time with Madkin during that dreadful season.

Eli's stats that year were pretty damn good...

259-408 2900 yds 31 TD/9 INT

Am I off base in saying there was a decent amount of hope for Fant and what he could do?

I was very optimistic about Fant. But shortly after he was given the reigns our performance made it to where I had to drink heavily just to watch us, so I'm not sure whether he was a good talent never given a chance b/c of the O-Line or whether he was just a mediocre qb behind a mediocre or worse line.

 

[Philly Dawg]

Fant was never in Eli's league. He had some ability, but as 121Josey said, he made awful awful decisions.

He held on to the ball too long and took unneccary sacks, he didn't protect the ball when he did and fumbled a lot, and he chucked the ball downfield two or three times a game putting it completely up for grabs.

 

[dawgstudent]

There is no doubt Fant never got close to Eli. My question was - after 2001 - could an argument have been made to be as optimistic about Fant as Ole Miss fans were about Eli?

 

[Xenomorph]

That's like saying Sonny Corleone didn't get much help from Barzini's men.

 

[RebelBruiser]

My main question was - was it absurd to think after the 2001 season Fant could have competed with Eli especially considering the last 2 games.

Possibly, but I think that even with Eli's poor performances two of the last three games and Fant's good performances in the final two games, Eli's early year work and full body of work had people thinking ridiculous things. No one expected 2002 to be nearly as difficult as it was for Eli.

Definitely though, if there was ever a time for a Fant v. Eli argument to be made without it sounding completely ridiculous, that would've been the period of time for it given the sputtering finish from Eli and strong finish from Fant.

 

[dawgstudent]

And Eli's family pedigree also influenced what people expected of him. If his name was Eli "Jones" - it wouldn't have been as crazy obviously.

 

[121Josey]

No. As he said, "Fant was never in Eli's league." In other words, Fant was never in Eli's conversation.

Eli put up better numbers in 2001 than Tyler Russell in 2012... with one less game.

 

[futaba.79]

I, for one, was very optimistic.........

Fant was great in those two games. I thought he was primed for a great career. Unfortunately, Johnny Wadley and Avery House had other things in mind for Fant.

 

[dawgstudent]

Fair enough.

 

[Philly Dawg]

I had some optimism about Fant, but I'm not sure I'd be as optimistic about Peyton Manning as the Ole Miss fans were about Eli.

 

[Philly Dawg]

He also held on to the ball too long, reminding me a lot of Rob Johnson from the Buffalo Bills.

 

[prairiedawg]

That's like saying Sonny Corleone didn't get much help from Barzini's men.

Nailed it. He actually got no help from anywhere. There was one game, I can't remember which, but I remember thinking about the 3rd quarter there were only 2 players putting out real effort and it was Fant and TJ Mahwhinney (spelling?). It pissed me off to sit there watching no effort I thought the proper tribute was to leave and I never leave a game early.

This may have been the game where dipshit said "I blew that MF up!".

 

[Maroonthirteen]

Yes. My thoughts were we had a damn good QB in Fant. Also Eli was no Peyton. So I was optimistic the talent difference was in last name only.

Elis last name got him alot of attention he would not have otherwise.

 

[MSUDC11]

I honestly think Tyler Russell when I think of Fant. Russell was more accurate, but Fant had a better arm.

Both had issues that they couldn't really control. Fant played for two of the worst teams in SEC history with horrendous blocking, and Russell was a pocket QB playing in a run-heavy spread option offense.

 

[NCDawg.sixpack]

Fant was great in those two games. I thought he was primed for a great career. Unfortunately, Johnny Wadley and Avery House had other things in mind for Fant.

Fant was a good QB. He really never had a chance at State due to the matador OL that we had.

 

[yjnkdawg]

Fant didn't get a lot of help from his o line.

I totally agree. The OL did not want him as their starting QB so they would not support him and would not block for him. That information came from a former player on the scout team. There were others issues too, about player control or out of control, etc. How can a quarterback be successful when the crapping OL line refuses to block for that quarterback, but will block for the one they want in the game.

 

[FlotownDawg]

Fant was lucky to leave MSU with the ability to walk. Hardly any quarterback would have been successful on those horrible teams with that sieve of an offensive line. If Fant had come along a few years earlier and played on the teams that were quarterbacked by, say, Matt Wyatt or Todd Jordan, I think he would have put up some good numbers and been fondly remembered by MSU fans. I think he was more talented than Wayne Madkin, he just didn't have the talent around him Madkin did for his first three years.

 

[Irondawg]

Everybody is looking at this in hindsight but I remember well at the discussions with State fans about whether Fant could be as good as Eli. Fant was portrayed as the gritty winner and Eli as the carefree party boy with the silver spoon. Lots of State people were very high on Fant. Personally I wasn't sure if he would be as good as Eli, but I definately thought he was going to be an above average starting QB in the SEC and gave us the most overall talent at that position in some time.

But we were all dead wrong and like what happened to our entire team during that time it was a combination of factors, but the most being an apparent total lack of institutional control for whatever reason.