Can read the Gopher's fans opinions about the QB situation.
View from the other side
- Thread starter Extra Point_rivals157299
- Start date
They view AK they same way a lot poster here view Wimsatt.
It's hard to read those comments and remain optimistic that we may have improved at the quarterback position.
Some choice poster comments from just the first page:
“I think the legit list of suitors willing to let him be QB1 from day one without open competition is very small, unless he drops down a level or two from P5.”
“Division 2 at best for him and his bro”
“AK could play at the FCS level. His brother might be a backup on an NAIA team.”
“Zero chance he gets an FCS scholarship with a team of any renown. Very little chance at FCS with any of the schools say in the playoffs. I’ll predict Southern Illinois.”
“Some of these takes are a little much. He wasn’t great in 2023 but he did have enough flashes in ‘22 that I think he signs with a G5 program who bets on a fresh start with a new OC.
That doesn’t mean he starts or sees the field. He might have to take another step down to start again. But someone in FBS will take him for 2024”
Is what it is. Kid has an opportunity to compete at Rutgers. Hope he makes the best of it.
GO RU
“I think the legit list of suitors willing to let him be QB1 from day one without open competition is very small, unless he drops down a level or two from P5.”
“Division 2 at best for him and his bro”
“AK could play at the FCS level. His brother might be a backup on an NAIA team.”
“Zero chance he gets an FCS scholarship with a team of any renown. Very little chance at FCS with any of the schools say in the playoffs. I’ll predict Southern Illinois.”
“Some of these takes are a little much. He wasn’t great in 2023 but he did have enough flashes in ‘22 that I think he signs with a G5 program who bets on a fresh start with a new OC.
That doesn’t mean he starts or sees the field. He might have to take another step down to start again. But someone in FBS will take him for 2024”
Is what it is. Kid has an opportunity to compete at Rutgers. Hope he makes the best of it.
GO RU
More great news. We have another Wimsatt on the roster.
If that's your assessment from message board yahoos, may I suggest you reading/viewing what podcasters who know a little more than random fans who probably don't know squat about football. There's stuff out there you can find by a Google search. I posted the same link above and some videos from podcasters.
Big arm. Big frame
Late with ball.
Seemed to be less accurate than I thought coming into the year.
But the biggest problem is late with the ball. And that was true in 2022 and 2023. He even took sacks he shouldn’t have in the Wisconsin game he played so well in
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This is the scary thing about AK for me. He didn't have a great feel for the game. I don't know if that can be coached or really fixed. I think mechanics can improve, decision making can improve, physical traits can improve.
There are things he struggled with that just come naturally with good players. Could it be because PJ had him wound super tight? Absolutely. Our playcalling didn't do him any favors.
If he wanted his easiest path to P5 football, he should have stayed here. He'd have been competing with 1 person who is an unknown. Compete with him for a job and worst case scenario you're the primary backup and you can transfer next season (similar path to ZA).
I don't mean this as a slight to him, but I don't think he necessarily wants competition and if that's the case, he'll have to end up at MVFC.
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I think the only way he realizes his potential is by playing football successfully and getting faster with his decision making. He was overwhelmed by the speed of the game at this level in my opinion. And that’s why he even would miss easy physical plays.
He should go down a level. Start, have success. And if it goes really well, he can still get drafted or grad transfer back up later.
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Yeah, it's really hard to give a QB easy throws (swing passes, short dump offs, WR screens) if those balls are skipped. It's a complete waste of a play whereas an incompletion on something down the field can help keep safeties honest.
The offensive coordinators did try to give AK some of those "easy throws" and for whatever reason, he was struggling on those as well.
Something was off and in my untrained opinion, I agree with you. It was off in a way that it's hard to blame on coaching - or entirely on coaching.
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As the season wore on, it looked more and more like AK had a case of the yips.
I remember the Illinois game where he missed the TE on a 4 yard dump by throwing it 200 mph and high. His reaction and body language were not good. The rest is history.
I played with a kid who was a helluva athlete and had a great arm. Except games. He would get so nervous that routine throws were anything but routine. You never knew where the hell the ball was going. Every pass was an adventure. By about mid-season I started telling him to screw perfect and just get it close. I'd take care of the rest. As if by some miracle, he started throwing much better balls when the pressure to make a perfect throw was reduced.
Late with ball.
Seemed to be less accurate than I thought coming into the year.
But the biggest problem is late with the ball. And that was true in 2022 and 2023. He even took sacks he shouldn’t have in the Wisconsin game he played so well in
====================================
This is the scary thing about AK for me. He didn't have a great feel for the game. I don't know if that can be coached or really fixed. I think mechanics can improve, decision making can improve, physical traits can improve.
There are things he struggled with that just come naturally with good players. Could it be because PJ had him wound super tight? Absolutely. Our playcalling didn't do him any favors.
If he wanted his easiest path to P5 football, he should have stayed here. He'd have been competing with 1 person who is an unknown. Compete with him for a job and worst case scenario you're the primary backup and you can transfer next season (similar path to ZA).
I don't mean this as a slight to him, but I don't think he necessarily wants competition and if that's the case, he'll have to end up at MVFC.
====================================
I think the only way he realizes his potential is by playing football successfully and getting faster with his decision making. He was overwhelmed by the speed of the game at this level in my opinion. And that’s why he even would miss easy physical plays.
He should go down a level. Start, have success. And if it goes really well, he can still get drafted or grad transfer back up later.
====================================
Yeah, it's really hard to give a QB easy throws (swing passes, short dump offs, WR screens) if those balls are skipped. It's a complete waste of a play whereas an incompletion on something down the field can help keep safeties honest.
The offensive coordinators did try to give AK some of those "easy throws" and for whatever reason, he was struggling on those as well.
Something was off and in my untrained opinion, I agree with you. It was off in a way that it's hard to blame on coaching - or entirely on coaching.
====================================
As the season wore on, it looked more and more like AK had a case of the yips.
I remember the Illinois game where he missed the TE on a 4 yard dump by throwing it 200 mph and high. His reaction and body language were not good. The rest is history.
I played with a kid who was a helluva athlete and had a great arm. Except games. He would get so nervous that routine throws were anything but routine. You never knew where the hell the ball was going. Every pass was an adventure. By about mid-season I started telling him to screw perfect and just get it close. I'd take care of the rest. As if by some miracle, he started throwing much better balls when the pressure to make a perfect throw was reduced.
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I'm reminded of that old expression - "beware of Greeks bearing gifts" lol.
RU and Minn were right next to each other in the stat basement.
Kaliak was never a savior Joe Burrow transferring in.
He had a few extra TDs but he had an All-B1G WR with 8 TDs (good WRs make lemons into sherbet) .
He barely ran/scored at all.
RU needs a Daniel Jackson more than a Kaliak
RU and Minn were right next to each other in the stat basement.
Kaliak was never a savior Joe Burrow transferring in.
He had a few extra TDs but he had an All-B1G WR with 8 TDs (good WRs make lemons into sherbet) .
He barely ran/scored at all.
RU needs a Daniel Jackson more than a Kaliak
Do y'all put any stock in the fact that Message Board Geniuses don't know squat or what they are looking at?
Let the competition begin. If Winsatt wins then it’s the same as if AK was never here. I would assume Winsatt improved over this season to win. If AK wins, we made the right move. We got the experienced backup QB we needed anyway, a win win. If AJ Surace wins then we must really have a big win.
At least the fans on their forum are civil with each other and have good conversations as opposed to what we have here lately .
They are really tamed compared to this board. lately? Always that way.
At least we tried. Someone had to be last.
I would have been disappointed with Schiano if he didn’t try to upgrade.
I saw on the Texas board mentioning that the difference between Brown, prior coach, to Stephen Sarkisian was that Sarkisian kept on recruiting the best QB he could every year. If you noticed every good program recruits at least 1 good QB a year. No one know who’s going to be successful in college. You can’t depend on getting 1 4 star QB and have the program starter for the next 3 years. Wisconsin had 2 transfers QB last year much better than either of our QB and then went after a real high rate Qb transfer in 2024 and recruited a high level QB from HS.
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Some of those podcasters don’t know anything. I would take @gef21 opinion on the 2 QBs over some podcaster.
Easy to blame the qb. That's why they make the big bucks. Harder for Minn to ask "are we a minor league team for Rutgers?" Joe H. Kirk. Ahonotu. Flip.
Wow. And I thought we had a tough crowd. The difference between their 9 win (2022) and 6 win (2023) seasons have zero to do with QB play. It’s this:
1) Road loss at UNC (8 win team) replaces home win over horrible Colorado team.
2) Loss to Michigan instead of easy win over Rutgers (they would’ve beaten the 2022 version of us fresh off of firing our OC and SB injury with their 2023 roster too).
3) Easy win over NW (one win the whole season), vs their D blowing 31-10 Q4 lead against a better version of NW this year. There’s no planet that loss should be pinned on AK. He was 14 of 19 for 153 yards with 2 TDs and no picks. He also had 3 good rushes in the game averaging 8.5 ypc.
These are quite literally the differences. They lost to Wisky this year. But beat Iowa. That’s a wash. They lost to PSU in crossover this year- wash with the OSU loss.
1) Road loss at UNC (8 win team) replaces home win over horrible Colorado team.
2) Loss to Michigan instead of easy win over Rutgers (they would’ve beaten the 2022 version of us fresh off of firing our OC and SB injury with their 2023 roster too).
3) Easy win over NW (one win the whole season), vs their D blowing 31-10 Q4 lead against a better version of NW this year. There’s no planet that loss should be pinned on AK. He was 14 of 19 for 153 yards with 2 TDs and no picks. He also had 3 good rushes in the game averaging 8.5 ypc.
These are quite literally the differences. They lost to Wisky this year. But beat Iowa. That’s a wash. They lost to PSU in crossover this year- wash with the OSU loss.
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Listened to the TKR podcast with the Minnesota guy back when KM first visited.
My main take away was a quote approximately “AK struggled last year when asked to succeed”.
Not exactly highly encouraging.
I’ll have to go back and relisten to get the exact quote.
My concern is there isn’t much difference between GW/KM and we get a rerun of our offense next year.
It’s going to be a great spring camp. Hope both bring their A game and earn the job. Good job by the staff here putting together AK’s every throw. He looks athletic and has a good arm. Reminds me of Nova. Some great throws and some WTF throws. IMHO, GW has the bigger arm and AK is more willing to fit the throw.
After watching the tape of AK last year, I came away thinking "that's not a good team" but not that the QB was bad. Again, he had a lot of incompletions where his team was down and he had to force things into tight coverage while running for his life. And frankly he seemed to do OK with it.
So my assessment remains that AK is a significant upgrade.
Having said that, my level of confidence in this assessment, on a scale of 1-10, is about a 1. Let the competition begin.
So my assessment remains that AK is a significant upgrade.
Having said that, my level of confidence in this assessment, on a scale of 1-10, is about a 1. Let the competition begin.
Lol seems like it’s gotten worse with the handful of haters and baiters . We ALL know who they are and so does Richie. Best thing is to not engage them.
Did you watch either the TKR film or any of the Minny games where AK was “asked to succeed” down the stretch and one might conclude he “failed”?
It is prosperous to pin the NW loss on him. Why - because in OT he needed to throw a TD to tie and his final pass fell incomplete? He was 14 of 18 before that with 2 TDs and guided them to a 31-10 Q4 lead. That should be good enough.
Then there’s the Illiniois game. Yes - it’s true AK misses his last 4 passes in a heartbreaker but those stats don’t tell the whole story. Before that, down 21-20 with around 5 minutes to play he converted a 31 yard TD pass to put Minny up 26-21. At that point he was 11 for 18 with 3 TDs (no picks). That’s not a bad day at all. With under a minute to play, score still 26-21 it’s 4th and 11 Illinois ball from the Illini 15. If the D holds there that’s game and AK finishes with a win and much prettier looking stats. They don’t. Instead - the Illini score a TD. AK had 50 seconds to drive Minny into FG range and misfired. I understand the disappointment there but it’s still only one series in a game where he otherwise played well.
The Wisconsin loss wasn’t AK’s fault either. He played a solid first half with score 14-14. He was also 2 of 3 on passes in the first 2 drives of the second half that resulted in punts. Meanwhile, Wisky scored TDs to break the game open but to say he “blew it” with failed QB play would be a major reach. Next series he throws a clutch 30 yard pass with 8 minutes to play down 14 that was then fumbled by his receiver. Really his only mistake of that game was a pick he threw when the game was basically over (Minny got the ball back down 14 with 4 to play at their own 10). It would’ve taken a miracle comeback at that point.
Our D is also better than theirs. AK could’ve had a career day and they still weren’t beating Purdue, for example. They gave up 49 points on 604 yards (over 350 yards on the ground) in that game.
I don’t think podcasters necessarily know more in every situation or every scenario.
I remember podcasters raving about oden as the next great rutgers quarterback
Agree with that.
Ultimately, the only people whose opinions matter to me, when it comes to this sort of thing, are professional coaches. And in this case, even the QB's recent coaches only have a bit more than half of the necessary facts and observations to form an informed opinion.
In order by least amount of information, we have (*):
1. Fans = missing ~99% of the information
2. Media with no pro coaching experience = missing ~97%
3. Media with pro coaching experience = missing ~90%
4. Pro coaches with no recent practice-time exposure to either QB = missing ~85%
5. Pro coaches with some recent practice-time exposure to one of the QBs = missing ~80%
6. Pro coaches with some recent practice-time exposure to both QBs = missing ~75%
7. Pro coaches who coached one of the QBs on their most recent team = missing ~45%
Only the pro coaches who are coaching both players on the same team at the same time have a near-complete set of facts and observations with which to form a reasonably accurate viewpoint on which of the two players can best help the team win its games in 2024. And even then, it's not 100%.
* These percentages have been double-secret-certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Office of Weights and Measures.
My assessment from our game against Minn was that they shoved the ball down the throat of a tired RU team that couldn’t move the ball on offense. Their running back (Mohammed) just kept wearing our defense down. He must have had at least 25 carries. I distinctly remember them having the ball inside their own 10 yd line and taking the ball down the length of the field with multiple “we’re running the ball and try to stop us” runs for a TD and I knew right there that it would be a long day for RU.
Don’t really remember AK because they didn’t need to rely upon him. May have had a run or pass to extend drives but their Kirk (Our Kirk now) was making no bones about establishing the run game that day.
Agree, let the competition begin.
GO RU
I hope people appreciate the dual reference I worked into that sentence. You mentioned one of them.
I only watched AK's 23 tape. Most QBs will look good playing behind a dominating run game.
He doesn’t remember AK because he didn’t play in the game against us. Tanner Morgan did. AK took over the second half of the season when Morgan got injured and then played well enough to keep the job when Morgan healed. Then AK got hurt after a good start in the bowl game and Morgan finished the game.
Oden wasn't given enough opportunities. In that Iowa goal line stand, on his 9th try, he would have found the end zone.
Back with the woe is me schtick? Calm down, I did not feel like scrolling back up. Sheesh.
Maybe, just maybe, and just maybe, not wishcasting or favoring anyone here, AK did better under KC than under the OC at Minnesota (wasn't he a Harbaugh?). That is something I think I saw on some posts and articles. This debate is interesting and filling up the message board, but just a lot of speculation over apples and oranges. Too many variable and differences to make a definitive call.