Wow, POB is really good, why wasn't he starting last fall?
- Thread starter WestCoastCornhusker2
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Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
— ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
POB redshirted and they did not want to burn that—even late in the year he said he did not want to burn it (per an article I read a couple weeks ago). He also just graduated high school last winter and left early in hopes of beating out TA. He was 17 years old...body was D1 ready, but not his mentality, yet.
Did anybody really think that a true freshman would unseat the 5th year senior, who was a 4 year starter?
Can I just say it is flippin' awesome to see that we have two dudes (Lee and O'Brien) who are not that dissimilar in terms of their skill levels, though you'd give Lee the edge for having already started a bunch of games back at Tulane, plus Gebbia waiting in the wings and developing? Quarterbacks for DAYS, SON.
I was hoping that he would be that amazing too.
But realistically, he would have to be noticeably more talented than TA, he would have to have like 80% (?) of the playbook down before the first game, and he would have to win the team over. Could POB do one or two of those things being a true freshman early enrollee? Maybe, but all three seems like a crazy mountain to climb in his situation.
Not only that but from what I understand their would have been a mutiny with some of the Bo leftovers if a freshman had started over Tommy.
Last year was frustrating as hell watching guys run open every game and never see the ball. Tommy did an awesome job keeping things alive with his feet making the porous like look better than it was. That really showed when he was out as D's feasted Ryker. I would think POB would have been beaten to a pulp by seasons end had he won that job based on my opinions just shared.
Why?
1. He wasn't yet on a level to supplant a multi-year starter.
2. Given that, they made a decision to RS and stuck to that decision. As it turned out, NU wrung 9 wins out of an Oline and QBs that were the walking wounded by the time of the Iowa game.
3. He now has the opportunity to either start for four years or be the number two for two years (instead of starting for three years and be the backup for two).
On another subject, has anyone looked at Gebbia in the practice videos. He looks very slender. A fawn around a bunch of deer.
1. He wasn't yet on a level to supplant a multi-year starter.
2. Given that, they made a decision to RS and stuck to that decision. As it turned out, NU wrung 9 wins out of an Oline and QBs that were the walking wounded by the time of the Iowa game.
3. He now has the opportunity to either start for four years or be the number two for two years (instead of starting for three years and be the backup for two).
On another subject, has anyone looked at Gebbia in the practice videos. He looks very slender. A fawn around a bunch of deer.
Redshirting O'Brien was the right move. Armstrong is who is he is, and despite his issues he busted his ***, and Nebraska probably doesn't win these two games without him.
That's an awesome point. I completely agree. That's a probably and 8-5 or 7-6 record without him. Just goes to show you...talent/recruiting wins games (and coaching too).
Being tough is a very admirable trait in a QB. However there are other traits that are important to being a great QB too. Excited to see what the new guys can do.
GBR
GBR
According to POB, he and DL had a plan to RS and didn't desire to alter it late in the season unless he absolutely had to.
It would have been an injustice to the kid to pull it with less than half the season to go. Last year was a survival year. We survived and had a decent season.
I think this is why you got such 'rave' reviews on your initial post. Keep up the good work.
Lmao . At the myth of guys running open all the time.....our receivers were average at best at creating space...except for Westy. And Tommy had to put it on the money at times to complete it to him.
In your own post ..you think Tommy had time to find open receivers..maybe 20% of the time at best. Let's not even talk about the drops.
Yeah Tommy was inaccurate as well...our receivers choked against OSU dropping balls hitting them right in the chest.
None of them are gonna get drafted. That says everything.
Unless it was play action, rub route or a scramble, these guys were average.
And to pile onto this rediculous conjecture, he was a freshman then, can't compare how he is now. And the physical beating as mentioned would have been tremendous but the biggest thing for me would have been the mental beating he would take. That is the number one reason some head coaches do not to start a freshman QB.
Total conjecture. If he wins the job in the fall and starts game 1, we have no idea what any results will be. The offense would have been different from the beginning. It's a pointless argument, impossible to even speculate on how things would have been different.
Wide open for a normal throwing QB and wide open for Armstrong, and other athletes playing QB, are not equal.
This is true. A good QB can make a completion even if the receiver is competently defended.
Fair point. But I question that when we couldn't even snap the ball for a year in a half.
Secondly. .No QB is going to be that accurate on every throw. Because they weren't even that open at times.
I'm hoping that our new crop of receivers are better at getting open, better yet the line is better at pass blocking....the pressure at the snap of the ball was too frequent.
Tommy held onto the ball too long on many occasions and couldn't go through progressions correctly even as a senior.
What? There was no prohibition on Freshmen playing football in 1980. In fact Gill played as a freshman.
Jeans,
I don't understand why you defend TA so much while at the same time have no trouble throwing the receivers under the bus. I have seen you repeatedly bad mouth the receivers in multiple threads. Over and over again in fact.
I don't have a problem with you defending TA per se, but the reality is, TA wasn't as good as you wanted him to be, whether that was because he was running for his life, play calling, or maybe he just didn't have the necessary skills to be a QB in the Riley offense... and on the other hand, the receivers you continually dog weren't as bad as you are making them out to be either.
It just looks like TA has some compromising photos of you or something the way you defend him at the expense of the rest of the offense.
I don't understand why you defend TA so much while at the same time have no trouble throwing the receivers under the bus. I have seen you repeatedly bad mouth the receivers in multiple threads. Over and over again in fact.
I don't have a problem with you defending TA per se, but the reality is, TA wasn't as good as you wanted him to be, whether that was because he was running for his life, play calling, or maybe he just didn't have the necessary skills to be a QB in the Riley offense... and on the other hand, the receivers you continually dog weren't as bad as you are making them out to be either.
It just looks like TA has some compromising photos of you or something the way you defend him at the expense of the rest of the offense.
Because people have no problem throwing him under the Bus while excusing everyone else's garbage performances.
You guys expect him to be an All American behind a piss poor line that can't even snap the ball.
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I get your frustration, and I agree Tommy would have been better behind a better line. But I could just as easily say the receivers would have been better if Tommy got them the ball in the right place and at the right time. and many here aren't convinced that he could consistently do that even if he had a solid line. The reality is, we'll never know how good he could have been, and conversely, we'll also never know how inconsistent he would have been either.
And I don't think people are expecting an all American here. We are expecting better than 51% completion rate though, or whatever it was.
I think the greater frustration is that we didn't have anyone else to turn to if Tommy didn't get the job done. At least now, it appears we will have solid options going 3 and 4 deep. Something we haven't seen in quite a while.
I want a great QB play as well. We haven't had that in quite some time.
I hope one of the Qbs we have now becomes an all conference player. But if we can't make things comfortable for our QB. It's not happening.
O line play is critical for sure. The one thing I know the current QBs can do that Tommy often struggled with is find the check down receiver. That alone will help if the defense knows they can't pin their ears back and rush like crazy.
But to your point, the O line must be better. It would have been interesting to see what Tommy could have done with a better line.
I disagree with this post. I don't know if you go to the games in person, I go to a couple a year. It is hard to see on TV how often TA didn't notice an open man because the camera follows the action and he often threw into coverage, so it is impossible to see someone away from the action standing alone waving his arms. In the games I saw in person there were MANY times on for instance third and 8 someone was open in the flat for a 10-yard gain and TA heaved it down the field because he decided that is where he was going to go before the play started. The receivers got separation plenty of times. I will always be appreciative of TA's guts, charisma, work ethic, attitude, and the way he represented my school and state. TA had many good qualities, but scanning the field was the not one of them and frustrated me to no end. I think the same offense will look totally different this fall.
TA never met a pocket that he wanted to step in to. For the most part, I thought the interior of the line did a good job of holding the line of scrimmage as there was usually a pocket for TA to step up in. However, his escape move was always to try to spin away from the defensive end(s) bull rush to the outside. That is not how the pass protection is designed. TA isn't a pocket passer but he made up for that in other ways. As Mr. Miyagi said: "Walk on road, hm? Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get squish, just like grape." And that is where Nebraska's offense has been the past two years, not a pure passing offense (left) and not a pure zone read running qb offense (right), but some Frankenstein mix (middle) and it got squished just like grape.
I'm positive he missed receivers. But when you feel under seige you begin to see things that are not there.
The first thing I look at when a play begins is the line. TA is short. Stepping into the pocket you can see by replay he can't see a passing lane. That's something you can't see by being at the game.
Think about the INT he though on the goal line this year. He never saw the defender because an OLineman was right in front of him. We thought he was just dumb. No he couldn't see the guy.
We were 7-0 and TA was the main reason for that. Wisky, I felt the Offensive coordinator froze up in OT. OSU just out classed us.
Iowa. We didn't even show up as a team.
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Langsdorf froze up in OT? Take a look at the last play of the game again. Fits this thread perfectly.