Athan on UW game: "This is a really big game for us. We're gonna go play our best football."

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Randy:

A 5-6 record, as the Gophers have after their 37-3 loss at No. 2 Ohio State, will allow a coach and his team ample opportunities to assess on a macro level what's gone wrong. That, however, will wait for now because the Gophers want to drill down on the details that could help them beat Wisconsin in the regular-season finale Saturday at home.

"We've just got to know as a team that it's on the line right here," Gophers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis said of the battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe. "This is a really big game for us. We're gonna go play our best football."

What the Gophers' best football actually is has been a moving target this season. Was it their fourth-quarter rally against Nebraska in the opener? Or their 12-10 win at an Iowa team that just won the Big Ten's West Division? Lately, they have not been at their best, collapsing late against Illinois, surrendering 604 yards against Purdue and absorbing a beating at Ohio State.

www.startribune.com

Gophers vs. Badgers: U players grasp everything that's at stake in battle for The Axe

Quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis vowed the Gophers would play "their best football" against Wisconsin and another player put the stakes of the game in blunt terms: "We've got one week guaranteed left."
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go gophers!!
 



Kaliakmanis needs to improve his accuracy, touch, pocket presence. He sometimes looks uncertain, hesitant, and even a little lost. He badly needs a shot of confidence.

I'd love to see him play as well as he did last season vs. Wisconsin. If he does, we have an excellent chance to win this game. If we win, we'll go to a bowl game — and Athan will have yet another opportunity to grow.
 



I hope beyond hopes he has a great game this weekend. If it goes poorly we need to move on from him as a starter asap, there's too much to fix.
 


I mean … he did play really well against them last year???

🙃
 




Good to see ya Murray.


I mainly brought that up to show what a disappointment it has been from what we all thought would be a season worth of him playing like that.

I guess if you’re going to save it for one game, this would be it (again). Obviously didn’t for Iowa.
 

MplsGopher said:
Good to see ya Murray.


I mainly brought that up to show what a disappointment it has been from what we all thought would be a season worth of him playing like that.

I guess if you’re going to save it for one game, this would be it (again). Obviously didn’t for Iowa.
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I see what you're saying, and agree (to a point).

But Minnesota is one of only two teams to beat Iowa this season, and the only team to beat them at Kinnick. The Hawkeyes are currently ranked #17 in the nation. That's a pretty good showing by the Gophers; a bright spot in a disappointing year.
 

And a poor performance for AK throwing the ball.

Windy and drops, yes. Drops all season long. Cursed

It’s incredible how anti-complimentary this team is at times. Offense defense but also the passing game in general with drops and skip/just plain bad passes. Rare that they both heat up/sync up at the same time.
 

MplsGopher said:
And a poor performance for AK throwing the ball.

Windy and drops, yes. Drops all season long. Cursed

It’s incredible how anti-complimentary this team is at times. Offense defense but also the passing game in general with drops and skip/just plain bad passes. Rare that they both heat up/sync up at the same time.
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Absolutely true.
 




From a long ways away...he seems like the kind of guy who if he is going to put pressure on himself is going to play worse. "Really big game for us". What about the others before this one?
Don't tell me, show me.
 

Real simple. We need something almost never seen this year: offense and defense must both both play well in the same game. STs? We've got Dragan, which is a big positive. But the first time the Gophs beat WI in a decade and a half (PJ at the wheel), our kick return team had a good game, too: Demetrius Douglas's 69-yard punt return for a TD was a backbreaker for WI. But PJ doesn't do punt or kick returns anymore--and if you don't do something all season, there is no sense starting in the final game. This year's "return" teams aren't mentally conditioned for returns, and have no meaningful experience blocking for them.
 

RememberMurray said:
Kaliakmanis needs to improve his accuracy, touch, pocket presence. He sometimes looks uncertain, hesitant, and even a little lost. He badly needs a shot of confidence.

I'd love to see him play as well as he did last season vs. Wisconsin. If he does, we have an excellent chance to win this game. If we win, we'll go to a bowl game — and Athan will have yet another opportunity to grow.
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And how to deal with pressure/ blitzes.

Teams come after him and there’s virtually no bad consequences for them … it is no secret. Blitz AK and you’ll be rewarded… :(
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
And how to deal with pressure/ blitzes.

Teams come after him and there’s virtually no bad consequences for them … it is no secret. Blitz AK and you’ll be rewarded… :(
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Yes, I agree. It seems to rattle him. I don't know if he's very good at pre-snap reads. He often seems to be caught flat-footed and unaware of the impending pressure.

That's something for Kaliakmanis and the coaches to work on.
 

The problem with the OP statements is: Will Kaliakmanis best be good enough to win?

In all honesty, his best, this year, seems worse than last year. I can only contribute this to poor coaching.
 

FinnGopher said:
The problem with the OP statements is: Will Kaliakmanis best be good enough to win?

In all honesty, his best, this year, seems worse than last year. I can only contribute this to poor coaching.
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If Kaliakmanis throws a bounce pass at a receiver's feet, or 5 feet over his head, or a receiver drops a catchable ball... it's all on the coaching?

The coach should have told them: Don't bounce the pass. Don't sail the pass. Don't drop the ball.

I'll give you this: Kailiakmanis needs serious work on his reads and his mechanics, and those are things the coaches should be able to help him improve. No question.
 

RememberMurray said:
If Kaliakmanis throws a bounce pass at a receiver's feet, or 5 feet over his head, or a receiver drops a catchable ball... it's all on the coaching?

The coach should have told them: Don't bounce the pass. Don't sail the pass. Don't drop the ball.

I'll give you this: Kailiakmanis needs serious work on his reads and his mechanics, and those are things the coaches should be able to help him improve. No question.
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It's especially unforgiveable for AK to not hit one of his two route runners on third and eight when we need two tight ends on the field to try to stop the pressure because the other guys suspect we might have to pass.
 

FinnGopher said:
The problem with the OP statements is: Will Kaliakmanis best be good enough to win?

In all honesty, his best, this year, seems worse than last year. I can only contribute this to poor coaching.
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AK has had plenty of good play calls that he missed.

I talked about blitzing in an earlier post. Late in the Illinois game, AK had a quick pass to the TE as an out to avoid the blitz... game winning pass if he makes it ... he missed his target ...

That play call was perfect for what the defense did, dude was open. At some point players have to make the play. PJ & Co can't go throw the ball for him.
 

mngg11 said:
I hope beyond hopes he has a great game this weekend. If it goes poorly we need to move on from him as a starter asap, there's too much to fix.
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You don't give up on him until you for sure have a better option on the roster. AK has had a very frustrating up and down season but he is not a finished product yet and tough to say how much he will improve during the off season when he can go back and really look at where he struggled this year and focus on improving those aspects of his game.

I won't be shocked if they explore transfer QB options in the off season but the question will be what is available to us on the QB market. We won't be able to land the can't miss guys meaning we will be looking at that second tier which yields guys like Tanner Mordecai and other middle of the road options.

Going to make for an interesting off season. But that is all for a later day. Team needs to pull themselves together for one great effort against the Badgers and do everything possible to make sure the Axe stays in Minnesota where it belongs.
 

I think the best plan at QB is to work with Kaliakmanis. He has a lot of talent. He seems like a great kid who really wants to get better.

Work with him, help him.

If he can QB the Gophers to another win over Wisconsin and then engineer a victory in a bowl game, it would do wonders for Athan's confidence.

I still have high hopes for him.
 

RememberMurray said:
I think the best plan at QB is to work with Kaliakmanis. He has a lot of talent. He seems like a great kid who really wants to get better.

Work with him, help him.

If he can QB the Gophers to another win over Wisconsin and then engineer a victory in a bowl game, it would do wonders for Athan's confidence.

I still have high hopes for him.
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You are one positive dude god bless ya. 8’s QBR is 151st in college football for QBs that have played this year. We gotta hope our young fellas coming up have game he hasn’t earned anyone’s trust and frankly him being the anointed one these past two years has probably hurt his development. Last year post the Wisconsin game until the UNC game this year I was all in……
 

Gopherchase said:
You are one positive dude god bless ya. 8’s QBR is 151st in college football for QBs that have played this year. We gotta hope our young fellas coming up have game he hasn’t earned anyone’s trust and frankly him being the anointed one these past two years has probably hurt his development. Last year post the Wisconsin game until the UNC game this year I was all in……
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This season was not good, no question. That said, I personally don't think it would be wise to proceed as though there's no chance he'll ever improve.

If you were previously "all in" on Kaliakmanis, I have to assume you had some good reasons to feel that way at one time. Maybe quick, knee-jerk reactions aren't always the best.
 

RememberMurray said:
This season was not good, no question. That said, I personally don't think it would be wise to proceed as though there's no chance he'll ever improve.

If you were previously "all in" on Kaliakmanis, I have to assume you had some good reasons to feel that way at one time. Maybe quick, knee-jerk reactions aren't always the best.
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Two months of bad play isn’t knee jerk. I’ve seldom seen poor QB play like this go back and watch the NC game again yikes. 151st in QBR.
 

RememberMurray said:
I think the best plan at QB is to work with Kaliakmanis. He has a lot of talent. He seems like a great kid who really wants to get better.

Work with him, help him.

If he can QB the Gophers to another win over Wisconsin and then engineer a victory in a bowl game, it would do wonders for Athan's confidence.

I still have high hopes for him.
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They have either worked with him the past year and it hasn’t taken or those working with him are not good enough. Something has to be changed.

Bringing in a transfer to compete for the job makes most sense. In the meantime the work with AK continues.
 



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