BREAKING: ATHAN IN THE PORTAL

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Fleck certainty stuck with him during the good and the bad this year and was loyal to his quarterback. None of know what transpired after the season ended. What we do know, a tough talk perhaps needed to take place and he did it for the good of the program. Hoping that it works out for everyone in the end.
 


dbradford29 said:
Kramer will start in the Bowl game and shortly afterwards he's also entering the portal. Looks like PJ is doing a complete overhaul at the QB position.
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Wow.

Personally, if I were just trying to win as many games as possible at the U against a tough Big 18, I would recruit a couple of Denard Robinson types and do a ton of run-heavy read option with the QB carrying 15-20 times a game.

Maybe a philosophy change is coming. Or maybe just wants a fresh start.
 




Gopherchase said:
None of us on here have any idea whether the gophers football team has access to funds for specific needs.
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The market for proven starters appears to be 7 figures or close to it based some of the latest reports, safe to say gophers won’t be shopping in that department. They will need to take a bit of a flyer and hope it works.
 

dbradford29 said:
Kramer will start in the Bowl game and shortly afterwards he's also entering the portal. Looks like PJ is doing a complete overhaul at the QB position.
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And the sports gods will bless him with a golden arm for the day and he'll go 28-for-32 and 390, toss a couple TDs to BSF, and run for an extra 75 for good measure and then they'll look down from the cloud or castle or whatever it is gods chill in and laugh...just to F with us Minnesota sports fans again.
 



stocker08 said:
Maybe. Doesn't change the fact that AK struggled to make the easy plays quite often. Can't have a guy running point who struggles to make layups.
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The rifle over the head of the TE on a key late 3rd down in the Illinois game runs over and over in my head. There were many of those.
 

Wish him the best but he has no business as an FBS starting QB. Slow reads, slow feet, poor accuracy. As a backup sure or I'd guess FCS option at like an Illinois St or UNI.
 

Panthadad2 said:
The rifle over the head of the TE on a key late 3rd down in the Illinois game runs over and over in my head. There were many of those.
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That's the one that stands out to me. And it came on the heels of a great QB keeper call that Athan misplayed by not running straight forward for the first.

These are the kinds of simple plays that your quarterback NEEDS to be able to make. But especially those short throws. His mechanics are all goofy and it causes him to miss those throws constantly. I have to imagine if it were fixable.....it would already be fixed. But anyone who's watching can see that Athan has poor mechanics including a side arm release that makes his throws unpredictable.
 

Thats the best fleck can come up with? Neb brought one in and he sucked. Rhule running with what on roster he had instead.
 



as others have noted, the Bowl Game is looking.........interesting.

best case scenario is that they get either Taylor or Evans back and go heavy with the run game.

but - the QB rotation is now Cole Kramer, whose career numbers have 8 of 14 passing for 103 yds, 2 TD & 2 INT -- rushing 44-195 w/ 2TD.

the backup is Drew Viotto, who has taken a few snaps in the Spring Game and presumably works with the Scout team in practice.

Yee-hah!
 

Athan managed to beat Iowa and Wisconsin, yet he was overall a disappointment. The fans at large had moved on awhile ago, yet the reaction of the student section on Saturday clearly indicated they still believed in him. His time in Dinkytown was very strange. I wish him nothing but the best.
 

howeda7 said:
Not really surprising given we offered the NH QB. There's no reason he'd stay two more years to be a back-up. It's too bad it didn't work out.
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Nobody leaves because another guy gets offered. There are multiple QB's on a team. Guys expect that another guy will be offered and are willing to compete. There is something else going on here and I do not think it is positive. He has good potential.
 

#2Gopher said:
Fleck certainty stuck with him during the good and the bad this year and was loyal to his quarterback. None of know what transpired after the season ended. What we do know, a tough talk perhaps needed to take place and he did it for the good of the program. Hoping that it works out for everyone in the end.
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Yes Fleck was loyal and gave AK every chance available but pods told him after the season he planned to at the very least bring in competition and his job was not guaranteed next year. Going from heir apparent to not knowing your place is secure could have been enough for AK to take his talents elsewhere. Then again, maybe Fleck never did any such thing and hopes he pulls his name back out of the portal. Tons of possibilities here we’ll likely never know.
 


gopherjay said:
Nobody leaves because another guy gets offered. There are multiple QB's on a team. Guys expect that another guy will be offered and are willing to compete. There is something else going on here and I do not think it is positive. He has good potential.
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He was 151st in QBR rating this year. The kid will probably never play another FBS snap and on top of that. He knows that he sucked. He needs to go somewhere new for a fresh start. Maybe even take a red shirt year
 

stocker08 said:
That's the one that stands out to me. And it came on the heels of a great QB keeper call that Athan misplayed by not running straight forward for the first.

These are the kinds of simple plays that your quarterback NEEDS to be able to make. But especially those short throws. His mechanics are all goofy and it causes him to miss those throws constantly. I have to imagine if it were fixable.....it would already be fixed. But anyone who's watching can see that Athan has poor mechanics including a side arm release that makes his throws unpredictable.
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The mechanics causes the balls to sail IMHO. You can get away with it in high school. At the P5 college level it requires much more consistency and accuracy.
 

gopherjay said:
Nobody leaves because another guy gets offered. There are multiple QB's on a team. Guys expect that another guy will be offered and are willing to compete. There is something else going on here and I do not think it is positive. He has good potential.
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I couldn't disagree more. We can talk all we want about bringing in a QB "to compete." But transfer QBs don't choose a new school to compete -- especially those with one year left, like the one we offered from New Hampshire. Heck, maybe Fleck even told Athan he was bringing someone in to compete. But Athan is smarter than that.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Neither of them are FBS scholarship QBs today, so I doubt it.
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short ornery norwegian said:
as others have noted, the Bowl Game is looking.........interesting.

best case scenario is that they get either Taylor or Evans back and go heavy with the run game.

but - the QB rotation is now Cole Kramer, whose career numbers have 8 of 14 passing for 103 yds, 2 TD & 2 INT -- rushing 44-195 w/ 2TD.

the backup is Drew Viotto, who has taken a few snaps in the Spring Game and presumably works with the Scout team in practice.

Yee-hah!
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5-8
it ain’t great
Maybe in 2028!!
 
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gopherjay said:
Nobody leaves because another guy gets offered. There are multiple QB's on a team. Guys expect that another guy will be offered and are willing to compete. There is something else going on here and I do not think it is positive. He has good potential.
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This is all pretty new so we can't say for sure. But I think it's fair to say the most likely explanation is that between the kid from Arkansas and us shopping in the portal, he felt he was unlikely to be the starter next year and that's the biggest factor in his decision.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
as others have noted, the Bowl Game is looking.........interesting.

best case scenario is that they get either Taylor or Evans back and go heavy with the run game.

but - the QB rotation is now Cole Kramer, whose career numbers have 8 of 14 passing for 103 yds, 2 TD & 2 INT -- rushing 44-195 w/ 2TD.

the backup is Drew Viotto, who has taken a few snaps in the Spring Game and presumably works with the Scout team in practice.

Yee-hah!
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Yup.

I asked Gopher Hole yesterday who would likely start the bowl game at QB. I was told it would probably be Kaliakmanis.

Hmmmm... as it turns out, maybe not so much.
 

DarthGopher said:
The mechanics causes the balls to sail IMHO. You can get away with it in high school. At the P5 college level it requires much more consistency and accuracy.
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I mean....if you look a little closer.....Nuts had to make a 4th down TD circus catch on an overthrown pass (one play after another overthrown pass) in the Nebraska game.....or we would have been 4-8 this year.

I figured fixing his mechanics was going to be the offseason project.....but he's now been with the team for two. Coaches probably know that it's unfixable at this point if this is how his Gophers career ends.
 

Coaching staff should have brought competition in last offseason, big mistake on their part a transfer qb could have saved the season
 

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