Gophs open up about Gray: Point Proven.

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JackiO

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http://www.twincities.com/gophersfootball/ci_13605776

Gray readily admits that he pretty much isn't ready to take on the starting role.

"Everybody comes in as a freshman hoping to play," Gray said. "But being a quarterback is different. You've got to have time to learn the playbook, the protection and everything. You can't start off the bat."

Exactly why Gray hasn't started yet, and only been given one meaningful pass in the entire season.

Discuss.
 

Why isnt gray playing more

I agree that he shouldn't be starting, but if he is only a blown-out knee from becoming the starter, why hasn't he thrown more passes and played a little more in general. Granted, PSU and OSU might not be the place to give him experience, but it concerns me how little time he has seen on the field.

Is he that far from being ready to try a whole series? If so - ooooooh man, I hope Weber doesn't get hurt
 

I read this too and I like what I read for the most part. It gives me confidence that although the offense is looking bad/inconsistant right now we do still have a plan going forward.
 

nc2mn said:
I agree that he shouldn't be starting, but if he is only a blown-out knee from becoming the starter, why hasn't he thrown more passes and played a little more in general. Granted, PSU and OSU might not be the place to give him experience, but it concerns me how little time he has seen on the field.

Is he that far from being ready to try a whole series? If so - ooooooh man, I hope Weber doesn't get hurt
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It doesn't seem to me like he is oozing confidence with the playbook and everything that goes along with being a quarterback at the division one level, so that is concerning to me at least.

Also, did anyone read the section where Brewster states they would change the system to fit the player(reverting back to more spread) regarding Gray if he were to take over the team.
 

The whole "he's one play away from being in the game" argument is bogus. If he was intended to be used 1-5 plays per game, they should not have burned his redshirt. Period. He could have been prepared as the backup, and been dressed on the sidelines, but only enter if needed in the event of a Weber injury.

The only reason I can think of for wasting his redshirt season is that they think: a. he will leave for the NFL as soon as he is able, so the redshirt season is moot; or b. the guys behind him are better and he will not be starting by the time he is a junior or senior anyway.

If the coaching staff thinks neither of these things are true (which I don't, and I don't think they do either), they simply made a colossal mistake by wasting his redshirt.
 


If he still hasn't mastered the playbook on the eve of the team's eighth game of the year that's a pretty huge concern for the future.
 

Other than passing yards and YPG Terrelle Pryor is better statistically than Adam Weber in every category. Just something interesting I just looked up on the bigtennetwork website.
 

Gray will one day be in the spotlight, as Pryor is. Brewster said it's up to offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch and him to make sure Gray can be effective when that time comes — even if that means running more in the spread offense.

"Good coaching is making the system fit the player, not the player fit the system," Brewster said.

I really like that philosophy
 

dpodoll68 said:
The whole "he's one play away from being in the game" argument is bogus. If he was intended to be used 1-5 plays per game, they should not have burned his redshirt. Period. He could have been prepared as the backup, and been dressed on the sidelines, but only enter if needed in the event of a Weber injury.

The only reason I can think of for wasting his redshirt season is that they think: a. he will leave for the NFL as soon as he is able, so the redshirt season is moot; or b. the guys behind him are better and he will not be starting by the time he is a junior or senior anyway.

If the coaching staff thinks neither of these things are true (which I don't, and I don't think they do either), they simply made a colossal mistake by wasting his redshirt.
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I totally agree. However, we do not have any depth at the QB position and Alipate is already red-shirting this year so you have to wonder if that has played a huge role.
 



I won't bitch any more because I want to preserve my nuts so I can conceive a future Gopher qb. I will admit defeat. Gray says he's not ready, so he's not. I'm glad they burned his redshirt year because I love watching him run for 5 yards. Weber is the greatest. I love Brew and all the wins. Go Gophers
 

dpodoll68 said:
The only reason I can think of for wasting his redshirt season is that they think: a. he will leave for the NFL as soon as he is able, so the redshirt season is moot; or b. the guys behind him are better and he will not be starting by the time he is a junior or senior anyway.
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It's got to be B. Gray has a lot of work to do to prove he's an NFL talent, and I don't think he's in that class of athlete.
 

Khaliq said:
If he still hasn't mastered the playbook on the eve of the team's eighth game of the year that's a pretty huge concern for the future.
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Not too concerning considering Fisch makes it that tough to master (from the Star Tribune):
------------------------

One play can have several words denoting where the tight end lines up, what sort of formation the team is in and who is designed to be the primary receiver or ball carrier. It means Fisch gave his guys five pages of signs to learn, upwards of 500 of them.

"Every single word in the offense has a signal," Fisch said. "On some plays you'll need six, seven, eight signals."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/54429252.html?page=1&c=y
 

Take a look at our QB depth chart... We really couldnt redshirt Gray this year and have the chance that Weber goes down, then the starting QB would be Adam Lueck?????
 



TCarter#22 said:
Take a look at our QB depth chart... We really couldnt redshirt Gray this year and have the chance that Weber goes down, then the starting QB would be Adam Lueck?????
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What they're saying is don't play him unless you have to. Him taking a snap or two a game vs. him not having played a down isn't that big of a difference if Weber is knocked out. Brew always says that he'll play a true freshman if he can help the team win a game....obviously not the case in this one.
 

could have redshirted him until and unless weber goes out then sacrificed the RS. Not saying they should have, with Lueck the only back up, but could have.
 

upchurch said:
I won't bitch any more because I want to preserve my nuts so I can conceive a future Gopher qb. I will admit defeat. Gray says he's not ready, so he's not. I'm glad they burned his redshirt year because I love watching him run for 5 yards. Weber is the greatest. I love Brew and all the wins. Go Gophers
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I wasn't trying to prove a point just being a little sarcastic. But I thought this would help end the raging debate that has been going on around here for weeks now. And yes, Webber does suck but we will never know how good he could have been had he stuck with one coordinator and not changed his throwing motion. - did not intend to invite debate but it really is interesting to think about because obviously he is capable of playing at a high level. Just look at his red-shirt freshman numbers and you become dumb founded on how he has gotten to where he is today.
 

nc2mn said:
could have redshirted him until and unless weber goes out then sacrificed the RS. Not saying they should have, with Lueck the only back up, but could have.
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Can you do that? I always thought once they declared a redshirt there was no turning back. Any rules committee members out there?
 



TCarter#22 said:
Can you do that? I always thought once they declared a redshirt there was no turning back. Any rules committee members out there?
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http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=420
The term "redshirt" is used to describe a student-athlete who does not participate in competition in a sport for an entire academic year. If you do not compete in a sport the entire academic year, you have not used a season of competition. For example, if you are a qualifier, and you attend a four-year college your freshman year, and you practice but do not compete against outside competition, you would still have the next four years to play four seasons of competition.
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Basically the coach declares his red shirts at the start of the season, but they're not confirmed until the end. As long as the player doesn't participate in any games his red shirt is confirmed, if he gets into games then it doesn't. So yeah they could have red shirted him but then played him if needed due to injury.
 

TCarter#22 said:
Take a look at our QB depth chart... We really couldnt redshirt Gray this year and have the chance that Weber goes down, then the starting QB would be Adam Lueck?????
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Again, Gray could have redshirted, and stepped in when necessary if Weber got hurt. It's really not that difficult of a concept to grasp.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Again, Gray could have redshirted, and stepped in when necessary if Weber got hurt. It's really not that difficult of a concept to grasp.
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Yeah. Unless they intend to really work him in heavily the past few weeks to get him ready for next season then not red shirting him is pretty clearly a mistake
 

Old Gopher said:
He can't master a college playbook or read his own defense in practice but people are talking about him leaving for the NFL? I just can't believe what I read here most of the time
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Who said that?

And, for the record, there are plenty of players who went to the NFL as redshirt sophomores. Which means that, for whatever reason, they weren't good enough to see the field as true freshmen, but they were good enough to be pros by their third year.

Will this happen with MarQuies? Probably not, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. It has happened many times before, and will happen many times in the future.
 

Old Gopher said:
He can't master a college playbook or read his own defense in practice but people are talking about him leaving for the NFL? I just can't believe what I read here most of the time
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I think that was thrown out there as a remote possibility. I don't think anyone seriously thinks he's bolting for the NFL.
 

Khaliq said:
I think that was thrown out there as a remote possibility. I don't think anyone seriously thinks he's bolting for the NFL.
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The bottom line is people calling for Weber's head and inserting Gray were doing so out of complete panic and frustration while ripping on the coach's for not doing so when the reality of the situation was the coach's knew much more than the casual fan did. Which is usually the case.
 

JackiO said:
The bottom line is people calling for Weber's head and inserting Gray were doing so out of complete panic and frustration while ripping on the coach's for not doing so when the reality of the situation was the coach's knew much more than the casual fan did. Which is usually the case.
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I think the bottom line is that the cornerstone to this offense's future is troublingly behind the curve. Hoping to see Gray was in a way trusting that the staff had him ready to play.

If they do not then that's an entirely different problem and one with further ramifications for years to come.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Again, Gray could have redshirted, and stepped in when necessary if Weber got hurt. It's really not that difficult of a concept to grasp.
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Perhaps they didn't redshirt Gray because they thought he would be contributing more themselves, but he isn't quite as ready as they had initially hoped.

Plus you got Alipate as the same year as Gray if you don't redshirt him. That could have been a factor as well.

Also, I'm sure the whole thought process initially was having an offense that wasn't struggling nearly as much as it is. If this offense was clicking, they could probably do more things with Gray. But with so many 3 and outs, it makes it difficult to work Gray into the offense the way they wanted.

Last point, it is not all that alarming to have a freshman QB not ready to start and not 100% locked into the playbook. That's why you see so few freshman QBs starting.
 

Monty519 said:
Perhaps they didn't redshirt Gray because they thought he would be contributing more themselves, but he isn't quite as ready as they had initially hoped.

Plus you got Alipate as the same year as Gray if you don't redshirt him. That could have been a factor as well.

Also, I'm sure the whole thought process initially was having an offense that wasn't struggling nearly as much as it is. If this offense was clicking, they could probably do more things with Gray. But with so many 3 and outs, it makes it difficult to work Gray into the offense the way they wanted.

Last point, it is not all that alarming to have a freshman QB not ready to start and not 100% locked into the playbook. That's why you see so few freshman QBs starting.
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You're making a lot of sense Monty.
 

Gopher4life15 said:
Gray will one day be in the spotlight, as Pryor is. Brewster said it's up to offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch and him to make sure Gray can be effective when that time comes — even if that means running more in the spread offense.

"Good coaching is making the system fit the player, not the player fit the system," Brewster said.

I really like that philosophy
Click to expand...

I like that philsophy as well, now if Brewster and Fisch would actually do what they say and follow their own advice. Adam Weber was clearly performing at a higher level and more comfortable running a spread offense, therefore Brewster and Fisch should be giving him more plays to run out of the shotgun and spread.
 

Khaliq said:
I think the bottom line is that the cornerstone to this offense's future is troublingly behind the curve. Hoping to see Gray was in a way trusting that the staff had him ready to play.

If they do not then that's an entirely different problem and one with further ramifications for years to come.
Click to expand...

Cornerstone? I think at this point that Alipate has just as much of a chance to be our future cornerstone on offense as Gray does. Honestly.
 

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