Gray is What We Thought he was!!

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gopherinpain said:
If Gray makes an NFL roster next year (I personally think he has a good shot) what position does everyone think he is best suited for?
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Too early to say based on the one game so far this year. If I had to say based off of this one game however, receiver. Sure made a few defenders look silly on his run plays, and we know he can catch the ball.
 

gopherinpain said:
Andre was so open however, Q with a little patience and savy, could have lollypopped him a ball and still completed it.
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Well. . .Q started throwing the football before the guy slipped so that's not entirely true. McDonald was wide open and it was a bad throw.
 

Unregistered User said:
I re-watched that play about 4 times, and I think either McDonald gave up on the play, or thought it might be a different route. McDonald slowed up, no question. Someone in the chat room mentioned that he saw a coach run right up to Andre right after that play. I think if he runs through the route he has an easy walk in.
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That could definitely be too.

I only saw it once and it looked terrible but you never know what goes into a play like that.
 

Coolew01 said:
Rabe on 1st drive, under pressure in 4th quarter if he would of put a little touch on it might have been a td, another time wide open receiver again no touch
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Yep, forgot about the Rabe play, that was a bad throw. Good call.

The other throw in the 4th would have been a fantastic play by him. It'd be nice if he would have made that throw, but he deserves no blame for not making that throw.
 

It's not that you watched a different game, you were just incredibly quick to rush to judgment.
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That may be true but it is 3 Am and I am a little cranky and frustrated. I guess I was comparing him to gopher Qbs of the past a little. With Asad-Abdul Khaliq or Cupito we would have crushed tonight.
 


Gray = Joe Webb in the NFL.
 


To heck with the stats.

Gray was unsteady and he needs to be a ton better. He's our best player and we can't afford him to play just okay.

Leaving 7 points on the field after the first drive was hugely consequential for the game.

Not good enough!
 

Studwell55 said:
To heck with the stats.

Gray was unsteady and he needs to be a ton better. He's our best player and we can't afford him to play just okay.

Leaving 7 points on the field after the first drive was hugely consequential for the game.

Not good enough!
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Maybe understandable for a first year player or even a first year starter.
 



Gotta say, pretty disappointed in what I saw last night by Gray. I was hearing how much improvement he had made. Seemed the same as last year. Takes a quick look down field and if nothing's there, it's run time. I was hoping to see him use his awesome super power skills to run around to get more time to pass. Nope. And as mentioned, no touch on his passes.

Ok, that said, I am willing to stick with the kid. It was the first game. These are the the four games you need to work this crap out. Seemed to get a little better as the game went on. I hope he can settle down and learn from this.
 

I don't think we can make judgments on what Gray's year will look like yet.

1. First game of the year and a late night game in the heat a long ways from home
2. A lot was added into the playbook over this offseason according to coaches
3. Basically all-new receiving corps for him to build rapport with
4. Lots of foul-start calls to disrupt offensive rhythm
5. Early interception made him hesitant

I hope he'll get it together by the end of the non-conf schedule. I think it's too early to be saying he can't or won't be an efficient passer.
 

What I am about to say should be nominated for a Common Man preposterous statement...

I think Gray's issue is that he holds the football wrong. The ball is NEVER a clean spiral out of his hands. He's either holding it too far back or forward for his wrist action. I think he should adjust where he holds it and I think he's do much better throwing a clean ball. It's not that big of an adjustment, but it'd really help with his touch passes.
 

He missed Rabe on the first drive for an easy td, threw the int (tipped ball I actually don't mind that as much), missed Freuchte twice, missed a guy running wide oen down the seam (threw it to the other guy on the pass combo who was double covered for an incompletion), may or maynot have been his fault on the McDonald miss, and he made a poor throw to Barker that shoulda been a td, instead Barker had to make a stellar catch just to get the completion. And these are just the plays downfield that he missed. Let's not kid ourselves, Gray has to step up his game. This offense could be pretty solid if Gray can connect on some of these deep balls, they are going to be open.
 



btowngopher said:
He missed Rabe on the first drive for an easy td, threw the int (tipped ball I actually don't mind that as much), missed Freuchte twice, missed a guy running wide oen down the seam (threw it to the other guy on the pass combo who was double covered for an incompletion), may or maynot have been his fault on the McDonald miss, and he made a poor throw to Barker that shoulda been a td, instead Barker had to make a stellar catch just to get the completion. And these are just the plays downfield that he missed. Let's not kid ourselves, Gray has to step up his game. This offense could be pretty solid if Gray can connect on some of these deep balls, they are going to be open.
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Good post. If Gray hits some of these plays for TD's, our running game would have doubled and we crush.
 

Hopefully Gray just had to "knock off the cobwebs". He looked great after the botched punt return. If we see more of that this year, he will be just fine.

He did miss a few down field, and there was one in the flat (maybe Marcus Jones) that was wide open and the ball just sailed. I believe that one was in the 2nd half.
 

Can we all just take a step back and look at the big picture for a minute? Think about the game plans the first part of last year, then think about the game plan last night. Gray has developed by leaps and bounds over where he was at last year. We NEVER threw down the field in the ealry part of last year. Last night, they did not hesitate to take shots. To me, that shows development and the potential to be much better on offense.

Now, does Gray need to be more accurate? Sure. But the good news was that they were overthrows and not underthrows. I believe that as the season progresses, they will hit on some of these throws.

Bottom Line, we escaped with a win and that is really all that matters.
 

I'm not going to sit here and try to completely defend Gray's performance, but it is important to realize it was just one game. If this is as good as he plays all year, we certainly are in trouble. Let's just hope he was off his game a little tonight, and shows improvement going forward. Personally, I think the problem is in his head. When *&^!#*&^!#*&^!#*&^!# gets real, and he has to rely on instinct he seems to play better.
 

I think the team did great considering they played with a two hour difference in time zone, in the heat, on the first game, away, with nothing but pride on the line. They played with enthusiasm and skill. Gray performed fine. Yes, missed opportunities. It is so early for a Dad to be up with a couple of toddlers running around the house all week. Jet lag and father lag is a tough combination. Hopefully, he gets a lot of rest in the next few weeks and can keep up his schedule with success. Scholar, father, husband, athlete, person. The guy has a lot of roles to fill and he did wonderful last night, as in he won.
 

Gopherprof said:
Motivation isn't the issue. The issue is that he hasn't been able to correct the same problems that he's always had. His fundamentals and accuracy are really poor, and he has a hard time hitting a moving receiver at more than 10 yards deep. Most of his completions are underneath or stationary targets, i.e. the easy stuff.

I like Gray. He seems like a great leader, and I think he should be given a ton of rope this season, but this is really worrisome.

And yes, he did look less explosive. Could have been the heat.
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my thoughts exactly. He didn't make his reads very well and his accuracy was terrible. Best athlete on the field though. We need him to really step up.
 

gopherinpain said:
That may be true but it is 3 Am and I am a little cranky and frustrated. I guess I was comparing him to gopher Qbs of the past a little. With Asad-Abdul Khaliq or Cupito we would have crushed tonight.
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My thoughts exactly. If we had Asad playing we're up by 20 before the half.
 

Mentioned this in another thread, but will repeat. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gophers came out and threw the ball twice as much against New Hampshire just for the practice, because it is clear Gray needs it. Next Saturday is a game we should win going away, so hopefully they can work on the weaknesses of their game...
 

Sparlimb said:
Mentioned this in another thread, but will repeat. I wouldn't be surprised if the Gophers came out and threw the ball twice as much against New Hampshire just for the practice, because it is clear Gray needs it. Next Saturday is a game we should win going away, so hopefully they can work on the weaknesses of their game...
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Stop this. New Hampshire is much better than you think they are, and we have no right to think this about anyone right now. UNLV is a terrible program and we won by the skin of our teeth.
 

Gray had several HORRIBLE throws last night, and STILL threw for over 250 yards, and STILL completed more than 50% of his passes, and STILL had a 2:1 TD ratio, and STILL ran for 68 yards. There is plenty of room for improvement, but let's put things in perspective, people.
 

Unregistered User said:
337 Yards Passing and rushing. 57% completion rate. 2 TDs 1 tipped INT. (when he locked in on a receiver). Some bad throws, many good throws. 1 alligator arm play that should have been caught, 1 freshman WR giving up on a route or reading the wrong route. I'll take that all year.
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"many" good throws? sigh... Gray was dreadful last night aside from 2 throws.
 



Wow.... didn't know a 57% was even close to a good passing percentage
 



Normally I think the word "troll" is massively overused on this board, but in this case, Former Goofer and Firecosgrove are both ridiculous. You'd think you would at least pick names that try to conceal your bias.
 

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