Gray vs Shortell: Who ya got?

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mnsports255

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If you were the coach (obviously you aren't) who would you start at QB
a) against New Hampshire
b) the rest of the season

Final Question- would starting Shortell at QB and Gray at WR help improve the team?

Please give your thoughts and opinions! Cheers and go gophers!
 

a) Gray
b) Gray

I believe - despite overthrowing several receivers last night - his mobility gives us the best chance to win. I also feel like he probably has the best grasp on the offense. I don't remember a lot of "dumb" decisions from him last night...just poorly executed ones. And even then, he didn't totally blow. He was serviceable.
 


mnsports255 said:
If you were the coach (obviously you aren't) who would you start at QB
a) against New Hampshire
b) the rest of the season

Final Question- would starting Shortell at QB and Gray at WR help improve the team?

Please give your thoughts and opinions! Cheers and go gophers!
Click to expand...

To be blunt, I have Gray and Shortell. Yep, that about sums it up. Thank you.
 



Gotta stay with Gray at least for through the next couple games. He rebounded to play well in the 4th/OT so maybe he got things sorted out.
 

Gray played very well last night MINUS a few poorly thrown passes. His decisions were good... his mobility definitely help as I'm sure Shortell would've been sacked at least 5 times last night & Gray's ground game was solid.

His statline was also superior to Sherry's stats. I think it's just hard to try to forget those possible TD passes...

But you stay with Gray & hope the accuracy gets better because everything else is there in my opinion...
 

thailleagle said:
Gray played very well last night MINUS a few poorly thrown passes. His decisions were good... his mobility definitely help as I'm sure Shortell would've been sacked at least 5 times last night & Gray's ground game was solid.

His statline was also superior to Sherry's stats. I think it's just hard to try to forget those possible TD passes...

But you stay with Gray & hope the accuracy gets better because everything else is there in my opinion...
Click to expand...

Yeah, if he completes half of the 5-6 wide open ones he missed by a good 10 yards they probably win 35-14.
 




Anyone who answers either of these questions with anything other than a resounding Gray is either trolling or clueless about football. This is akin to asking whether the Broncos should start Manning or Weber.
 

mcrow said:
Yeah, if he completes half of the 5-6 wide open ones he missed by a good 10 yards they probably win 35-14.
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Yup, Gray just needs to work on his overthrows , but it could be worse! He could be under throwing which you know... would result in interceptions.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Anyone who answers either of these questions with anything other than a resounding Gray is either trolling or clueless about football. This is akin to asking whether the Broncos should start Manning or Weber.
Click to expand...

+1
 

Gray is still aiming the ball and staring down his receivers. He is not at Chandler Harnish's level yet. Let's hope he makes some huge steps up next week.
 



Gray should start, without question. And he'll start for the remainder of the season, or until he gets dinged up. That's a no-brainer.

HOWEVER.... I think we'd be in solid hands with Shortell. He's not nearly as "immobile" as some make him out to be. The thing is, what he brings to the table as a passer, would more than make up for him being a little slower on foot. Being twice the passing threat of Gray would open more running lanes for the RB's, meaning Shortell wouldn't HAVE to be that good of a runner. Truth be told, for much of last year, Gray's yards/carry was almost identical to Shortell's, with a smaller sampling size.

Gray is also a senior, and a team leader. I think that has a lot more to do with why he should/will be starting than him being any more skilled than Shortell.
 

thailleagle said:
Gray played very well last night MINUS a few poorly thrown passes. His decisions were good... his mobility definitely help as I'm sure Shortell would've been sacked at least 5 times last night & Gray's ground game was solid.

His statline was also superior to Sherry's stats. I think it's just hard to try to forget those possible TD passes...

But you stay with Gray & hope the accuracy gets better because everything else is there in my opinion...
Click to expand...


Played very well. Come on now. That was a poor performance. A 5th year senior had a better stat line than a true freshman playing his first game....impressive...not. If Gray had played very well we would have been up at least 2 TDs in the first half. His inability to execute the most basic throws early on kept UNLV in the game. If he connects with the wide open Rabe on the first drive he doesn't have the drive ending interception a few palys later. UNLV ends up getting all the momentum. Instead of us being up 7-0 with an impressive/dominating first drive we are down 3-0. A 5th year senior HAS to make those throws! He looked like the true freshman early on. The good news is that later on he improved but please don't say that he played very well. If that is playing very well then your standards are not set very high. As for the questions:

a) Gray, and hope that we score early and often so Shortell gets some reps.
b) Gray, hoping he returns to his IL/IA form
 

Not to diss Shortell or anything, or to say that M.G. is a world beater, but off the top of my head, Shortell's career highlights consist mainly of one of perhaps the worst conference loss in the history of the program, and two game sealing interceptions.

But yes, let us clamor for him to get into the game.
 

Benching Gray for Shortell would not solve anything. Do people realize the reason why 4-5 times we had a WR open behind the secondary? It's because the safeties were cheating up to account for Gray's running threat. Those were CB's on an island in 1:1 coverage. Insert Shortell and all of a sudden you have 2 additional safeties back there and the throw isn't so easy now.

This isn't an excuse on Gray. He made some pretty poor throws last night and if this team wishes to score some upsets in conference he will need to play better. However; Gray gives the team a dimension on offense that we haven't had for quite awhile.
 

You have to stick with Gray at this point but hopefully they can find a way to get Shortell some snaps as well, ideally in a blowout situation. Even with as big as Gray is, if you have a mobile QB you need to be prepared for the chance he may get hurt because he is going to take more hits then your typical drop back guy.

If Gray is struggling after the Western Michigan game then this question might have some legs but you have to give him every chance to get the job done. His ability to run is a huge x-factor for our offense.
 

Gray, Gray. He was aiming all night. Let him get into a rythym before benching him.

As an aside, last night felt a little like a preseason game with the number of guys who played. I know Kill says this is the way, but I have to wonder of the rotations will remain this deep all year. It seemed like they played 15 guys at WR & TE.

Update: 9 guys caught balls.
 

Of course you start Gray. This is an awful thread that i feel guilty for biting at.

The fact that putting Gray at WR was even brought up makes me wonder if the OP is Coach Brew.
 

johnnybb said:
Not to diss Shortell or anything, or to say that M.G. is a world beater, but off the top of my head, Shortell's career highlights consist mainly of one of perhaps the worst conference loss in the history of the program, and two game sealing interceptions.

But yes, let us clamor for him to get into the game.
Click to expand...

Yes yes yes... More people need to realize this. Shortell was not much better, in fact he was significantly worse. He had a few good throws against USC and people are basing his talent on that. He was terrible against NDSU
 

A. Gray
B. Gray

what did you see in shortell last year that makes you think he gives us a better chance to win?
 

mnsports255 said:
If you were the coach (obviously you aren't) who would you start at QB
a) against New Hampshire
b) the rest of the season

Final Question- would starting Shortell at QB and Gray at WR help improve the team?


Please give your thoughts and opinions! Cheers and go gophers!
Click to expand...


Hum? I wonder how Kill and Limegrover voted?

If you think you know the answer to this question you were wrong. That because it is a trick question, i.e. they didn't vote. Unlike the Friday morning quarterbacks here they are focused on making the team better and not wasting their time on this stupid question after one game. As coaches the question they are most likely asking is how can we help Gray become better?
 

MrGopher said:
Of course you start Gray. This is an awful thread that i feel guilty for biting at.

The fact that putting Gray at WR was even brought up makes me wonder if the OP is Coach Brew.
Click to expand...


MrGopheer, opening poster is a young kid who poses lots of good points on GopherHole (As long as he gets to bed early enough. :) In my opinion, I think that after just 1 game it is a little too soon to start this type of discussion.

BTW, I would answer with GRAY AND GRAY!!!

GO GOPHERS!!!
 

46Gophers said:
Played very well. Come on now. That was a poor performance. A 5th year senior had a better stat line than a true freshman playing his first game....impressive...not. If Gray had played very well we would have been up at least 2 TDs in the first half. His inability to execute the most basic throws early on kept UNLV in the game. If he connects with the wide open Rabe on the first drive he doesn't have the drive ending interception a few palys later. UNLV ends up getting all the momentum. Instead of us being up 7-0 with an impressive/dominating first drive we are down 3-0. A 5th year senior HAS to make those throws! He looked like the true freshman early on. The good news is that later on he improved but please don't say that he played very well. If that is playing very well then your standards are not set very high. As for the questions:

a) Gray, and hope that we score early and often so Shortell gets some reps.
b) Gray, hoping he returns to his IL/IA form
Click to expand...

I say he played well because the only thing that he didn't do was complete some could be TD passes. He was posed... only got sacked once, scrambled when he needed to & completed a lot of decent passes...

What last night do you think he didn't do well outside of the overthrown passes?
 

dpodoll68 said:
Anyone who answers either of these questions with anything other than a resounding Gray is either trolling or clueless about football. This is akin to asking whether the Broncos should start Manning or Weber.
Click to expand...

Well I guess I'm completely clueless (lol)! I have no idea as to who the best QB on the roster is but last night I sure as hell hope it wasn't Gray (joking....somewhat).

Come on man, he missed wide open receivers on multiple occasions?! Rule number one when looking for a QB is can he throw the ball? If no other QB on the roster can throw better than that then they should pull all of their scholarships and start over.

Should Gray be benched? I don't think so; even the best players are entitled to a bad game.
However; as I have stated in other posts, I don't know that we have the best player playing
because the starting position was never won it was appointed.

Now with that being said; this could be Grays worst game of the season. A game the gophers still
won. The gophers can still go undefeated and Gray can still win the Heisman so I won't get to caught up in one game.
 

"Rule number one when looking for a QB is can he throw the ball? If no other QB on the roster can throw better than that then they should pull all of their scholarships and start over."

My rule number one for a quarterback is does he win?
 

Gray is the quarterback. Anyone who thinks he's not is clueless. plain and simple. I could care less if Shortell gets a snap all year if that means Marques stays healthy. Next year he can battle our freshmen for the starting spot. If you want a chance to win especially in the conference Gray is that chance. Teams have to game plan around him and that gives a team without any other proven playmakers a chance. His presence makes it easier for everyone on offense. He never won the starting spot? Give me a break. Yeah Jerry Kill doesn't want the guy that gives you the best chance to win starting. Move in to wide receiver? How can people know so little about college football?
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
Benching Gray for Shortell would not solve anything. Do people realize the reason why 4-5 times we had a WR open behind the secondary? It's because the safeties were cheating up to account for Gray's running threat. Those were CB's on an island in 1:1 coverage. Insert Shortell and all of a sudden you have 2 additional safeties back there and the throw isn't so easy now.

This isn't an excuse on Gray. He made some pretty poor throws last night and if this team wishes to score some upsets in conference he will need to play better. However; Gray gives the team a dimension on offense that we haven't had for quite awhile.
Click to expand...

Great post all-around. People look at three missed throws rather than understanding the game. It is always nice seeing the perspective of someone who gets football rather than an emotional fan.
 

thailleagle said:
I say he played well because the only thing that he didn't do was complete some could be TD passes. He was posed... only got sacked once, scrambled when he needed to & completed a lot of decent passes...

What last night do you think he didn't do well outside of the overthrown passes?
Click to expand...
Staring down receivers, rarely checked down to his second or third receiver options, was hesitent to throw after the interception, miss reads - throwing into double coverage when others were open, more than just overthrown passes he was terribly inaccurate and missed even some very short passes, and on a few plays threw (incomplete) when he should have tucked it and run. I've watched a lot of Qb play over the years and MG's 1st 3 quarters were brutal. A posed quarterback stands in the pocket and completes those basic routes that they have practiced hundreds of times. They put the ball out where their receivers have a chance to adjust and make the catch. A posed Qb in the 1st half would have had us up by more than 2 TDs because he would have made the throws that should be made. It's a good thing that he finally woke up and started playing better or that would have been a horrible loss.
 

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