Official "Mitch Leidner is not a division one QB" thread

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Bob_Loblaw said:
Some of our OL problems exist because defenses aren't afraid of getting burned in the passing game. Teams stack the box to defend the run and then bring the house at our QB because they aren't afraid of the ramifications.

As far as the two passes. . . I agree with one of them. Holland should have caught that pass. The Maye one? He was absolutely assaulted by the defender and the pass was awful.

Mitch REALLY struggled yesterday. His decision-making was scary bad (including the run game). He looked timid, leaning back on every throw and he was incredibly inaccurate. His performance was unacceptable and I'm sure he'd be the first to admit it.

You can't blame the coaches. They tried everything. They tried throwing on early downs, they tried moving him out of the pocket, they tried swing-type passes.

I don't think you can blame the OL. Considering the circumstances, I thought Mitch had time.
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I think this observation is a little bit of chicken and egg. Until we make them pay, teams will sell out to stop the run, making it hard on our OL. However, I replay plays often to see what happened and we had a lot of O.Lineman not blocking anybody yesterday. I think all the shuffling has hurt OL continuity more than many (not saying you) fans realize. It was mostly bad Mitch, but he wouldn't have won that game in the past.
 

killme said:
I think this observation is a little bit of chicken and egg. Until we make them pay, teams will sell out to stop the run, making it hard on our OL. However, I replay plays often to see what happened and we had a lot of O.Lineman not blocking anybody yesterday. I think all the shuffling has hurt OL continuity more than many (not saying you) fans realize. It was mostly bad Mitch, but he wouldn't have won that game in the past.
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We ONLY won that game because of our D. They really played well and kept us in it the entire time. Mitch almost single handedly lost that game for us in the first half. If CST was healthy we would have been blown out IMHO.

Also, was it just me or was Everret Williams getting killed out there. Poock needs to start and play the majority of the snaps at MLB. Kid is a playmaker.
 


westcoastgopher11 said:
Offense can not leave the the defense hanging out to dry like this.

If Leidner can't complete a pass Limegrover/Kill need to make a change. This is really a shameful performance thus far.
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He may not be a good of great D1 QB but he is a D1 QB. I see he is list as a QB on the U of Minnesota roster and the last I heard the U is a D1 school.
 



Wouldn't You like to Know said:


We ONLY won that game because of our D. They really played well and kept us in it the entire time. Mitch almost single handedly lost that game for us in the first half. If CST was healthy we would have been blown out IMHO.

Also, was it just me or was Everret Williams getting killed out there. Poock needs to start and play the majority of the snaps at MLB. Kid is a playmaker.
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The entire offense was poor in the first half. I don't think we had a rushing first down or a passing first down until midway through the 2nd quarter.
Someone else made the point that Leidner threw the ball much better on third down when the Rams switched to zone defense (they were playing man to man on downs one and two). That made sense to me as some of his best passes were when the receivers got to an open spot and sat down. Leidner is getting better at hitting crossing routes and deeper outs, but he struggled at times with those throws on Saturday. He threw several nice deep balls, and was very accurate throwing to backs and receivers in the backfield.

I thought E. Williams played well, but I haven't watched a replay of the game (only in person from row 62).
 

Word said:
We don't need this thread.
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We don't need a new QB either. Mitch has been getting the job done so far in his career. Cobb hangs on to the ball at Wisconsin last year and at Illinois, Mitch is a hero. Did he not hit May with a perfect pass to set up our victory last Saturday? Was it pretty and did he play a perfect game? No. Our offensive line playing better and another target besides May will be the difference in his success.
 

WorkingMyTailOff said:
The entire offense was poor in the first half. I don't think we had a rushing first down or a passing first down until midway through the 2nd quarter.
Someone else made the point that Leidner threw the ball much better on third down when the Rams switched to zone defense (they were playing man to man on downs one and two). That made sense to me as some of his best passes were when the receivers got to an open spot and sat down. Leidner is getting better at hitting crossing routes and deeper outs, but he struggled at times with those throws on Saturday. He threw several nice deep balls, and was very accurate throwing to backs and receivers in the backfield.

I thought E. Williams played well, but I haven't watched a replay of the game (only in person from row 62).
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You're kidding right? He missed RS by 8 yards on a little dump off. ML is jut too inconsistent, his ball to Maye was beautiful but don't say that he was accurate. That is a Joke.
 

Are you talking about the play when he rolled out to his left and missed the tight end who was crossing the field with him? Yes that was a bad miss.
 



One thing I've wondered about (and I am a huge Mitch fan) is whether he has a mild form of the "Yips". I've seen it in a variety of sports and if you don't get a handle on it, your shelf life is greatly reduced. If you are able to change your technique or work through it; you can get back to the top of your game.

I don't know, I think as we get more games behind us, it'll become very apparent whether this thing will ever change or if a few tweaks fix things.
 

Wouldn't You like to Know said:
... but don't say that he was accurate. That is a Joke.
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I play a fair amount of poker, and one thing that's true about almost all poker players is that they remember all the bad beats, bad luck and bad draws while completely forgetting all the good draws and lucky suck-outs.

I think some people are becoming obsessed with every bad throw Leidner makes. You know who else makes bad throws? Every other quarterback on the schedule.

Leidner completed a lot of passes, and not just the touchdown to Maye. Don't let your rage froth over to the point that you forget the good stuff.
 

Urbandale said:
I play a fair amount of poker, and one thing that's true about almost all poker players is that they remember all the bad beats, bad luck and bad draws while completely forgetting all the good draws and lucky suck-outs.

I think some people are becoming obsessed with every bad throw Leidner makes. You know who else makes bad throws? Every other quarterback on the schedule.

Leidner completed a lot of passes, and not just the touchdown to Maye. Don't let your rage froth over to the point that you forget the good stuff.
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I have ZERO Rage for Leidner. I wish him the best as he is OUR QB and I am a Gopher football fan. Just don't kid yourself into thinking that he is accurate. I am all for your positivity but you lack credability when you state that he is accurate. Just watch the film. Does he make some accurate throws, sure, every D1 QB should be able to do that, it's sort of a prerequisite. Mitch is way too inconsistent and accuary is his biggest weakness. The kid has some stones though. Great 4th Q go ahead drive.
 

Urbandale said:
I play a fair amount of poker, and one thing that's true about almost all poker players is that they remember all the bad beats, bad luck and bad draws while completely forgetting all the good draws and lucky suck-outs.

I think some people are becoming obsessed with every bad throw Leidner makes. You know who else makes bad throws? Every other quarterback on the schedule.

Leidner completed a lot of passes, and not just the touchdown to Maye. Don't let your rage froth over to the point that you forget the good stuff.
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I remember all of the bad plays and bad luck during the 15 years that I have had Gopher season tickets. During that time I don't believe the Gophers had one even one QB that could be trusted to lead the team on a long scoring drive in the 4th quarter with the game on the line. Leidner has now done it twice during the last eight games to win against quality opponents. Because of it I will take him over every other Gopher QB during those 15 years. Croft may ultimately be the guy we have all been waiting for but everyone in GopherHole is just guessing about him at this point. Until I see Croft play Leidner is my guy and I am happy to have him. There are much bigger issues with the Gopher's offense than his passing.
 



Unfortunately, I can't help but keep bringing things back to our coaching/playcalling. Can our coaches really not get Mitch to throw the ball accurately 4 yards down field? I can already think of two plays off the top of my head where we were at 3rd and 3 or 4 and Mitch completely misses white open targets 4-5 yards downfield...I have also had at least 1 or 2 times per game it seems for about 2 years now that I can't help but say "Why the F did we just run that play in that situation?" We are going to lose our offensive recruits here if we don't pick it up or at least show some signs of progression. Yes, our D is great which is fine and dandy but no defensemen wants to come work their tail off just to have a terrible offense. Yes, terrible.
 

westcoastgopher11 said:
Offense can not leave the the defense hanging out to dry like this.

If Leidner can't complete a pass Limegrover/Kill need to make a change. This is really a shameful performance thus far.
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I could be wrong but I think Mitch is 10-7 as a starter. That would mean he has lost to OSU, TCU twice, and Wisconsin. Illinois too. Don't know the others. Whats the problem? Give the kid a few more games.
 

Mitch had an awful game and I do think coaches should have considered trying someone else at QB Saturday. To be fair, though, the WR's are a major problem with the offense so far. How many drops do they have through 2 games? I'm almost positive it's over 10. 15? Even 10 is way too high of a number. They had some God awful drops on Saturday, most of which seemed to be on key plays that would have resulted in a first down or decent gain and could have completely changed things for the offensive rhythm. The fact it's happening so consistently is going to be a confidence killer in any QB, especially one who does have some errant throws. You could clearly see a couple times on drops this past weekend that Mitch was visibly frustrated.

I do agree that Mitch hasn't been good, but when you have an O-line that can't protect him and receivers that consistently drop very catchable balls the QB is going to be frustrated and struggle.
 

I'm no fan of Mitch(the player) but I think it is pretty obvious coach Kill doesn't think any of the other QB's on the roster could do any better at this point in time. If he did, he would be giving that qb at least some snaps during the game. Strevelar gets one or two snaps and that's it.

I've heard it mentioned that Croft needs to develop more physically. I believe they just don't want to burn his redshirt unless absolutely necessary. My guess is Croft takes over at some point next year.
 

Spirals do make it a helluva lot easier to catch..... just saying.
 


Maybe we need to look at new QB & WR coaches. Players at those positions never seem to improve.
 

JoeDirt said:
Maybe we need to look at new QB & WR coaches. Players at those positions never seem to improve.
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I have been going to the open practice since Kill arrived and I can tell you the difference in our WR from those early years and now is like night and day. There was so many fewer dropped balls now. What I really find encouraging now is how they are starting to position themselves and to fight for the ball. There a young group and there is no question in my mind that we will start to see the improvement this year. Kill had a very good passing game at Northern Illinois and he is working hard on achieving it here. He had a few set back with academic and behavioral problems with players that have left but is in the process of righting the ship. All this takes time and unfortunately many fan lack the patience that is required for this to happen.
 

GopherOhana said:
Streveler was our QB for the San Jose State game last year. 1-7-1 for 7 yds
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I bet if you watch the game film over again, 5 of those passes were on 3rd down, meaning they only let him pass in the worst possible situations.

How does that help a young QB? This coaching staff has no clue on how to help the QBs get comfortable.
 

Official "Mitch Leidner is not a division one QB" thread

I want a QB that can hit his running back on a dump off when given two chances in a row. That's all. I don't ask for much.
 

Stuff said:
Mitch seems more comfortable in the hurry up offense.
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He's horrific when the gameplay is slow and he actually has to think about things. He's serviceable when he doesn't think, and just reacts.
 

bemidjigopher said:
Agreed but I'd switch one and two. The key with Mitch is getting him in rythem. The first 15-20 plays are scripted. Maybe script four or five quick ones in a row for Mitch to get him going
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Agreed...and/but maybe those scripted plays could use some major improvement. I'm still not sure how many dive runs one needs to script beforehand.
 

Wouldn't You like to Know said:


We ONLY won that game because of our D. They really played well and kept us in it the entire time. Mitch almost single handedly lost that game for us in the first half. If CST was healthy we would have been blown out IMHO.

Also, was it just me or was Everret Williams getting killed out there. Poock needs to start and play the majority of the snaps at MLB. Kid is a playmaker.
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I don't think that's correct. While the defense did play quite well and keep us in the game while the offense struggled mightily, the fact remains we don't win the game unless the offense puts up more points than CSU. I don't recall the defense scoring any points at all. Now I would agree that had the offense played well from the start, this would have been a comfortable win. I'd have to call it a team win.
 

cncmin said:
He's horrific when the gameplay is slow and he actually has to think about things. He's serviceable when he doesn't think, and just reacts.
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I would venture it has way more to do with the play calls during the hurry up than if Mitch has time to think or not. Look at the passes on that final regulation drive against CSU - other than the TD pass to Maye they were all short/quick-out passes. Doing drop backs and waiting for a WR to get downfield isn't working right now with this OL and ML7's accuracy. Both could improve, but I expect this team to be stretching the field little to none when the B1G games start.
 

Spoofin said:
I would venture it has way more to do with the play calls during the hurry up than if Mitch has time to think or not. Look at the passes on that final regulation drive against CSU - other than the TD pass to Maye they were all short/quick-out passes. Doing drop backs and waiting for a WR to get downfield isn't working right now with this OL and ML7's accuracy. Both could improve, but I expect this team to be stretching the field little to none when the B1G games start.
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I can't disagree with any of that.
 


Spoofin said:
I would venture it has way more to do with the play calls during the hurry up than if Mitch has time to think or not. Look at the passes on that final regulation drive against CSU - other than the TD pass to Maye they were all short/quick-out passes. Doing drop backs and waiting for a WR to get downfield isn't working right now with this OL and ML7's accuracy. Both could improve, but I expect this team to be stretching the field little to none when the B1G games start.
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I would also add that I think the hurry up makes it harder for the defense to be aggressive generally. The defense loosens up and "plays on their heels" a little more which makes it easier to be successful with the short passes.
 

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