Rutgers has named Athan Kaliakmanis the starting QB. Rutgers QB Gavin Wimsatt, who started 18 games the last two years announces he's transferring

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Reuniting with his old coach seems to have made a difference. Winning the starting role tells a story, forcing your competition thru play to transfer sends a very strong message. Looking forward to seeing his results this fall.
 
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WoodburyTim said:
Just a sign of the times, that as soon as you lose a competition for the starting job you take your ball and go home.
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I hope a guy who lost his starting spot to Athan doesn't think he's going to find an FBS starting spot in the next 4 months. I don't think there's a lot of forward thinking on these moves.
 

Well, if Athan does better than last year, but our offense also does better with Brosmer, then we know that it was just a mismatch of skills versus the offense our OC wants to run. If we do better and Athan does the same, then we know that Athan's skills don't quite match the hype he has. If Athan does well and Brosmer does bad...well... it'll be a long season for us Gopher fans.
 



swelna said:
Well, if Athan does better than last year, but our offense also does better with Brosmer, then we know that it was just a mismatch of skills versus the offense our OC wants to run. If we do better and Athan does the same, then we know that Athan's skills don't quite match the hype he has. If Athan does well and Brosmer does bad...well... it'll be a long season for us Gopher fans.
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AK looked awful but maybe if there's a really simplified offense for him at Rutgers he will look better. I doubt it will be dramatic improvement but maybe some. Just don't ask him to throw any 4 yard passes.
 

BleedGopher said:

Go Gophers!!
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I wish Athan all the best with Rutgers. However, coming out of MN Spring practice last year we were hearing all these glowing reports about Athan and his progress and the sky was the limit. However, this picture says it all. This is Spring practice and you are wearing the green jersey with no contact. I think I'll reserve judgment until teams are throwing blitz packages at him or loading up the line to make him pass to beat them. Six months from now we will have all the answers.
 


WoodburyTim said:
Just a sign of the times, that as soon as you lose a competition for the starting job you take your ball and go home.
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Overall I agree with you but for certain positions I don't blame him. Teams don't willingly play backup quarterbacks. It isn't like a running back, defensive lineman, or wide receiver where they rotate you into the game.

I don't like, but I understand, why he would want to transfer. The easy answer is work harder and beat him out, but that just might not happen. Transfer to a spot where you can play.
 



Looks like we’ll be +5 in turnovers for that game.

Can’t wait 😆
 

Gophers1992 said:
I hope a guy who lost his starting spot to Athan doesn't think he's going to find an FBS starting spot in the next 4 months. I don't think there's a lot of forward thinking on these moves.
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Seems like the kinda guy Scott Frost would have picked up at UCF to help "out-athlete" the competition.

That being said, you gotta appreciate the irony here. Someone else comes in and takes his starting spot, so what's he gonna do about it...he's gonna go try and take someone else's starting spot and put them in the position he's in now....
 



Just play a cover three and leave all of the shallows open, he'll overthrow the short routes with 80mph fastballs all day. On a side note: I'll be the first guy to come in here and admit AK may not have been the problem if he lights us up. I just don't see it happening.
 



Out State Gopher said:
Reuniting with his old coach seems to have made a difference. Winning the starting role tells a story, forcing your competition thru play to transfer sends a very strong message. Looking forward to seeing his results this fall.
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He beat out a guy that was a poor fit for the KC offense. Not sure it’s that strong of a message.
 


schemes matter. If the athlete doesn't fit the scheme, the coach has two choices - change the scheme to fit the athlete, or try to change the athlete to fit the scheme. in my experience, a majority of coaches will try to change the athlete because they don't want to accept that their scheme doesn't work.

so I will not be surprised if AK does in fact look better or more comfortable in a different system.

to me, the real issue is this: when you are recruiting an athlete, you have to be pretty damn sure that the athlete is a good fit for your scheme. otherwise, you're just creating a potential problem.
 


#2Gopher said:
AK may be the better quarterback, but is there a need to announce now who the starting quarterback is going to be this fall? What if he gets injured over the summer, or something happens?
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Maybe wanted to have a clear cut leader over the summer and heading into fall camp for the players to raly around? Didn't want both of them to transfer out?

Will be interesting to see if the change of scenery changes AK's game. He is still young enough that he could improve but he was brutal for us last season.
 

Athan and PJ weren't going to work together anymore. That Athan was able to win the Rutgers job..... Best wished to him. Hopefully best for both programs. The issue to Minnesota fans is "does our system have the ability to be QB friendly". Athan looked terrible last year - just not sure this needed to happen the way it did.
 

Maybe Kirk can instill some confidence in him. AK never looked comfortable. Horrible body language, hang dog look.

He often looked decent to ok in the first halves of games then the wheels would come off in the second. Basically the opposite of what we saw with Tanner (usually). He also isn’t in the same zip code as far as short, mid, or downfield accuracy and fitting the ball into tight windows. Interesting Kirk is taking a flier on him. Maybe more going on than meets the eye. Showing up PJ?

We’ll probably know long before the NN game if he’s going to improve dramatically.
 


I think there was a weird mental glitch going on with Athan last year. Some of those throws were just strange. I hope he fixed it against everyone but us.
 


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