Shama: Fans are often impatient but Gophers’ redshirt sophomore QB Athan Kaliakmanis deserves understanding.

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Shama:

Fans are often impatient but Gophers’ redshirt sophomore QB Athan Kaliakmanis deserves understanding. Going back to his junior year of high school in Illinois he missed part of the schedule because of injury. COVID dictated a reduced senior season schedule in the spring of 2021. That fall he redshirted with the Gophers before getting five starts in 2022. A starter in 10 games this season, Kaliakmanis is working under his third offensive coordinator in three years.

Recall that Bo Nix was a struggling quarterback for Auburn when the Gophers won the 2020 Outback Bowl. Fast forward to this fall when Nix, now playing for Oregon, has started more college games at QB than any collegian ever and is forecasted as an NFL first round draft choice.


Go Gophers!!
 


I hope he turns into the next Steve Montana.


But his struggles with the “easy” passes…. And seeming inability to read the defense at all? It doesn’t make me hopeful. With AK it seems like there is just too much ground to make up.

Even successful passes seem often off or late.

The pass to win in the Illinois game….

This year a better quarterback would’ve been worth at least two wins…. And more convincing wins that we already had.

In gopher history I’ve almost always backed the QB, but I dunno here. I just have a hard time seeing the light at the end of the QB tunnel in this case.
 
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I’m not convinced. You can usually see the growth, the “it” factor. Not sure he has that. Makes a lot of mistakes that he shouldn’t. Lots of potential though so I can understand the thought.
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Shama:

Fans are often impatient but Gophers’ redshirt sophomore QB Athan Kaliakmanis deserves understanding. Going back to his junior year of high school in Illinois he missed part of the schedule because of injury. COVID dictated a reduced senior season schedule in the spring of 2021. That fall he redshirted with the Gophers before getting five starts in 2022. A starter in 10 games this season, Kaliakmanis is working under his third offensive coordinator in three years.

Recall that Bo Nix was a struggling quarterback for Auburn when the Gophers won the 2020 Outback Bowl. Fast forward to this fall when Nix, now playing for Oregon, has started more college games at QB than any collegian ever and is forecasted as an NFL first round draft choice.


Go Gophers!!
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Nix was the struggling qb for a terrible offensive system. Getting to go to the qb friendly system at Oregon is wildly different than just staying in a system
 


"understanding" sure.. I understand he hasn't improved at all and shows little accuracy or touch and those are the two things that QBs rarely make a huge jump on
 

upnorthkid said:
Nix was the struggling qb for a terrible offensive system. Getting to go to the qb friendly system at Oregon is wildly different than just staying in a system
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Nix also was a beast in home games.

Oregon ain’t picking up AK.
 


NotAFanOfBecky said:
I’m not convinced. You can usually see the growth, the “it” factor. Not sure he has that. Makes a lot of mistakes that he shouldn’t. Lots of potential though so I can understand the thought.
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Yeah, usually there’s some great plays or reads that make you think “oh man if he could do that more”… I can’t think of any of those for AK….

I think of Streveler, and he was running a gunning. He was dangerous but you could see where his style would work.
 
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kg21 said:
We need wide receiver talent so bad I could cry. It rarely gets talked about.
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Agreed. If you were a talented WR would you come here to this system as you see it? I think we all know the answer. I’d really be recruiting the height/speed under recruited type and hope you hit on some so they could create some mismatches. Daniel Jackson is good and I think Lemeke was good prior to getting hurt. Was thinking the speedy kid from Alex could make some downfield threat. Haven’t seen him this year.
 

According to former Arkansas coach, Houston Nutt, the Qb coming in is the real deal. Let’s hope, I don’t think AK has the “it” factor. I do feel for him as his high school career was screwed by Covid tho.
 



Gopher Ally said:
According to former Arkansas coach, Houston Nutt, the Qb coming in is the real deal. Let’s hope, I don’t think AK has the “it” factor. I do feel for him as his high school career was screwed by Covid tho.
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Injuries and Covid but if I’m not mistaken in January he will be starting his fourth year here on campus.
 

Reasonable take. Anyone expecting him to come in this year and be better than Tanner was delusional. Tanner was the best QB that Minnesota has had in my lifetime. There was going to be a big drop off. This isn't a surprise.

The only person that should be apologizing is Charlie 'Athan is a generational talent' Walters. What a moron. Anyone that had watched him play could see this coming.
 

Some guy said:
Also being 23 is different than being 19
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He is 20 but point taken. Also, in addition to getting better with age. Nix changed coaches. Is our coaching not meshing with AK8 or does he just not have the capacity?
I'd like to see something change.
 

60's Guy said:
He is 20 but point taken. Also, in addition to getting better with age. Nix changed coaches. Is our coaching not meshing with AK8 or does he just not have the capacity?
I'd like to see something change.
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I was comparing 2019’Bo Nix to today
 

AK is not the answer. PJ has yet to get a difference maker at the QB spot in 7 years. We can complain about our offence and defense, but when you are limited at the spot that touches the ball the most it does not translate to championship football. It is frustrating to say the least....but....until we start to spend money like other programs do we will not compete at the top level.

Minnesota has 15 fortune 500 companies, there is money in this state but Minnesota's ideologies as a whole do//does not translate to winning in sports. Minnesotans complain when winning(Must be cheating) and complain when losing(fire the coaches) Bottom line is until we put money down and support the teams and treat it like a business like other top programs do, we will be stuck with mediocracy.
 

upnorthkid said:
Nix was the struggling qb for a terrible offensive system. Getting to go to the qb friendly system at Oregon is wildly different than just staying in a system
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I don't know where the "struggling" comes from. The guy won SEC freshman of the year that season. Did shama watch any Auburn football that season, or do any homework for the article?
 

GopherTheJugular said:
I don't know where the "struggling" comes from. The guy won SEC freshman of the year that season. Did shama watch any Auburn football that season, or do any homework for the article?
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He “struggled” on the road but yeah this is a classic …. dumb shama article.
 

TD12 said:
AK is not the answer. PJ has yet to get a difference maker at the QB spot in 7 years. We can complain about our offence and defense, but when you are limited at the spot that touches the ball the most it does not translate to championship football. It is frustrating to say the least....but....until we start to spend money like other programs do we will not compete at the top level.

Minnesota has 15 fortune 500 companies, there is money in this state but Minnesota's ideologies as a whole do//does not translate to winning in sports. Minnesotans complain when winning(Must be cheating) and complain when losing(fire the coaches) Bottom line is until we put money down and support the teams and treat it like a business like other top programs do, we will be stuck with mediocracy.
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Myth. You need competence at the position. The West is a QB wasteland the majority of years.

West division winning QBs (and remember the yards are all in 14 games with the bowl, just to give an idea on yards/game)
2014: Wisconsin; combo of Joel Stave and Tanner McEvoy throwing 13TDs vs 10ints and about 1750 yards
2015: CJ Beatherd; had a solid season throwing for 17TDs vs 5ints and about 2800 yards. Iowa's last good offense
2016: Wisconsin; Alex Hornibrook and Bart Houston throw for 14 TDs and 10ints and 2500 yards
2017: Wisconsin; Hornibrook better this year with 25TDs 2600 yards but 15picks
2018: NW; Clayton Thorson with 17TDs vs 15Ints and 3200 yards; did add in 9 rushing TDs but there's a reason this team finished 9-5
2019: Wisconsin; Jack Coan with 18TDs and 5 Ints with 2700 yards
2020: NW Covid year; 12 TDs 8Ints for Peyton Ramsey
2021: Iowa; Petras and Padilla with 12 TDs vs 11Ints and 2500 yards
2022: Purdue; Oconnell with 3500 yards with 22 TDs and 13Ints; probably the only season where the QB carried the team.
2023: Iowa will win the division with 2 guys who have thrown 8TDs and 8Ints with 1200 yards through 10 games

It takes competence and we haven't had that when it's mattered most. You don't need a superstar to have won the west but someone who manages the game and doesn't kill you. that's the part that makes it way more frustrating. We've had the running game and defense to do it the 2 years prior to this one and we couldn't put together even a mediocre passing game (12TDs, 9 picks with about 2100 yards each year) to complement it.
 
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GopherTheJugular said:
I don't know where the "struggling" comes from. The guy won SEC freshman of the year that season. Did shama watch any Auburn football that season, or do any homework for the article?
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yeah Nix has been a stud since he started. You could always see he had "it" in terms of the poise and ability to carry his team. No remote idea where the comp comes from
 


Athan is in his 3rd year at Minnesota.
He's OC's from recruitment to now:
  • Kirk Ciarrocca
  • Mike Sanford
  • Kirk Ciarrocca
  • Greg Harbaugh

He barely played as a high school senior.
Spent freshman year at Minnesota under Sanford
Spent redshirt freshman year with Cirarrocca
First year with Harbaugh

It's a timeline of changing OC's that only Adam Weber could love.

But hey, if the experts on a free forum are convinced he's done... let's give the ball to Drew Viotto, right?

That Lindsey kid can't sign until December.
 

hello-world said:
Reasonable take. Anyone expecting him to come in this year and be better than Tanner was delusional. Tanner was the best QB that Minnesota has had in my lifetime. There was going to be a big drop off. This isn't a surprise.

The only person that should be apologizing is Charlie 'Athan is a generational talent' Walters. What a moron. Anyone that had watched him play could see this coming.
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In 2019 Tanner had an 18/20 game and a 21/22 game. Think about that.
 

Dano564 said:
Athan is in his 3rd year at Minnesota.
He's OC's from recruitment to now:
  • Kirk Ciarrocca
  • Mike Sanford
  • Kirk Ciarrocca
  • Greg Harbaugh

He barely played as a high school senior.
Spent freshman year at Minnesota under Sanford
Spent redshirt freshman year with Cirarrocca
First year with Harbaugh

It's a timeline of changing OC's that only Adam Weber could love.

But hey, if the experts on a free forum are convinced he's done... let's give the ball to Drew Viotto, right?

That Lindsey kid can't sign until December.
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I don't think you can blame the OCs on firing a ball 100 mph at the feet of your TE or bounce passing the ball to your WR. His career completion percentage of 53% is mostly on him.
 
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Dano564 said:
Did he have any of those last year or in 2021?
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Goes to show what changes in OC and lack of NFL WR's will do for you.

Simon and Fleck need to be all over the Transfer Portal for WR's . We need a tall target to go with Jackson and Brockington
 


MaxyJR1 said:
Goes to show what changes in OC and lack of NFL WR's will do for you.

Simon and Fleck need to be all over the Transfer Portal for WR's . We need a tall target to go with Jackson and Brockington
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I mean Purdue threw for 3500 yards last year with one fringe NFL WR on that roster. Having a talented QB and a good system go a long way.
 

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