The reason Croft played, Kill said, is “we’ve got to have a backup quarterback ready to play. And we moved [Chris] Streveler to receiver, and that’s where he’s going to play.”
The amount of smoke ol' Jer tries to blow up our asses is really quite insulting, and he seems to do something like this most every time we lose. Who does he think is reading these articles?
Sure it is all coach speak and propaganda, but the reality is the staff is getting desperate and having trouble processing how horrible their offense has been. I think they had not idea how bad this would be, and they are shocked.
I think the problem they are not very good at coaching offense at the P5 level. The fact that Gentry clearly has "it" at WR, and they had zero ability to build what he already showed them, and rely on him at NU, or even allow him to make an impact is more evidence of how predictable, stubborn, and lacking in innovation this staff is. The fact that they had TE Hart, #45 lining up in the slot on "spread" formations tells me all I need to know about Limgrover. We allegedly have 5 talented young WRs plus Jeff Jones, who apparently needed to be moved to WR where he has yet to get a touch, and we are lining up a slow, walk on TE in the slot. My lord!
I find this staff's handling of the QB position to be very erratic and frustrating, especially in light of their good results as a staff at NIU.
The Chris Streveler situation is especially frustrating and telling.. This irritation grows in light of the decision to bring in Croft in a bad spot, and meaningless spot at NU after the game was long lost. Back in 2014, when Streveler started at home vs. San Jose State the game was well in hand. Did the staff give any thought to letting Streveler throw some passes in normal situations? No, they had him run the ball 30 times. Sure we won the game, but what did that do for the development of a backup, something that apparently now is so important. This coaching staff did Streveler no favors.
The Chris Streveler story does not reflect well on this staff no matter what the true story is. Either they never should have recruited him at QB because he lacks Big Ten talent, or their ability to develop him, or even give him a chance to show them anything, has proven to be a total failure. The guy apparently works hard and is a good athlete, so this is a real mess, and it all falls on Kill and his staff.
I was not a fan of Nelson when he starting throwing passes in the dirt most of the time, but the handling of Nelson, Gray, and even Max Shortell have hall been suspect. Please remind me of why we recruited that kid McKinsey? from Kansas City who never played a snap and transferred as fast as he could? What was that, more bad talent evaluation or an inability to handle the players once they are here. I think this group likes to pretend they want a mobile, run first QB, but then they change their minds constantly about the personnel, then ultimately run the same stale plays regardless of the QB they pick to run the diseased plays.
I can now see why offensive skill position players with a big upside might not view this as a very solid place to commit to. The Jeff Jones situation, regardless of whether he can play or not, is not helpful either when it comes to PR and recruiting. At some point Kill just needs to put Jones out there and hand him the ball 20 times, and that will end the discussion for good, one way or another.
