What are our options at QB?

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LakevilleBro said:
Morgan was better than AK, MO was better than any RB we have now. Our TE production is poor.
Just because a player is a year older, does not mean that he will show improvement.
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Not sure Morgan was better last year. After he was back from injury Fleck continued to start AK. Or maybe you are saying Morgan and AK splitting starts last year were better than AK so far this year. If so, would agree.
 

hello-world said:
What makes you think this? The only time I’ve seen them head-to-head Cole was the better QB. He had a much better throwing motion. I don’t think it’s fair to compare a dude that gets one wildcat play a game to a player who has had 1.5 years of development and if anything is getting worse each week.
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In the two games before Michigan he completed like 80% of his passes with a 4/1 TD to Int ratio. He isn’t getting worse each week but he has had a couple bad games against top 15 opponents one of whom has a phenomenal defense that is shutting everybody down so far this year.
 

MNVCGUY said:
In the two games before Michigan he completed like 80% of his passes with a 4/1 TD to Int ratio. He isn’t getting worse each week but he has had a couple bad games against top 15 opponents one of whom has a phenomenal defense that is shutting everybody down so far this year.
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Ok, right, not fair to drop this comment after Michigan, but he’s shooting a water gun even when he has good days.

He’s not accurate despite his sometimes high completion percentage and he struggles to hit windows (as I suppose all underclassmen do)
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
I don’t really see improvement occurring is my concern… and honestly little upside to playing him too.

If he was a run and gun guy who you accept throws some picks in exchange for some other good play, I’d be ok with it.

But man I don’t see much benefit in exchange for the problems. Especially if you’re going to stare at your receiver forever and still miss them. That doesn’t bode well for improving.

Some passes he gets are the easy passes to build confidence, still not good.

I hope he blossoms into a great QB but at this point I’m not even seeing much upside.
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Slab, you are the voice of reason here so for you to call this out it says something.
He does look lost and I hate that as fans we went back to the type of lopsided loss that we had not seen in a long time.
I do think the pass plays seems to require too much time for Athan. He just kept back pedaling instead of taking three steps and firing.
I miss Kirk C
 

short ornery norwegian said:
well, AK looked good against Wisconsin and in the Bowl game until he was injured.

what has changed this year?
- rebuilt OL allowing more pressure
-new OC and QB Coach
-loss of Mo means teams are defending MN differently

in the end, evaluating HS players is not an exact science. just like drafting in pro sports. you get some right and you get some wrong.

the question is - if the Gopher coaches got this one wrong - if AK is not the long-term answer - then what do they do? for this season, I'm afraid they don't have much choice. options are limited.

but for next year, the choices are: stay with AK; throw the true FR Lindsey in there; or try to get a QB in the portal. I would be in favor of getting an older QB in the portal or as a grad transfer.

wild prediction: AK winds up at an FCS school just as Annexstad did.
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What changed, it’s so obvious and easy, Kirk Ciarocca. How did Tanner Morgan do the one year he didn’t have Kirk? He looked like a completely different QB. Athan’s numbers were very good the 2 games prior to Michigan.
 


PMWinSTP said:
AK played 7 games total his Jr/Sr years in HS. He is a raw talent right now and has nobody on staff with any experience actually developing a QB. Wisc and the bowl game were a glimpse of what he can do when a competent OC/QB coach is in place. Plus this offensive gameplan they are running is ridiculously predictable and simplistic.
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This ^^^^^^^^. Fleck can’t find anyone near as good as Ciarocca and Fleck is not a very good coach without him. The 2 years Ciarocca was gone we’ve had some of the worst offenses in the country. Hopefully we get healthy and see if things get better.
 

No options - just got to let it ride this season and see if AK develops. Transfer portal in the offseason to at least have an option outside of him if we need it. We didn't recruit hard at QB to ensure his commitment, but now we got to protect ourselves a little too.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
This ^^^^^^^^. Fleck can’t find anyone near as good as Ciarocca and Fleck is not a very good coach without him. The 2 years Ciarocca was gone we’ve had some of the worst offenses in the country. Hopefully we get healthy and see if things get better.
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Well at least one he found someone exactly as good as Kirk…
 

gopherdudepart2 said:
If they don't fix linebacker play on defense it doesn't matter how all other positions play. Our linebacker play on defense is atrocious right now and needs a fix. This is where games are breaking down. Hard to play team defense when you cannot get your linebackers to maintain gaps, or fill, or cover. There is nothing good coming from this group at all. As a position group they get a Zero. They need to find 3 that can run and take on a block. Linebacker play is non-existent. Missing Lindenberg and Lecaptain probably is year long effect.
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They were all Freshmen who got thrown into the fire due to injury.
 





I don't know if this mess is about Kirk leaving. On the one hand, the QBs didn't exactly light it up last year when he was here. On the other hand, from little I've seen of Rutgers this year, the QB Wimsatt looks to be at least serviceable now compared to last year when he looked like hot garbage.

We got to see first hand what an experienced high 4-star QB looks like last Saturday. What a difference.
 

What happened to our slant game? Why do we rarely (if ever) attempt a screen? Where are the attempts at a quick hitting pass to get AK into a rhythm?

We have zero identity right now in the passing game. Whatever we've attempted to do through 6 games simply isn't working.
 



Panthadad2 said:
I don't know if this mess is about Kirk leaving. On the one hand, the QBs didn't exactly light it up last year when he was here. On the other hand, from little I've seen of Rutgers this year, the QB Wimsatt looks to be at least serviceable now compared to last year when he looked like hot garbage.

We got to see first hand what an experienced high 4-star QB looks like last Saturday. What a difference.
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Wimsatt has improved, but his completion % is still only 51.8% this season, which is currently 4% lower than AK's this season.
 


Didn’t light it up last year … Wisc game???

We have someone on the staff who is and already has been a better play-caller.

That person called the Iowa game in 2021, where the offense miraculously improved.

Correct move would be for that person to call the plays for this year’s Iowa game.

Does Fleck have enough sense to make that correct move??
 


Panthadad2 said:
I don't know if this mess is about Kirk leaving. On the one hand, the QBs didn't exactly light it up last year when he was here. On the other hand, from little I've seen of Rutgers this year, the QB Wimsatt looks to be at least serviceable now compared to last year when he looked like hot garbage.

We got to see first hand what an experienced high 4-star QB looks like last Saturday. What a difference.
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JJ has the golden spoon. His Dad owns the McCarthy Ford dealerships in Chicago. He has had fulltime marketer/trainer since he was a little kid. His trainer got him an offer as an 8th grader from Iowa State when he was a little over 100 pounds. He Started at Nazareth as a Sophomore, in which his team was like Michigan in HS compared to the competition. He transferred to IMG, where a Michigan coach was working. He is accurate and trained.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
What happened to our slant game? Why do we rarely (if ever) attempt a screen? Where are the attempts at a quick hitting pass to get AK into a rhythm?

We have zero identity right now in the passing game. Whatever we've attempted to do through 6 games simply isn't working.
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Typically your slants go over the middle, right?

I’m not sure I trust our QB to throw into traffic over the middle. Vs anyone else maybe but Michigan….

First pass of the game was a simple short to the sidelines pass that should’ve been confidence building…. It didn’t work.

AK needs some confidence building passes for sure, unfortunately, I think he has been getting them already, just not building confidence with them.
 

Tommyboy said:
JJ has the golden spoon. His Dad owns the McCarthy Ford dealerships in Chicago. He has had fulltime marketer/trainer since he was a little kid. His trainer got him an offer as an 8th grader from Iowa State when he was a little over 100 pounds. He Started at Nazareth as a Sophomore, in which his team was like Michigan in HS compared to the competition. He transferred to IMG, where a Michigan coach was working. He is accurate and trained.
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It shows.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
What happened to our slant game? Why do we rarely (if ever) attempt a screen? Where are the attempts at a quick hitting pass to get AK into a rhythm?

We have zero identity right now in the passing game. Whatever we've attempted to do through 6 games simply isn't working.
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Michigan was crowding those short to intermediate slant routes fully knowing that AK would have no time to throw an accurate long ball.
 

Panthadad2 said:
Michigan was crowding those short to intermediate slant routes fully knowing that AK would have no time to throw an accurate long ball.
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I know I wouldn’t have wanted to play against that Michigan kid that had the club on one hand. One handed he was a human wrecking crew. Unbelievable. I think they also said he was a 19-year-old sophomore.
 

Tommyboy said:
JJ has the golden spoon. His Dad owns the McCarthy Ford dealerships in Chicago. He has had fulltime marketer/trainer since he was a little kid. His trainer got him an offer as an 8th grader from Iowa State when he was a little over 100 pounds. He Started at Nazareth as a Sophomore, in which his team was like Michigan in HS compared to the competition. He transferred to IMG, where a Michigan coach was working. He is accurate and trained.
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And don’t forget he gets to play in a hyper QB friendly offense
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
What happened to our slant game? Why do we rarely (if ever) attempt a screen? Where are the attempts at a quick hitting pass to get AK into a rhythm?

We have zero identity right now in the passing game. Whatever we've attempted to do through 6 games simply isn't working.
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Essentially got rid of the RPO and the slant was a play off the RPO. I don't know why we get rid of that play every 3 years.
 

It's kind of funny. There were people joking around last year about how long it would take fans to turn on Athan and start calling for the backup.... :)
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
Essentially got rid of the RPO and the slant was a play off the RPO. I don't know why we get rid of that play every 3 years.
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Two things seem different with AK from his Wisconsin game less than a year ago. One is the obvious sidearm delivery that is getting batted down by rushers.

The other is now when escaping pressure, he retreats rolling right and throws it out of bounds rather than stepping up toward the line of scrimmage where he can see the whole field. From there he could throw or run for the first down. Don’t know if that is him or coaches trying to protect him from injury.
 

Does Ciarrocca have a copyright on the RPO??

That was his thing, and now both times he has left we’ve ditched it to no avail.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
Essentially got rid of the RPO and the slant was a play off the RPO. I don't know why we get rid of that play every 3 years.
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Yes, complete mystery as to why they made the switch.
 

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