I've never understood the "Gray hate" that exists here. He's limited as a passer and not an ideal fit for Limegrover's offense, but the guy is a stud.
I fully agree with those who laud his playing within himself and not forcing throws.
"Hate" is pretty strong. My frustration with Gray is the intangibles. Yes, he's not a very accurate thrower. That's the obvious, most acknowledge that, even the strong Gray supporters. So my expectations are that, from a throwing standpoint he is what he is and that hasn't changed and it's not changing anytime soon. I can accept that, QB's miss throws. Max missed on a bunch Saturday as well, no doubt about it.
I struggle with his absolute refusal to stay in the pocket for more than a millisecond. Leaving a pocket set up for him to deliver a ball downfield to open receivers. Yes, one time out of 4 he'll scramble for 6-10 yards and it looks great. Against BT defenses with BT athletes, he'll get sacked much more often than not.
I struggle with him not EVER (seriously) looking downfield once he DOES break the pocket. He never makes slight movements to buy himself more time, other than the ONE time that Studwell and I noted in the UNH game when he slid a little away from pressure and completed a 33-yard pass to Rabe.
Lastly, I'm just frustrated with how much improvement we heard about through Spring Ball and fall camp and nothing has changed. I came into this season, knowing what he's capable of and hearing about this improvement, thinking we could have a QB that could shock the Big Ten, lead them to 7 or 8 wins (or more), and really put the team on his back. And instead we see the things we saw last year.
He's a Gopher, he's given everything he has to the program, and when he's under center I'll be pulling for him 110% and I think he can do some positive things. But I just don't see a QB. I just don't see it. Every announcer that does Gopher games this year says the same things; he doesn't look comfortable in the pocket, he takes a long time to go through his progressions, he's leaving the pocket before he has to, etc. When one of the only things you can say about your QB is that he's a good runner, that's a problem.
I would also be able to stomach it more if he were an elite runner, like a Vick or even a D. Robinson but he's not. I think some of our fans, on a scale of 1-to-10, see Gray as like an 11 or 12 when he's more like a 7 or 8.
That being said, if this were next year or the year after that, when the Gophers should finally have a veteran O-Line filled with upperclassmen and they are pushing people around, the offense would probably produce pretty well with Gray at the helm. But this year, with the line still in full blown development mode, I think they'll need to throw it to be successful and that's why I think Shortell is a better fit this year.
