What letter grade would you give Mitch Leidner against Eastern Illinois?

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

I found myself missing Max Shortell tonight. And I mean A LOT.

Mitch was not good tonight. Studwell was right, he had maybe 4 or 5 good passes. Nice to see Strev get some run tonight, almost hoped it would happen a series sooner than it did but he really needs to get some reps.

Not going to panic over tonight's performance, not even a little bit, but if Mitch looks like this in Week 5 and/or beyond, this team is in deep trouble.

 

[Halsey Hall]

Gave him a D. Can't believe this is the guy who has been throwing to these receivers all summer. This is his 3rd yr in the system and I just don't see it. Leadership...smeadership. Let's give the Strev man a shot.

 

[Gopher028]

I don't disagree with you at all. I agree with all of it. I'm just saying have a beer. We won. Save some of this energy for when he throws 8 one-hoppers at The Big House. And I'll cool it too.

Beers for all my Gopher friends!

LOL....oh, I definitely emptied a case tonight. Over-all it was a fun night and it wasn't as nearly as close as 42-20 will show in the morning press.
A lot of good things, like our D, Cobb, Berk, our O-Line improved as the game went on, but...... this is a Leidner thread, and....damn.

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

I gave him a C+. He definitely didn't look poised at times and that's troubling. I don't get how some here think the D. Jones TD pass was horrible. He put it in the only spot where only Jones has a play on it. Where would some of you so-called experts want that pass thrown? Frankly, I thought it was one of his best passes along with the wheel route throw to Williams. But then again I never played organized football or coached like some of you apparently so what would I know.

 

[Big Ten Mind]

17 throws. How many of them were legitimately good? Four? Five?

He was probably pretty jittery. The TD to Jones was a bad pass.

Nailed it - C-...you can't hide your quarterback in college football

BTW, Eastern was awful and had to sell out to try to stop the run...not sure why Leidner didn't check out of those very obvious run blitzes but maybe he will as the season progresses

 

[Deleted_User]

It's a hypothetical score, dude.

I had no problem with your hypothetical score with the math. 4 td passes adds up to 24 points. Someone must think the extra point is automatic with our kicker, which I can believe.

 

[Deleted_User]

I was hoping that we would see more attention to the passing game last night. Really, only one receiver had any catches and the rest went to the TE and RB groups. I think we appear to have the same distribution of plays as last year with the same results. The good news is we have Berk in the backfield with some serious pop.

 

[GopherHomer]

I don't want to hate on anybody, but calling Leidner a DII QB is just stupid. He played terribly the first couple series (although, if Berk doesn't ham-hand his first pass of the game I think he might have scored on that play. There was nobody there to stop him). After that, though, he played fine. They were trying some different things...we could have gone to Maxx on every pass play and been just fine, but the coaches wanted to work things. Last year, people bitched that we leaned on our running game too much in the non-conference season. Oh, and our #1 receiver was out...

 

[oleboy41]

C is average. I said D. I have hope for his future but from watching the game he didn't really do anything particularly well. He has a few runs that we're nice but that's it. Missed a wide open Jones, threw a TD on a fairly inaccurate pass, most completions were screens or dump offs to wide open RBs or TEs and most of the yardage was from those guys running after the catch (which you want but required little from the QB). Whenever he needed to actually drop back and find an open WR he couldn't do it. Also never got us out of bad plays against the blitz or made them pay for blitzing him. I think he settled down once they ran him a bit but he has a lot of room to improve next week. Still love the kids attitude and think he has talent

 

[Sparlimb]

I was less concerned with the inaccurate passes (although they are concerning). He did seem to do better as the game went on of hitting a few (nice pass to Maxx hitting him in stride). What concerned me the most was the one fumble and the almost fumble on a sack in the 3rd quarter. In both instances, Leidner decided he wanted to make some special play by getting rid of the ball with 2-3 defensive players hanging on him. First time it was a fumble and the second time he managed to hold on. What we need more than anything is a QB who won't make those kind of mistakes any more. We aren't going to blow anyone good out, so we HAVE to win the turnover battle and not give other teams a short field. I like our chances if we can continue to make opposing offenses drive 80 yards every time. It's Leidner's ship this year, so hopefully he learns...

 

[dboy]

Gave him a D. Can't believe this is the guy who has been throwing to these receivers all summer. This is his 3rd yr in the system and I just don't see it. Leadership...smeadership. Let's give the Strev man a shot.

he's tall.. that's about it.. otherwise, he has no QB ability... did you see that lame duck to Maxx?... that was a 10 yard pass yet it wobbled like a pooch punt..

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I gave him a C+. He definitely didn't look poised at times and that's troubling. I don't get how some here think the D. Jones TD pass was horrible. He put it in the only spot where only Jones has a play on it. Where would some of you so-called experts want that pass thrown? Frankly, I thought it was one of his best passes along with the wheel route throw to Williams. But then again I never played organized football or coached like some of you apparently so what would I know.

It's a pick 6 of the corner doesn't slip. The pass shouldn't have been thrown at all.

 

[Gold Vision]

It's a pick 6 of the corner doesn't slip. The pass shouldn't have been thrown at all.

We needed to throw in a double move to burn those CBs. They were jumping routes all night.

 

[wait!what?]

agreed

It's a pick 6 of the corner doesn't slip. The pass shouldn't have been thrown at all.

Just a matter of time before the coach says 'Mitch is gonna sit out with a hand injury.'

 

[Spoofin]

C

 

[Winasota Gopher]

Ok, I honestly stopped reading after that.
Serious question, would you rather have won 24-21 with Mitch going for 300, 4TDs and a 4th quarter comeback? Answer honestly.

This is a thread about Mitch Leidner, your question makes 0 sense in this thread.

To answer your "serious question" as a Gopher fan I would rather win the way we did than the scenario you put out, but that is absolutely a flawed argument.

For the scope of this thread, I would have graded Leidner much differently had we won 24-21 with 4 tds and a comeback drive to win it, I would have been much more concerned about the rest of the team and given them the grade I just gave Leidner which is a C (C- if the option was there).

He missed multiple deep balls, which he HAS to hit if we have any chance of a team not stacking the box against us. His TD pass to Jones was a bad decision with a great result. On multiple quick screens he threw either low or high to disrupt the flow of the play, he was a liability in the first 3 or 4 drives and had me biting my nails.

Do I think Leidner is a C- qb, or as some said a DII qb? No, I hope it was 1st game jitters with a ton of expectations on his shoulders and he failed to meet them because he's young and inexperienced. I hope that's the story and not that he doesn't have it. I think he will progress, and I think the offense will adjust to favor his skill set in games that we have to try harder. More roll outs, more play action more designed runs for him to keep the defense honest. We were SOOOO vanilla last night, EIU was t-ing off on our running game and that didn't help Mitch at all. They knew Mitch was shaken after Berk dropped that 1st pass and Mitch missed the 2nd pass, the momentum was on their side.

Mitch will be fine, I hope, but for this thread, this poll, this subject, it wasn't a good night for my man Mitch.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

I don't want to hate on anybody, but calling Leidner a DII QB is just stupid.

I agree. Some of the posts in this thread are absolutely ridiculous. Obviously, we still have a lot of posters who still can't get past the Philip Nelson debacle. Leidner didn't have a great game throwing the football but he was nowhere near as bad as some of the posters are saying. They obviously have short memories. The Gophers haven't had a QB who could reliably find and hit an open receiver in more years than any of us want to remember. While Leidner threw some bad passes last night so far in his career he hasn't shown a tendency to throw interceptions. That is a huge positive for every Gopher fan. I think Leidner is going to get a lot better with more game experience. Practice can only take a QB so far.

 

[husker70]

9 for 17 is not getting it done. That's 52%. He is not going to get more than 18 throws a game, and needs to hit on 11 or 12. He needs those completions when it counts. Third and 6, third and 10. Keep a drive alive. His grade C-.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Not the best, but we have to look at the whole picture. They played a team that brought the house every play. They came out in a different set every series according to Kills post game comments. Edwards drops the first ball and the o-line had a couple first time starters on the right side and Campion out of position. Wolitarski did not play. It seems they didn't target Maxx as much as they hope in the future. Mitch said in post game interview, he needs to run some earlier in the game and calm down. This offense needs to have the QB run some to be well rounded. Mitch and the coaches need to be smart about it.

 

[Winasota Gopher]

I agree. Some of the posts in this thread are absolutely ridiculous. Leidner didn't have a great game throwing the football but he was nowhere near as bad as some of the posters are saying. They obviously have short memories. The Gophers haven't had a QB who could reliably find and hit an open receiver in more years than any of us want to remember. While Leidner threw some bad passes last night so far in his career he hasn't shown a tendency to throw interceptions. That is a huge positive for every Gopher fan. I think Leidner is going to get a lot better with more game experience. Practice can only take a QB so far.

Sorry

I didn't know there was a curve on the grading scale. Can I re-vote?

Mitch can play significantly better than he did tonight.

 

[MaxyJR1]

Both QB's for EI have started more FBS games than Mitch.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

9 for 17 is not getting it done. That's 52%. He is not going to get more than 18 throws a game, and needs to hit on 11 or 12. He needs those completions when it counts. Third and 6, third and 10. Keep a drive alive. His grade C-.

Adam Weber's completion percentage for his entire junior season was 52%.

 

[Wouldn't You like to Know]

We needed to throw in a double move to burn those CBs. They were jumping routes all night.

Completely agree, I was begging them to run a double move!

Mitch does not throw a very good spiral and does not have a lot of arm strength nor is he accurate. At least from what I've seen thus far in his young career. This scares the crap out of me! We have play makers like Berkeley, Donovan and Max but we need to be able to get them the ball.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Coach Z. I mean can we not recruit a QB who can make all the throws or develop them?

 

[MaxyJR1]

Completely agree, I was begging them to run a double move!

Mitch does not throw a very good spiral and does not have a lot of arm strength nor is he accurate. At least from what I've seen thus far in his young career. This scares the crap out of me! We have play makers like Berkeley, Donovan and Max but we need to be able to get them the ball.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Coach Z. I mean can we not recruit a QB who can make all the throws or develop them?

Easier said than done with them selling out with no way for us to prepare. We will have film on every team going forward.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Adam Weber's completion percentage for his entire junior season was 52%.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that a large percentage of those throws for that "entire junior season" were against Big Ten defenses.

 

[dboy]

with our new arsenal of 'weapons', it should have been 40-0 at half.
i'm tired of 'hes young'... 'first game jitters'... 'they threw different sets out there', etc.

fact is they stacked the box... and Mitch was unable to hit our weapons.. the underthrow to Jones... he had to come back for it? should have been an easy 6.

problem is we are locked into Mitch until:
1.) he gets hurt
2.) we lose 3 in a row and he has a QB rating of 50 in those games.

so unless he gets hurt, we are playing in another pre-Christmas bowl.

burn Perra's redshirt now.

 

[Wouldn't You like to Know]

Easier said than done with them selling out with no way for us to prepare. We will have film on every team going forward.

That's not an excuse to be completely off target. Under throwing D Jones by 15 yards or putting at Berkeley's feet. I sure hope Mitch can make some plays in the passing game while under pressure, if not, we're in BIG trouble.

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

We needed to throw in a double move to burn those CBs. They were jumping routes all night.

Mitch would have been on his ass by the time they executed a double move. I'm not defending Mitch as he looked pretty shakey, but he didn't have much time to pass at all. The O-line was as underwhelming as he was. Also, Cobb, Williams, Hartman, Plsek, et al didn't do him any favors as each grossly missed blocks that left defenders to get in the back field untouched.

 

[Winasota Gopher]

Mitch would have been on his ass by the time they executed a double move. I'm not defending Mitch as he looked pretty shakey, but he didn't have much time to pass at all. The O-line was as underwhelming as he was. Also, Cobb, Williams, Hartman, Plsek, et al didn't do him any favors as each grossly missed blocks that left defenders to get in the back field untouched.

Agreed, we will have to run more designed rollouts as the year progresses.

Mitch also needs to hit a few of those quick screens to deter that all out run blitz scheme. They knew they would have time to recover as the WR/RB always had to adjust to grab a quick screen rendering the majority of those plays ineffective.

 

[goldy93]

I give him a C+/B-, but the rest of the offense is more concerning.
For some people on here, all I can say is get a grip. A guy completes 65% of his passes and this is the reaction? I counted 2 drops by receivers (Edwards being the worst one) that affected the completion %, so if you count those he would have been 11-19 and at 65%. Not sure how Mitch gets them to catch the ball when he puts it in their hands.
That being said, was Mitch really sharp? No.
Was it the first game of the season? Yep.
Did we have guys wide open that he missed? At least one, but other than that, I did not see a lot of wide open guys. WHY???!!!!
Did he make any good throws? Yep. Did you see that beautiful pass to Williams?
Did we miss Wolitarsky? Yep.
Did Mitch have a lot of time to throw? Nope. Very concerning considering who we were playing.