–> Gophers Athan Kaliakmanis is one of the best QB talents in the Big Ten Conference, HBO’s Succession had a tremendous series finale, plus some thoughts on this fine Memorial Day.
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Athan Kaliakmanis Top 3 B1G QB?
Earlier last week, I realeased my preseason Big Ten QB tiers. I place Gophers QB Athan Kaliakmanis at the No. 3 spot and there was plenty of reaction to my list. I will admit, Athan does not have the history of on-field production as the likes of Taulia Tagovailoa, Tanner Mordecai or Cade McNamara, but that was never the purpose of my list. I am ranking each team’s expected starting QB 1-14 in terms of who I would want as my signal caller next season. I certainly do not want to put pressure on Athan to be an All-American in his first year starting, but I believe he has already proven why his talent is #ELITE. I believe the conference’s quarterbacks as a whole have plenty of questions heading into this season, but Athan has already proven why he deserves respect.
For example, in Athan’s two biggest road games last season he finished 19/29 for 319 yards, 2 touchdowns against Wisconsin and 9/22 for 175 yards, 1 touchdowns, 1 INT, with 7 carries and 45 yards on the ground. In comparison Taulia Tagovailoa was 10/23 for 77 yards with 1td, 1int and 11car for 19yds against Wisconsin and 11/22 for 74yds against Penn State. Taulia has proven to be capable of putting up good numbers in a pass happy offense, but he also tends to come up short in big spots. In only five career starts Athan has proven to be a dynamic playmakers in some of the biggest moments the sport can offer while being the signal caller for a very run-first offense. Cade McNamara is the definition of a game manager and only has five career games with over 200 total yards of offense across three seasons. Tanner Mordercai is the wildcard of the QBs, but all of his production has came at SMU in the AAC with one of the most pass friendly offenses in college football. This is where my bias might come in, but I will still take Athan.
Lastly, Kyle McCord from Ohio State and Drew Allar from Penn State are both in very similar situations to Athan. Both Athan and McCord were top recruits in the class of 2021, while Allar was the No. 3 OVR players in the class of 2022. All three players have tremendous potential to breakout this season. I believe the hype is real with Allar and I rank him No. 2 best in the conference, but I think McCord and Athan are much closer. McCord will have two of the best WRs in college football to throw to next season with Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, so there is a great chance he has better numbers than Athan. Ultimately, I believe they’re very similar players, but the dual threat ability that Athan has seperates the two for me. I would not be opposed to seeing Athan as low as 5th or 6th on some QB rankings lists, but I still do not understand why there was such an uproar for me putting him No. 3. Athan Kaliakmanis has the it factor and I will be driving his bandwagon as long as it is rolling.
Succession Series Finale
There was not much to talk about this week when it comes to Gophers sports, so you’re getting to off-topic discussions. HBO’s Succession concluded its five-season series Sunday night. It is one of the most culturally talked about TV shows since Game of Thrones, so there was plenty of opinions on how the series wrapped up. I will not spoil anything about the show, but I would reccomend it to anyone looking for something to binge. I thought it was world class storytelling from start to finish and the ending fit with the overall theme of the series and it made sense. What I will never understand, is why do people always find the need to hate on every single ending to any TV show, movie series or book. It is one thing to be dissapointed with how the show ended, but atamantly shouting from your Twitter soapbox about why Succession stinks makes no sense to me. It is a fictional story with a fictional ending. Enjoy the TV show as entertainment (what it’s meant to be) and move on. I am all for caring about stuff because that is what makes life fun, but hating on everything is a whole other discussion. Let me watch my TV show without going on Twitter and seeing why everyone else thinks it sucks.
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is often a holiday that gets remembered for its three-day weekend more than its actual purpose. I will not be one to tell you to drop everyting you’re doing and honor and mourn the U.S. military personal that died while serving, mostly because I am not sure how to do that. I will certainly always respect and admire every person in the U.S. military that risks their life for our country and freedom to do something that I would never be brave enough to even consider doing. But every Memorial Day I do always wonder what the point of the holiday truly is. Like most people, I used the holiday to go golfing with my brother and father, then have a drink at the bar and now I am getting ready to eat some ribs and brats. I would guess that most Americans do something along these lines every Memorial Day, but I do not know how many of them even think about why they didn’t have work or school. I am not one to determine what is the right or wrong way to honor the fallen U.S. Military on Memorial Day, I just wonder when the holiday was first celebrated in 1868, is this what they expected it to become. I think there could be a whole revamp or modernization for holidays like Memorial Day and Veterans Day that could honor our troops in a more meaningful way, but that is a whole other dicsussion. But I would like to use my platform to say again that I will always be forever grateful for any man or women that has, is or will risk their life in the U.S. military and they deserve a honor for their sacrafice and they are a major reason why the United State of America is the greatest country in the world.