In defense of Nico

#51
#51
He is perhaps the most poorly coached QB in the conference, deteriorating from the Citrus Bowl MVP against an good but slightly slower Iowa defense to this clownshow of an offense that struggles with mid conference defenses and a creative offensive set up that has run out of gas, gotten predictable and is prone to 3 and out from poor play calling. I'm not ready to write Nico off, but he may head to the more balanced confines of USC or San Diego State to complete the college tenure before the NFL draft.
 
#52
#52
TennesseeRhett said:
What a weekend. I lost my voice by halftime, and years off my life with that overtime. Many across the country feel the same with the chaotic, close, exciting football played this weekend. Lots of overtime, lots of ranked teams squeaking by inferior opponents (UT, Penn State, Bama, Illinois etc).

I was watching the highlights from the Ole Miss - LSU game, which was an incredible game. Arguably the two most seasoned, most accurate quarterbacks in the conference went head to head with Dart and Nussmeyer. I’ve been impressed by their poise and accuracy all year.

Guys, both of them made numerous egregious mistakes. Bad interceptions, missed open receivers, throwing into triple coverage… and these are two of the best in the league coming into the season.

Nico made bad mistakes as well last night, and he absolutely needs to improve. What else would we expect from a freshman who has started 7 games? The talent is obviously there, and if it continues to develop as we hope it will he can become a legend. Yes, it would be cool if that were this year, but that’s just unfair and unrealistic to be expected from such a young kid in his first season at the helm. And as I said, older and more experienced qb’s were making similar mistakes tonight.

Everyone (with the possible exception of Texas) looks beatable this year. We’re 5-1 with a dub over the hated gators. We have a stud QB whom everyone wanted in the very early stages of his career, who just did something Peyton Manning never did. These are good days on Rocky Top, and you don’t have to look far back in the rear view mirror to see really, really bad days. Enjoy these good days, and don’t ruin them for yourself with pointless hand wringing.

TL/DR: we won, life is good, have fun with this 5-1 team, and give the kid a break.
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The defense and special teams are carrying Tennessee this season so all Nico has to do is play complementary football and keep mistakes to a minimum.
 
#53
#53
unfrozencvmanvol said:
He's a freshman, what people were expecting of him this year was too much. If you said it during the preseason you were a Nega, but it was true. It's still true.
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$8 million reasons why he needs to deliver. If I don’t deliver the best flock of chickens, then my pay gets cut if I am below the average. That’s life. Arch is the same status, RFR. He delivered. He has to make quicker reads, stop staring down receivers and coaches have to design more roll out passes. Yes he is soft and goes down or out of bounds before the marker. Get the first down. We do expect a lot. We were promised a lot. Promised so much we don’t even have a backup that could come in a real game situation.
 
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#54
#54
Chickenfarmer said:
$8 million reasons why he needs to deliver. If I don’t deliver the best flock of chickens, then my pay gets cut if I am below the average. That’s life. Arch is the same status, RFR. He delivered. He has to make quicker reads, stop staring down receivers and coaches have to design more roll out passes. Yes he is soft and goes down or out of bounds before the marker. Get the first down. We do expect a lot. We were promised a lot. Promised so much we don’t even have a backup that could come in a real game situation.
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We paid him what we had to pay him to get him to come here. If we misevaluated and overpaid, that's on us. Not many guys in the history of the game have played the quarterback position at a high level as freshman. Those were always long, long odds. People are mad they deluded themselves into thinking we'd beat those odds. The collapse of that delusion doesn't need to be taken out on Nico. He can still be a very good player for us down the road.
 
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#55
#55
Are we expecting more than we should?

1. How many RS Freshmen have won a SEC Championship? or a National Championship? Not that many. Less than a handful in both cases.
2. How many true Freshman have won a SEC Championship? or a National Championship? A few.

When answering those questions use the criteria that they started from Day 1 and played throughout the season.

Nico is being coddled not to lose. CJH running vanilla offense to progress. We will see as the season progresses.
 
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#58
#58
Chickenfarmer said:
$8 million reasons why he needs to deliver. If I don’t deliver the best flock of chickens, then my pay gets cut if I am below the average. That’s life. Arch is the same status, RFR. He delivered. He has to make quicker reads, stop staring down receivers and coaches have to design more roll out passes. Yes he is soft and goes down or out of bounds before the marker. Get the first down. We do expect a lot. We were promised a lot. Promised so much we don’t even have a backup that could come in a real game situation.
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You weren't promised anything? Your expectations created the word "promise" in your head. As well as 8 million $$$ didn't hurt the creation either, but you let your expectations dictate a promise of which you have seen less than 10 games of a potential 60+.
 
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#59
#59
walkenvol said:
I was expecting Bryce Young red shirt freshman level of performance.
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Who is probably the best freshman quarterback of all freshman quarterbacks in the 90+ year history of the conference, so that probably wasn't a reasonable expectation. There have been scores of 5 star quarterbacks recruited into this conference over the years who haven't been Bryce Young level as freshman, Nico is one. Doesn’t mean he won't develop into a good player yet.
 
#61
#61
Nico needs to be better. Period. He would agree. So would Heupel. So would his dad. Everything else is excuses. Some valid some not. If you want to be great, then there needs to be less of them.
 
#66
#66
Sudden Impact said:
Are we expecting more than we should?

1. How many RS Freshmen have won a SEC Championship? or a National Championship? Not that many. Less than a handful in both cases.
2. How many true Freshman have won a SEC Championship? or a National Championship? A few.

When answering those questions use the criteria that they started from Day 1 and played throughout the season.

Nico is being coddled not to lose. CJH running vanilla offense to progress. We will see as the season progresses.
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People are expecting him to perform like Bryce Young when there’s far more case studies of great college QBs struggling in their first two years
 
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#68
#68
TartanTurff said:
He is perhaps the most poorly coached QB in the conference, deteriorating from the Citrus Bowl MVP against an good but slightly slower Iowa defense to this clownshow of an offense that struggles with mid conference defenses and a creative offensive set up that has run out of gas, gotten predictable and is prone to 3 and out from poor play calling. I'm not ready to write Nico off, but he may head to the more balanced confines of USC or San Diego State to complete the college tenure before the NFL draft.
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What is a "mid conference" defense?
 
#69
#69
No one would disagree he needs to be better, no debating that. The issue I have is that it’s hard to get better when you have one of the worst offensive lines in the country and you have inky started 6 games. Cooper Mays is a 1st All American. Outside of him, who else is on that line is worth anything right now? Nico has been sacked 11 times. Every time he breaks the pocket and takes off for a run either Heard or Johnson are holding every time that gets it called back. While Nico needs to improve, it’s starts it front of him first.
Ttucke11 said:
Nico needs to be better. Period. He would agree. So would Heupel. So would his dad. Everything else is excuses. Some valid some not. If you want to be great, then there needs to be less of them.
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#70
#70
The oline pass blocking needs to be fixed before you really blame Nico. I think he’s snapping the ball every time feeling hurried or rushed instead of waiting for the pocket to collapse or protection to break down. Maybe a qb with more experience would handle it better but he’s only started 3 SEC games.

Give him at least average pass protection and I think he might be able to adjust his mindset, be a little more relaxed and confident, and then we will see what he’s capable of.

The game starts at the los. If you lose that battle the rest of the play probably goes downhill fast.
 
#71
#71
VolMarine1371 said:
No one would disagree he needs to be better, no debating that. The issue I have is that it’s hard to get better when you have one of the worst offensive lines in the country and you have inky started 6 games. Cooper Mays is a 1st All American. Outside of him, who else is on that line is worth anything right now? Nico has been sacked 11 times. Every time he breaks the pocket and takes off for a run either Heard or Johnson are holding every time that gets it called back. While Nico needs to improve, it’s starts it front of him first.
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No disagreements here on that either. I'm frustrated with him and Heupel. The tackle play is on Heupel. He went out and hand picked his LT with an open check book. We've nabbed quite a few transfer OL. We've signed a ton of high school OL. Where are they? Like I said though. Some excuses are valid. Some aren't as valid. But he's 20. McCarthy won a title at Michigan at 20. Plenty of guys have done a lot more with even less at 20. I'm rooting for Nico and I think he will be good, I'm just tired of the baby gloves some of our fans have with him. He's a grown man making 2M a year. Play like it.
 
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#72
#72
TartanTurff said:
He is perhaps the most poorly coached QB in the conference, deteriorating from the Citrus Bowl MVP against an good but slightly slower Iowa defense to this clownshow of an offense that struggles with mid conference defenses and a creative offensive set up that has run out of gas, gotten predictable and is prone to 3 and out from poor play calling. I'm not ready to write Nico off, but he may head to the more balanced confines of USC or San Diego State to complete the college tenure before the NFL draft.
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Troll
 
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#73
#73
wrharvey21 said:
I really hate all the hes a freshman and has only started 7 games line of thinking and excuses. It sounds worse every week. When do we stop? Oh its fine, hes just a junior and has only played 31 games.
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Lets set that line at 12 regular season games. Needs at least a season of playing top tier talent before any real evaluation is relevant. Most don't realize that college coaches still likely wouldn't play an inexperienced QB like this but they have to if they want to keep them and their jobs. 90 % of the Bryce Youngs, Tua's and Manziel all looked great because of 2 things.

1. They were better runners than Nico
2. They had better OL and they really had some very good experience NFL wide receivers

CHECK THE STATS
 
#74
#74
Ttucke11 said:
No disagreements here on that either. I'm frustrated with him and Heupel. The tackle play is on Heupel. He went out and hand picked his LT with an open check book. We've nabbed quite a few transfer OL. We've signed a ton of high school OL. Where are they? Like I said though. Some excuses are valid. Some aren't as valid. But he's 20. McCarthy won a title at Michigan at 20. Plenty of guys have done a lot more with even less at 20. I'm rooting for Nico and I think he will be good, I'm just tired of the baby gloves some of our fans have with him. He's a grown man making 2M a year. Play like it.
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Sign McCarthy had played a lot as a freshman and please for the love of God give Nico a OL like Michigan had
 
#75
#75
Ttucke11 said:
No disagreements here on that either. I'm frustrated with him and Heupel. The tackle play is on Heupel. He went out and hand picked his LT with an open check book. We've nabbed quite a few transfer OL. We've signed a ton of high school OL. Where are they? Like I said though. Some excuses are valid. Some aren't as valid. But he's 20. McCarthy won a title at Michigan at 20. Plenty of guys have done a lot more with even less at 20. I'm rooting for Nico and I think he will be good, I'm just tired of the baby gloves some of our fans have with him. He's a grown man making 2M a year. Play like it.
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He’s brought some of the criticism on himself by doing things like wearing pajama pants during 7-on-7 tournaments and wearing sunglasses during Tennessee camps. He walked to the stadium yesterday wearing a cowboy hat and a skirt.
 
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