Recruiting Forum Football Talk VI

[pierce60]

Good lord!!

 

[volbeast33]

Sam Bradford threw around 3,500 yards every year he stayed healthy. That’s pretty good. Most of the QB failures were on the coaches of the nfl team.

Josh Heupel wasn’t the offensive coordinator for Bradford…. Which QBs failed bc of the head coaches?

 

[SweetasSoda]

Just saw part about rotation. Thats cool. But, venue in Nash sucks. Honestly Id like to see them get rid of conference championships all together.

Why does Nashville suck?

 

[volbeast33]

Where does Jalen Hurts land on this list?

Sorry….. I was just doing first round draft picks… I meant to say that….. those were all the first round qbs dating back to 2013 I think.

 

[SweetasSoda]

Good lord!!

But he doesn’t have 70 scholarships does he? How does this work?

 

[HoleInTheRoof]

 

[Jackcrevol]

Why does Nashville suck?

Funny you ask. Was talking about this very thing with a co-worker just this week. There are about 5 of us scattered across TN.

In all fairness, I dont like big cities. Nashville is sprawled out, and seems to have no soul. Again, I'm sure I'm way off base here to some of you, this is my opinion. Traffic is abyssmal, as is any large city.

Also do not care for the topography, flat expanses. We are blessed in NE TN with lots of mountains.

Fire away, Oda.

 

[Billy Antrim]

But he doesn’t have 70 scholarships does he? How does this work?

Saw an article that he only had 16 players on scholarship returning this year. Most of the others were told to leave. So room for about 70 newcomers, including 42 transfers at last count.

 

[TrippieRedd]

On my way to hopefully purchase a 2004 Ford Lightning. Always been one of my dream vehicles.

 

[Jackcrevol]

On my way to hopefully purchase a 2004 Ford Lightning. Always been one of my dream vehicles.

Congrats man.

 

[BigSteve09]

Travis Gray thought he had Sunday off. The day after Colorado football’s nationally televised, snowy spring game showcase, the offensive lineman was eating lunch at Olive Garden. He had a meeting with coach Deion Sanders scheduled for 3 p.m. Monday — until his phone buzzed with a text message from offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle.

That meeting had been moved up. It started in 30 minutes. An apologetic O’Boyle was waiting in the lobby of the team facility. As they made their way toward Sanders’ office, O’Boyle told him what was happening.

“He’s walking with me and said, ‘Hey buddy, you’re going to get cut today. I’m sorry to tell you this. I didn’t want you to hear it from Coach Prime. I wanted you to hear it from my mouth. I didn’t want to cut you, but we had to cut five offensive linemen, and you were the last one,’” Gray told The Athletic on Tuesday evening.

When Gray walked into Sanders’ office, his head was down. Then he looked up.

“I was like, ‘Oh, God.’ I saw the mean mug in his face,” Gray said. “He told me, ‘You’re 6-foot-8, 320 pounds. I know in my heart of hearts a school is going to pick you up in the portal when you enter. Make your weaknesses your strengths and keep progressing. I hope you have a great future, it just won’t be here at the University of Colorado.’”

Gray was disappointed. The Aurora, Colo. native’s father, Lamarr Gray, was an outside linebacker on Colorado’s 1990 national championship team. His dream of following in his father’s footsteps was over after just a year on campus.

Sheesh

Over the weekend, Sanders reiterated that Colorado would be making room for incoming transfers who Sanders has been chasing.

“You all know that we’re gonna move on from some of the team members, and we’re gonna reload and get some kids that we really identify with,” Sanders said after Saturday’s spring game. “So this process is gonna be quick, it’s gonna be fast, but we’re gonna get it done.”

“We’ve got to make some decisions,” Sanders continued. “That’s gonna be on me now.”

So far, the Buffaloes have accepted 29 incoming transfers, some of whom practiced this spring, and more are expected to arrive this summer. College football recently eliminated the cap on 25 signees in a single class, allowing new coaches to flip a roster faster than ever.

“I felt like he was more of a motivational speaker. He gives good advice, but he didn’t really talk to me once,” Courtney said. “I never really got to experience his coaching.”

“No relationship with him at all. I said what’s up to him a few times,” said Gray, who practiced with the second team before an injury during a scrimmage forced him to miss two days of spring practice. “I’m not sure he knew the names of half the kids he got rid of. He was worried about who he brought in. If you were on the 1-11 team, it seemed like he didn’t really care about us at all. He already said he was going to get rid of 25-30 of us, and that’s exactly what he did.”

 

[bignewt]

Funny you ask. Was talking about this very thing with a co-worker just this week. There are about 5 of us scattered across TN.

In all fairness, I dont like big cities. Nashville is sprawled out, and seems to have no soul. Again, I'm sure I'm way off base here to some of you, this is my opinion. Traffic is abyssmal, as is any large city.

Also do not care for the topography, flat expanses. We are blessed in NE TN with lots of mountains.

Fire away, Oda.

Nashville is indeed a crap city right now. Its too big for its own good, has too many implants who have no sense of connection to it. Its built on the production of terrible music it still celebrates non-ironically. It has no real character to call its own. Its like a New Orleans without a soul.

 

[PlanetVolunteer]

Funny you ask. Was talking about this very thing with a co-worker just this week. There are about 5 of us scattered across TN.

In all fairness, I dont like big cities. Nashville is sprawled out, and seems to have no soul. Again, I'm sure I'm way off base here to some of you, this is my opinion. Traffic is abyssmal, as is any large city.

Also do not care for the topography, flat expanses. We are blessed in NE TN with lots of mountains.

Fire away, Oda.

I live in Nashville and I agree with the last point. I grew up in Lynchburg VA with the blue ridge mountains and yeah Nashville looks like trash. But not that bad! Used to live in LA that was way worse.

I dont think the traffic is bad unless you haven't driven in any other big cities. ATL is on a different level as far as sucky traffic goes. But i don't really get in many traffic jams like ever and I work downtown.

The no soul thing I think is there's no homogenized soul. Different kinds of soul around here, but what I love is the energy of it becoming one of the most important cities in the world. A lot of people here following their dreams and a lot of tourists happy to come here and have fun. More and more influential people moving here and it's still not mega city big or anything. I absolutely love it here.

Oh and it's so centrally located you can get so so many different places quickly.

 

[RiseToTheTop]

Nashville is indeed a crap city right now. Its too big for its own good, has too many implants who have no sense of connection to it. Its built on the production of terrible music it still celebrates non-ironically. It has no real character to call its own. Its like a New Orleans without a soul.

All True

And all the guys making the best music are not even accepted by Nashville. The country music coming out of there right now is mostly awful. Generic as hell.

 

[BigSteve09]

they have 3 DL left... TOTAL

 

[Jackcrevol]

I live in Nashville and I agree with the last point. I grew up in Lynchburg VA with the blue ridge mountains and yeah Nashville looks like trash. But not that bad! Used to live in LA that was way worse.

I dont think the traffic is bad unless you haven't driven in any other big cities. ATL is on a different level as far as sucky traffic goes. But i don't really get in many traffic jams like ever and I work downtown.

The no soul thing I think is there's no homogenized soul. Different kinds of soul around here, but what I love is the energy of it becoming one of the most important cities in the world. A lot of people here following their dreams and a lot of tourists happy to come here and have fun. More and more influential people moving here and it's still not mega city big or anything. I absolutely love it here.

Oh and it's so centrally located you can get so so many different places quickly.

Great points, and yes. Atlanta sucks on a scale not represented.

I do think it takes a certain type of person who enjoys city life.

 

[Jackcrevol]

Nashville is indeed a crap city right now. Its too big for its own good, has too many implants who have no sense of connection to it. Its built on the production of terrible music it still celebrates non-ironically. It has no real character to call its own. Its like a New Orleans without a soul.

Bing!

 

[HalfullVol]

Good lord!!

Coach Prime is DESTROYING the Colorado Football program for the foreseeable future and the athletic department there is allowing it.

 

[PlanetVolunteer]

Great points, and yes. Atlanta sucks on a scale not represented.

I do think it takes a certain type of person who enjoys city life.

Yeah I like the energy of it, the opportunity it brings and how convenient it is.

Totally get wanting a slower tranquil setting. Now I don't think I'd go any bigger than Nashville. Didn't like LA and would never live in NYC.

 

[butchna]

Josh Heupel wasn’t the offensive coordinator for Bradford…. Which QBs failed bc of the head coaches?

Heupel was his QBs coach…pretty important.

 

[Jackcrevol]

Yeah I like the energy of it, the opportunity it brings and how convenient it is.

Totally get wanting a slower tranquil setting. Now I don't think I'd go any bigger than Nashville. Didn't like LA and would never live in NYC.

Was just talking to one of co workers. We have to train in a city close to NYC. Many of trainees regularly go to NYC to party.

A wild night for me was facetiming my kids by hotel bar and getting to sleep by 10.

 

[volbeast33]

Heupel was his QBs coach…pretty important.

Maybe but that was not what we were discussing.

 

[ChattaTNVol]

Miscellaneous notes –

Since there’s some discussion about whether or not Hendon Hooker, based on his performance as the QB for the #1 offense in college football, will translate to the NFL, I thought it might be worthwhile to consider someone who came out of a similar system.

Jimmy Garoppolo was the QB for FCS Eastern Illinois. In his first year as their QB they won 2 games. In his second year they won 2 games. In his 3rd year he got a new head coach, Dino Babers, and new OC, Sean Lewis. Babers had been at Baylor from 2008 through 2011 so he brought with him his version of the Art Briles offense. In EIU’s first year under Babers and with Garoppolo at QB, the Panthers went 7-5. The following year they improved to 12-2 and Bill Belichick and the NE Patriots selected Garoppolo in the 2nd round of the 2014 draft. He would spend 3.5 seasons backing up Brady before being traded in October 2017 to the 49ers for a 2nd round pick in the 2018 draft. After getting to SF and eventually getting the starting job later in the season he finished 2017 with a 5-0 record. SF signed him to a $137.5m 5 year contract with almost $90m guaranteed. He tore an ACL at the beginning of the 2018 season but came back in 2019 and took the 49ers to the super bowl. He has had to deal with a number of injuries but he’s still active and just on March 17 of this year signed a 3 year deal with the Raiders for $67.5m. Anyway, in his 2nd year under Babers at EIU he threw for 53 TDs against 9 interceptions. His record as a starter in the NFL is 40-17.

Meanwhile, Babers abandoned EIU after his 12-2 season and took over BGSU, replacing Dave Clawson who was hired away by Wake Forest. Babers would spend 2 years at BGSU before being hired away to Syracuse. In his first year at BGSU the Falcons went 8-6 and the second year, 2015, he and the Falcons opened their season against the Tennessee Volunteers in Nashville. Though Tennessee won the game 59-30, the Bowling Green offense racked up 557 yards in the game. Many Tennessee fans were expressively concerned about our defense as a result of that game. It would turn out that the 2015 Volunteer defense would be the best defense Tennessee had put on the field in a number of years, finishing the 2015 season ranked #36 in total defense and #16 in scoring defense. BGSU would finish the year with a 10-3 record.

Babers has been wildly up and down at Syracuse with one 10 win season since taking over in 2016.

Lane Kiffin hired Kendall Briles as his OC at Florida Atlantic. Apparently they didn’t get along but Kiffin did take elements from Kendall to incorporate into his offense. Kendall would eventually end up at Arkansas where last year they had more rushing offense than the razorbacks have had since 2003. With Sonny Dykes and TCU enjoying success with a run first air-raid offense that spreads the field and runs at a breakneck pace, Dabo Swinney hires away their OC to come and incorporate some elements of the offense into his program at Clemson. Dykes hires Briles away from Arkansas. Jeff Lebby is trying to run his version of the offense at Oklahoma and Sean Lewis who worked under Babers at EIU, BGSU, and for a time at Syracuse, installed the offense at Kent State as their head coach and had record breaking performances for the school’s offense, so much so that the newly installed head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes hired him away from the Golden Flashes to take on the OC/QB job on Coach Prime’s inaugural staff in Boulder.

Alex Golesh was hired by South Florida to bring the Tennessee offense to Tampa. Alex has a tough job in year one. I think he’s okay at QB but he lost his ace RB to Auburn and his two leading receivers to Coach Prime. He also doesn’t have any returners on the offensive line. Well, he’s got one guy coming back but that guy was injured and out last year. I don’t know how he’s going to do it in year one. I think they could surprise on defense which they didn’t do last year but the big thing is in listening to interviews with his players and coaches it’s evident they’ve already started coming together and having fun. I think within 2 or 3 years he’ll probably make us proud. jmo.

There are other schools that use a similar offensive philosophy but Tennessee right now is the Cadillac model (or Ferrari if you prefer) of this offense.

This note is from Ian Boyd, one of the more astute football analysts to come out of football study hall.

There’s been a significant market inefficiency in college football for a while in various college programs’ inability to make the most of a particular sort of football player.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the player type is the large, powerful, athletic, and black quarterback from a poorer community who may or may not have received a ton of high level instruction in throwing mechanics and almost definitely didn’t get a lot of reps in an advanced passing game in high school.

The latter, as I’ve noted many times, is a massive factor. Much of playing high level quarterback is comparable to being a chess master. You need to develop the vision to quickly process all the moving parts on the field, which requires seeing it over and over and over again.

How many times have you seen a large, cannon-armed, and athletic young black quarterback draw rave reviews out of high school for his raw abilities only for him to flame out trying to execute a college passing game?

I can think of a couple of examples pretty easily. Like Hendon Hooker, who’s stats and performance at Virginia Tech weren’t awful, but he was clearly encouraged to seek playing time elsewhere. Or Joe Milton, who struggled badly at Michigan and eventually lost his job to Cade McNamara (his polar opposite) while Jim Harbaugh recruited over both of them with J.J. McCarthy.

Under Josh Heupel’s Veer and Shoot offense, Tennessee has shown the ability to maximize both players.

Hooker is 6-foot-3, 217 pounds and threw for 3,135 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2022 while running for 430 yards and five more scores despite missing the final few games with injury. Milton is 6-foot-5, 244 pounds and after taking over for the bowl game against Clemson he threw for 251 yards at 8.96 ypa with a trio of touchdown passes in a commanding win.

Tennessee now has a 5-star, big, cannon-armed passer lined up behind Milton in Nico Iamaleava, who actually has a few years of more passing-intensive years in high school to bank on. You can bet on the Vols not failing to maximize either Milton or Iamaleava though. In fact they’re likely to snatch up other talented athletes in the future who might have had less success in other programs.

Why? It’s because of how the Veer and Shoot offensive works to make football simpler on offense. What we may see in the coming years though is how this system’s unique approach may have some unexplored upside when executed with a higher caliber of athlete at a program like Tennessee.

 

[butchna]

Maybe but that was not what we were discussing.

Thought you were discussing development of QBs in specific systems? Heupel had way more input in that for Bradford vs defensive mastermind HC Bob Stoops.

 

[BigSteve09]