How good can Jake Rudock be?
There was a diary several days ago about how productive Rudock or Morris could be. It compared Jake to other UM's senior QBs of the past. I am not sure that is very useful because so many factors have to be taken into account. It is very difficult to predict either QBs' likely performance but more so for Morris because we have so little evidence. However, we have a lot of evidence about Jake
The best way to predict how Jake is likely to perform is to look at this own progress: Here are his numbers from the last two years:
2013: games: 13 Effic: 126.5 A/C/Int: 204-346-13 %: 59.0 Yrds: 2383 TD: 18 Av: 183.3
2014: games: 12 Effic: 133.5 A/C/Int: 213-345-5 %: 61.7 Yrds: 2436 TD: 16 Av: 203.
Jake made substantial improvements. Still, I cannot understand why he was benched. If he continues the same improvement (especially under Harbaugh), he should be 2nd All BIG next year and better than most QBs, including the 2014 version of Conner Cook.
Here are the figures for Conner:
2013: 14 135.53 223-380-6 58.7 2755 22 196.8
2014: 13 149.4 212-365-8 58.1 3214 24 247.2
I understand that Conner had good supporting casts both years, but I think UM's offensive supporting cast of 2015 is not that much below MSU's cast of 2013/2014.
If he makes the same progress as he did from 2013 to 2014, we should see a significant improvement in our offensive output. May be 10 wins.
but it is still true that he lost his job at Iowa.
Yeah, it's kind of annoying to see people on a Michigan blog essentially repeating the RCMB nonsense about getting Iowa's castoff, 2nd stringer QB. Rudock was the starter for two years. When the backup and his father started making noise about transferring, Ferentz instituted this bizarre 2 QB system for the bowl game where they alternated series. Iowa got blown out of that game to the point it was over by halftime. Each Iowa QB led the team to one TD in the first 3 quarters. Beathard did lead the team to two more TDs in the last two Iowa offensive series of the game, late in the 4th quarter. Fans clamoring for Beathard to start felt they were vindicated; most more objective observers realize he did most of his damage at the tail end of a blowout loss when the other team was playing prevent defense and bringing in young players for experience. Beathard might very well have a higher upside than Rudock and might be the better QB going forward. We don't even know if Rudock will beat out the competition for starter at Michigan. But in my book he's a welcome addition to throw into the mix, and I think we're lucky as hell to get him.
Last year Rudock and Cook completed an almost identical number of passes and Cook threw for almost 800 more yards. Comparing the two is ridiculous to begin with; claiming that these stats support the notion that Rudock could be better than Cook is just insanity.
Seriously, there are so many things to be legitimately excited about with regards to the upcoming season; Rudock being an all B1G QBis not one of them.
Although he doesn't have the arm strength that Big John had, I don't think he is notorious for having the ball slapped back in his face quite as often and undoubtedly is better at avoiding would be tacklers. I mean who isn't ? However, a lot will be determined on whether or not he has a solid line and RB support in addition to our not yet answered wide receiver problems.
He won't be hampered, like Big John by our "we'll run it down your throat" mentality that was prevalent then, even when we gained a yard on the first two rushes in the early series by failing to use a balanced attack. This allowed the DL to really Tee off on JN on third and long, making his job a hell of a lot tougher than it should have been.
I believe the quality of coaching will go up overall, but I can't complain about the OL during the Carr tenure except for occasional lapses of being able to overpower the DL. Our receivers were normally good so I'd say a lot will depend on just how much these young men will improve from what we saw in the Spring Game. If they are able to make a reasonable leap forward, I'd expect Rudock to be as effiecient as the Big Guy but as stated, still a lot of unanswered questions. He was a good get, no matter how you look at it, be it an ignition for Shane's evolution or doing the job himself, the later being the scenario I believe will play out.
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Morris hasn't really had a good chance yet in my opinion. He got thrown in high profile-high pressure games. Gardner wouldnt help him. Our coaches had no clue.
JH might be able to get this kid to be a super star with that arm. Time will tell
I have never seen a Qb as lucky as Cook. How many times does he throw right into a defenders hands & they drop. Rose Bowl was multiple times.
Would love to see what he can do with a bit of experience under the belt.
Rudock sucks. I may be a Buckeye fan, but I've (unfortunately) lived in Iowa for a good while now, and all of my friends are Hawkeye fans and were calling for his head long ago. But, you guys have a lot better athletes and players overall that would surround him on the field than what he had at Iowa so who knows.
which has shown that Rudock is an okay QB who has been victimized by lousy pass protection, poor WRs, and questionable play-calling. This could be said about Morris thus far, could it not?
What has Morris done to even earn being called an okay QB? For someone whose biggest asset is his arm, any time he has tried to throw more than 10 yards down field the pass is either an interception or nearly an interception.
"What has Morris done to even earn being called an okay QB?"
He maybe hasn't had a lot of good plays - but has shown toughness & heart. He wasn't coming out of the game, after he got almost knocked out cold & our lineman had to hold him up
Our previous coaches didn't set the Qb up to get any rythym going with there play calling. Get a few easier passes completed to build some confidence. We never threw the ball down the field either ...except on 3rd & way long. Then the D was keying that ...etc etc.
I'm not saying Morris should start - but I'm not ready to write him off yet - especially with JH in there.
Plus the kid might read on here also. Lets back whoever plays this year - with a whole new outlook IMO.
First time I've heard him talk (or seen him without a helmet, for that matter).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e51x41OIv_A