The value of a QB
November 29th, 2014 at 10:56 PM ^
I would agree but your statement has many flaws, one saying that michigan cant recruit playmakers because of denard is as about as dumb as making him a pocket quartback his last two years despite his first 1 1/2 yrs of heisman campaiging. two Gardner and Gallon are rich rod recruits neither fit what hoke wants to do and probaly would have been over looked as well. Three your list of playmakers consist of three players that havent even seen the field yet, and the others well their record for two years speaksfor itself again star gazing recruits is good for the recruiting sites once they hit campus the real rating grade begins and after two seasons most next to all of our players would be rated much lower then their star rate out of high school, you can blame a lot of that on coaching development but at the end of the day players that know how to ball Ball period even blaming it on their coaching development is somewhat of a cop out. Good School plug and play becuase they have talent that can ball their ass off until they learn the scheme. Thus all the recent talented freshman in the nation the last few years, and last if you can name all our skill players for the last four years and not use at least two lines is well........ Not good ..........Not Michigan. You need playmakers to make plays. Hoke's recruits are not playmakers and if they were pepole wouldnt be as mad as they are right now.
November 29th, 2014 at 8:09 PM ^
Devin Gardner, by all accounts, is an exceptional young man, and kudos for that.
However, he is not, and has not been, an exceptional quarterback. His throws were often inaccurate. He threw behind too many receivers or his throws were too low. He too often made poor decisions and seemingly inexplicable throws. His lack of field vision resulted in missing too many wide open receivers, throwing instead into coverage. He too often held the ball too long and ball security on his runs was always a problem.
I have no coaching or high level playing experience, but I just don't see where most of the responsibility cannot rest squarely with him. I just think there is a limit to what a coach can do, and, ultimately, players make plays or don't. Can someone with experience dispute or corroborate?
Granted, a porous OL, particularly last year, a running game that did not really develop until late this year, and receivers often not getting great separation or dropping passes didn't help him. And I think he needed that help, because he just wasn't good enough to carry a young and/or flawed team. That's no crime.
I appreciate his efforts, along with everyone else who wears the winged helmet. I just think we'd have had a few more wins this year had we had good, consistent quarterback play.
I don't hold Hoke and Nuss responsible for the overabundance of turnovers. However, I think it's a fair criticism of Hoke and his staff for not recruiting an alternative who could have stepped in and been ma more productive quarterback.