Video analysis of MSU QB Tyler O'Connor

Submitted by Bambi on

I was browsing the college football subreddit today and came across a 2 part video analysis that an MSU fan did of Tyler O'Connor in the opener Friday against Furman. Cue the "When did this become an MSU blog" comments, but I thought this was a very well done video series with some solid analysis.

Part 1 (15 minutes)

Part 2 (4 minutes)

In case you can't/don't want to watch the videos, I'll list the key observations below.

1) The first and biggest observation is that not once all game did O'Connor look to his 2nd read in the passing game. And I don't mean that he didn't throw to him. On literally every pass in the 2 videos (which I'm pretty sure was every throw O'Connor had), O'Connor did not turn his head away from his first target. Whether the guy was wide open or in double coverage, not once did O'Connor look for a 2nd receiver, at all, the entire game.

If I'm a State fan, this is massively concerning. I get that it's just Furman, and one might argue that State and O'Connor just didn't want to showcase too much of their offense. But that's not valid here, since throwing to an open guy vs a guy in double coverage isn't a showcasing issue, it's a not knowing how to play QB issue.

If you watch the videos, you will see plenty of times where this isn't an issue since the first read was open for O'Connor. But there were also a few times where the first read wasn't open, and instead of moving along in his progression, O'Connor either held on to the ball for a sack or forced a throw into a bad window. Often times when he did these things, he was completely ignoring a wide open receiver in another portion of the field, and this sometimes happened even when he did complete a ball to his first read. This will be a major problem that needs fixing for O'Connor moving on.

2) This is probably a result of the first issue, but O'Connor held onto the ball way too long. I will say that I think the video creator was being a little too harsh on O'Connor at times, especially on some of the play action passes as it looked like O'Connor got the ball out as soon his feet were set.

But overall the point does stand, O'Connor held onto the ball a lot all game long. Because he wouldn't take his eyes of his first read literally ever, he would either force a bad throw into the initial read, or wait for the guy to get open. This waiting led to a few sacks that could have been avoided and some throws where the timing was off because he waited too long. This is another issue O'Connor will have to fix.

3) The last point, which once again is a result of 1 and 2, is that O'Connor was often off with the timing on his throws. Even on a lot of O'Connor's completed throws, he cost MSU yardage by waiting too long to get rid of the ball. Many times he could have gotten rid of the ball earlier by throwing to a spot where he knew his receiver would be. Instead O'Connor would wait for his receiver to actually get to that spot, allowing the defenders to close on the receivers and either break up the pass or prevent the receiver from getting an YAC.

Overall I think this was definitely a good and eye opening set of videos, and I definitely recommend that you watch if you can.

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Gulogulo37

September 5th, 2016 at 7:23 PM ^

You post this in the front page opponent previews too?

This isn't making fun of State because some reporter for a school paper in Idaho wrote that he thought MSU won't be that good this year.

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teldar

September 5th, 2016 at 9:54 PM ^

To me, from the stats, it looks like the MSU guy played the entire game. Speight played for about 18 minutes or so. I think. The full game and msu had the ball longer than Furman, says that oconnor probably played a minimum of twice as much time as speight played (hawaii never had the ball early) and should have gotten in more of a rhythm in the offense. If he never loosened up and looked comfortable, this is a bad sign for msu.

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UMgradMSUdad

September 5th, 2016 at 10:57 PM ^

Not really.  O'Connor is a 5th year senior, playing in the same system and started one game last year (OSU) and played extensive minutes against Maryland. He did only play in blow outs two and three years ago though.  Still, he has three more years of experience working in the same system than what Speight has had.

 

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UMForLife

September 5th, 2016 at 7:08 PM ^

Nothing wrong in analyzing opposing teams. I am sure this will be a good one to compare by October 29th to see how much he improved and what kind of play we can expect from him. But I am not going to view the videos as I don't want to view sparty videos. So, thanks for taking the time to give us the bottom line.

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LSAClassOf2000

September 5th, 2016 at 7:12 PM ^

To be fair to the OP, if we're going to have the odd thread regarding our in-state conference compatriots, I would rather it was something at least informational like a breakdown of QB play and not some of the threads that were crammed into the end of OT season detailing every single thing that we know makes them.....well, them. 

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The Fan in Fargo

September 5th, 2016 at 7:49 PM ^

Safe to say early on that he locks on one receiver as the commentator stated numerous times. Be interesting to see if under constant pressure and blitzing he can overcome that against Michigan by mid season. Will be a hay day for a veteran defense like Michigan's if they can jump his routes and put them away early. I wouldn't mind seeing a pick six or two on them.

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xtramelanin

September 5th, 2016 at 8:04 PM ^

during the game, but of course didn't sit down and chart it.   can be fixed by mid-season but if he's running for his life half the game, and without burbridge who graduated, could be a long day for sparty.  i think how they do against ND will be a good barometer. 

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BoFlex

September 5th, 2016 at 7:11 PM ^

I'd be interested to see a similar breakdown of OSU/Barrett. From a novice standpoint, Barrett looked pretty solid overall, but had some inconsistencies that could be exploited. A mix of great throws and some head scratchers against Bowling Green.

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teldar

September 5th, 2016 at 10:00 PM ^

That's always his M.O., I think. I think he's just not that great a qb. Athlete? Yes. Passer? Not so much. I hope that the trick will be able to take away his running lanes and make him try to win through the air. I doubt he can do that.

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stephenrjking

September 5th, 2016 at 7:13 PM ^

We'll see what happens later. There certainly have been Michigan QBs who haven't looked through different reads. Navarre notoriously had a hard time with this, especially early in his career, but my recollection is that even guys like Drew Henson didn't divert from their first read easily. I don't have enough interest to check the actual film, but it's worth noting that a number of read progressions stick to one side of the field and may not require the QB to move his head. I don't know if the "analyst" was accounting for this or not, but it is possible that is some of what is going on.

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Bambi

September 5th, 2016 at 7:25 PM ^

I mean obviously some throws are ones you exclusively make to your first read, but if you bothered to watch the film here, you'd see that's not the case with O'Connor. There are plays where he literally waits in the pocket for 2 or 3 seconds after his drop, staring at one receiver the entire time waiting for him to get open, and then still throws it to him when he doesn't get open. The issue isn't that O'Connor wouldn't throw to his 2nd or 3rd reads, it's that heliterally wouldn't check to see if they were open. He would predetermine a receiver to throw to, and unless he got sacked, he threw to that receiver, no matter how open or covered he was.

I obviously expect this to be something MSU works on with him, especially since he has a bye this week. It's true that QBs like Navarre had this issue early in their careers, but when Navarre first started he was a redshirt freshman. Similarly, Henson was a duel sport athlete who wasn't focusing entirely on football, and had the athleticism to get away with flaws like that. O'Connor is a 5th year senior who only plays football and isn't special athletically. If he hasn't mastered something as simple as progressing through his reads by his 5th year, that's concerning to me.

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stephenrjking

September 5th, 2016 at 7:48 PM ^

It turns out I have some spare time and curiousity got the best of me, so I watched the first vid. There were 2 or 3 plays where O'Connor definitely locked in on a receiver he should have bailed on. Wound up with a couple of throws into heavy coverage; one late-ish throw got a receiver hurt. That throw looked like a high-low read but the defense had everything covered and O'Connor should have switched fields right away. Some of the route combos looked bad. Might have had some receiver issues. I suspect MSU was running vanilla schemes, but I also suspect that O'Connor was missing pre snap reads that we can't see. The issue you mentioned of him holding onto the ball too long absolutely seems to be a problem from what I saw. I think the analyst (Sam) might have over-emphasized it once or twice but mostly it looked correct. Wisconsin and Michigan and Ohio State will not be friendly if he does that against them.

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Cobra5476

September 5th, 2016 at 7:14 PM ^

The performance of  Michigan's adversaries is absolutely relative.   You really can't talk competently about Michigan Football if you are not able to accurately compare them to their adversaries.  Whether a team is Good or Great is all relative to their competition.

Great analysis and insight.  I for one am glad you shared it.

 

 

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WSU to Blue

September 5th, 2016 at 7:19 PM ^

against not-so-good opponents I don't pay attention to the score as much as I do the individual/team habits. I don't expect for the game to be super crisp, and dominating a team is great and all, but I want to see that you have the enough promoise, know-how, and fundamentals to snowball into a force to be reckoned with by the end of the season. With that being said, O'Connor didn't look to be that solid. His footwork seemed unsure at times, and he looked like he had his hands full with what I would assume was a pretty vanilla version of the offense. They should be able to hang with teams but don't think a 3 loss MSU team is that far of a stretch (Mich, Iowa, OSU).

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SAMgO

September 6th, 2016 at 9:15 AM ^

A stretch? I think 9-3 is pretty much their ceiling. Right now are they favorites against Wisconsin? I think they'll have two losses by the time we see them (2/3 of ND, Wisconsin, BYU, and lets not overlook @Indiana), and that still leaves UM, OSU, and @PSU on their schedule. Also, they don't even play Iowa so I wouldn't quite pencil that in as a loss.

I think it's an 8-4 or 7-5 season for Sparty.

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Rasmus

September 6th, 2016 at 10:07 AM ^

Terry is listed as the starter along with O'Connor on their preseason depth chart, with an "or" between their names. I'm dubious, but IF this analysis is right, then Terry could be starting by mid season. Dantonio tends to stay with his choices and let them learn as they go, but he may switch to the Junior (Terry) over the 5th-year (O'Connor) more quickly than he would otherwise.

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stephenrjking

September 5th, 2016 at 7:23 PM ^

Re the OP: not a fan of focusing undue attention on rivals, but actual on-field analysis of teams that we will play (or other teams in our conference) is worth highlighting, IMO.

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Bodogblog

September 5th, 2016 at 10:34 PM ^

He'd been on campus for a few weeks, didn't work with any of the guys until camp. New system and coaches. This a RS senior who's been in the same offense for his entire career. If this is real, it's a real problem. That OL doesn't look great, and it's thin. Their list of problems is long indeed if their QB is a weakness. I thought he looked a little nervous all game, and had a weird wind-up that caused the ball to take forever to get out. I did notice him staring down a guy until he got open, but didn't know it was a constant thing.

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The Fan in Fargo

September 5th, 2016 at 7:24 PM ^

Nice video man. I've hated watching MSU and OSU games in the past. Cant stand the colors as I've stated before. This year however I've vowed to DVR every Buckeye game and watch for all of their weaknesses. It would be wise for many of us to do this and help exploit them. You never know, the information might get to a coach or player before they get to annalyze themselves and they'll know what to look for. I hope to help!

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