WE CAN'T WIN WITHOUT A GOOD QB

[DRU2012]

One more time:
We cannot win without at the very LEAST a "damn good quarterback".
It is that simple.
Spurrier. Wuerfel. Leak/Tebow. Tim Tebow alone.
Get the picture?
Yeah.

 

[Leakfan12]

Grossman, Bell, and Reaves to some extent

 

[miltongator]

Need a QB for sure, but without some good offensive linemen, a great QB isn't coming to Florida to get pounded every week. Until that problem is solved, what we need is an elusive QB that can extend plays and throw strikes while under duress. I feel sorry for Appleby. He is good enough, given time, but he is by no means "nifty" in the pocket.

 

[DRU2012]

Need a QB for sure, but without some good offensive linemen, a great QB isn't coming to Florida to get pounded every week. Until that problem is solved, what we need is an elusive QB that can extend plays and throw strikes while under duress. I feel sorry for Appleby. He is good enough, given time, but he is by no means "nifty" in the pocket.

I completely agree--but more than ever, I return to the above simple truth.
Yes, we need more and better--these kids manning the patchwork O-line need some 4- and 5-star specialists, more "big uglies" as they say--but the line wasn't really the main problem this past weekend, for eg: Yes, depth and talent MUST be added...
BUT:
We GOTTA get a GOOD ONE out there at QB. Period. We'll not be ANY kind of true Champion without one.
SEVEN YEARS.
Seven YEARS since we were last even doing an IMPRESSION of a team that has a real, drive-OR-strike offense. Like we MIGHT take over a game, or come back from setbacks, overcome penalties, sloppy play, homer-refs, anything...
Thats why we GOT a Head Coach who was offense-oriented by reputation.
So either there's an uncut diamond on the bench right now, and/or we MUST go out and get one NOW. Note the "and/or": At some point, the idea is to have a kind of "assembly line" of talent feeding them into and up our depth chart, right? But at the moment, we haven't even "primed the pump".
My assumption is that Mac is MORE than aware of all this--and intends ALL of the above. I just wanna SEE it start to actually HAPPEN.
Seven friggin' years. It is time, long PAST time... I don't wanna HEAR about "plans and ideas"--I wanna see it HAPPEN.

 

[Leakfan12]

@DRU2012 Guessing you don't count Will Grier who had potential but got busted for illegal substance and transferred elsewhere (and won't be seen until midway 2017 if he's lucky).

 

[DRU2012]

@DRU2012 Guessing you don't count Will Grier who had potential but got busted for illegal substance and transferred elsewhere (and won't be seen until midway 2017 if he's lucky).

(Sorry to get back to ya so late in the week, aweb...Been trying NOT to think about our severely banged up team this week, and their less-than-miniscule chances in today's SEC Championship game)
Yes, that whole Grier mess MIGHT well have turned the page on all this by now--but as it was/is, seems just another example of how "bad luck/bad judgement" has been our lot throughout what we might one day refer to as "The Rudderless Era" of Gator Football (though the old line, "Up Shit Creek without a paddle" is probably better--and seldom more to the point!).
Personally, I have never quite accepted the feeble, still baffling explanations as to how that happened "in plain sight" in the first place (was Grier just that dumb? Did NO ONE notice, or ask any questions?)...And him taking off from UF in the aftermath: Was that TO all on him? Some idea that he was so full of shame and embarassment, it seemed better to go off to some other program and "start over"? Where did he go for councelling on this? Who convinced him THAT was somehow the way to go?
I'm not even necessarily saying there was or SHOULD have been something WE should have done in response--only highlighting all the questions I had, STILL have about that fiasco.
Coach Mac has sure been snakebit at QB.
I hear Muschamp still thinks (and tells folks "off the record") that he'd still be AT UF, a solidly entrenched winning coach here if he'd had any luck at QB (of course, he might look at his choices at OC, and the so-called "offensive philosophy" he used to pick them and impose here--the "3 yards and a cloud of dust" approach as if he were Vince Lombardi leading the Packers in the pre-industrial NFL--that MAY have had a bearing on everything else, Will)...
But Mac, brought IN as much for his offensive acumen as anything else, has had it bad at the key position: First an at least "promising young QB" in Grier (I'm not so sure he was going to dazzle and become some Gator legend or anything--but Grier did show signs of having all the "game manager" skills that we keep hearing would be enough to win, given depth of talent everywhere else), then the probably less- talented but more-experienced Delrio transfers in, wins the starting job--then gets hurt and (forwhatever reasons) just doesn't return to form as he comes back.
I'm afraid we've now seen his likely "weekly plateau" in his later post-injury play: mediocre at best. If he wins the starting job NEXT year, if one of the urrent freshmen or some unknown 5-star newcomer can't blow him back to the bench, we are basically the same team and record NEXT year.
Appleby is solid "mediocre" to start with, and anyway is gone after this season.
So. Back to the top:
"WE GOTTA GET A QB!!!"

 

[Escambia94]

We have recruited a lot of good QBs, but we have not developed one in a long time.

 

[DRU2012]

We have recruited a lot of good QBs, but we have not developed one in a long time.

Of course, at least SOME of those "good" ones haven't turned out so on the field.
Then again, some were poorly used and did considerably better elsewhere, once they transfered. Isn't that specifically why we went and got Coach Mac? Remains to be seen what he can do with "the right guy" at qb--but there are starting to be questions as to whether he and his staff are up to the task of gathering talent out on the Florida prep recruiting trail.
Again, unless they pull up something dramatic in the next few weeks, we AND they had better hope someone with a whole LOTTA "upside" is already here, was sitting on the bench with a redshirt in 2016. If not, gotta feeling that by this time next year our Head Coach and his staff will find themselves with at best "one more season" to make awfully big strides.
Sure hope I'm wrong, but so far the current prospective crop looks to be more "holding action" than "big move forward". Surely they KNOW their situation here, and what is required...(?)

 

[Escambia94]

Of course, at least SOME of those "good" ones haven't turned out so on the field.
Then again, some were poorly used and did considerably better elsewhere, once they transfered. Isn't that specifically why we went and got Coach Mac? Remains to be seen what he can do with "the right guy" at qb--but there are starting to be questions as to whether he and his staff are up to the task of gathering talent out on the Florida prep recruiting trail.
Again, unless they pull up something dramatic in the next few weeks, we AND they had better hope someone with a whole LOTTA "upside" is already here, was sitting on the bench with a redshirt in 2016. If not, gotta feeling that by this time next year our Head Coach and his staff will find themselves with at best "one more season" to make awfully big strides.
Sure hope I'm wrong, but so far the current prospective crop looks to be more "holding action" than "big move forward". Surely they KNOW their situation here, and what is required...(?)

This is what I mean about developing QBs:

• Cam Newton - nobody every mentored him or sharpened all of his skills on or off the football field and we were left with JB4 as the successor to Tim Tebow
• John Brantley IV - obviously recruited for a different offense, but never coached or developed to fit the right offense (the coaches should have adjusted the offense as Benedict Urban Meyer did with Chris Leak)
• Jacoby Brissett - last minute addition to the 2011 recruiting class by Charlie Weis, and a failure on the part of the Gator coaching staff considering how he went from 100 yards per game at UF to 300+ yards per game at NCSt.
• Jeff Driskel - doubled his output at La Tech, again a failure by the Gator coaching staff
• Tyler Murphy - yeah....
• Skyler Mornhinweg - a failure in recruiting when the Gators could not grab Paxton Lynch or anyone else
• Treon Harris - average skill, below average height, below average decision making on and off the field, and a regression on the field due to lack of coaching and development
• Will Grier - we will see him do very well at West Virginia under Holgerson's tutelage
• Luke Del Rio - no amount of coaching and development could help him overcome the lack of abilities everywhere but between the ears
• Austin Appleby - the only development I saw was "stop throwing to the other team"

 

[Leakfan12]

Well lack of height wasn't a problem for Chris Leak or a guy who Benedict missed out on in Tyrod Taylor. Well depending on what you would consider below average height (according to most people 6'2' or above is ideal) According to Rivals.com, Taylor was ranked ABOVE Cash Newton and Brantley and Taylor was a QB who ran the ball for VT.

 

[Escambia94]

Well lack of height wasn't a problem for Chris Leak or a guy who Benedict missed out on in Tyrod Taylor. Well depending on what you would consider below average height (according to most people 6'2' or above is ideal) According to Rivals.com, Taylor was ranked ABOVE Cash Newton and Brantley and Taylor was a QB who ran the ball for VT.

I am not knocking Treon Harris for his lack of height. I am knocking him for

• Treon Harris - average skill, below average height, below average decision making on and off the field, and a regression on the field due to lack of coaching and development

Treon was missing the whole package that would have compensated for his lack of height. He was suspended on three different occasions. Chris Leak's worst transgression on campus was getting a B- in class. Treon could not comprehend the offense in 2015; Chris learned essentially four different offenses in four years (Zaunbrecher, Fedora, Mullen's modified offense, Mullen's regular offense).

Tyrod Taylor stated that his decision would come down to Virginia Tech and Florida, but he never visited Florida. He cancelled his visit to Gainesville and stuck with the right school for him -- his home state of Virginia, only a couple hours away from home. Florida was never in serious contention for Tyrod Taylor, despite a few hits on Rivals.com showing that Florida was on his list.

 

[DRU2012]

Need a QB for sure, but without some good offensive linemen, a great QB isn't coming to Florida to get pounded every week. Until that problem is solved, what we need is an elusive QB that can extend plays and throw strikes while under duress. I feel sorry for Appleby. He is good enough, given time, but he is by no means "nifty" in the pocket.

So: Just got a 5-star EVERYONE wanted, our "stepped up last season when we had so little" young guys are getting bigger, stronger and more experienced, and so on: Will it be enough? Won't matter, may never even know for sure if at least ONE of those redshirt freshman-qbs doesn't turn out to have the bigtime chops AND is ready NOW.