Irish Spring: Quarterbacks

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billyd said...

the loss of kiel could be a problem. golsons concussion is a potential roadblock as the backups have not shown an abilty to put points on the board.the irish cant expect to win the close one like they did last year.if golson expierence the same kind of injury this year it will spell trouble.

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Lou Somogyi said...

The question I've posed on here a couple of times prior top Kiel's transfer was this:

If Golson were to get injured in the fourth quarter of the Michigan game with the Irish trailing 21-17 and needed to drive about 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdowns, who do you think Kelly and the staff would be more apt to peg for the job: Rees or Kiel?

It's easy to be smitten by potential, which we all can be. But when push comes to shove, we value having "been there, done that."

Not comparing football to life or death, but it's like if you had to undergo a delicate, life-threatening procedure. Would you prefer a doctor who has performed it successfully many times, or someone just getting out of medical school?

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65too said...

While driving to a meeting "down the hill" this afternoon, I got to thinking about the '13 QB unit. Kelly has an interesting group to work with. Not super talented as a group but with known skills and limits. Seems to me that he can plan and develop the skills of each player to optimize the contribution of the unit.

Golson is the obvious starter. Coach the hell out of the kid and let him let it rip. But if he gets hurt have a plan for each team on the schedule and each QB.

Rees may not be a talented runner, but more important, he is not a capable pro-style passer. And there are a bunch of teams whose D could stop Rees if he gets into either half a pro-style O or half a read option. In a pro-style offense, the QB must be able to throw with great accuracy into very small windows. Rees throws interceptions when asked to do that. Not with every throw, but enough to break your heart (like that girl you knew . . .) Kelly must let him run the read option, and by "let him run" I mean let him run when the read calls for the QB to keep it an run. Keep it simple. One read, two options: hand off or run. The read option will stretch the defense horizontally and mess with the safeties and take the CB's out of man coverage. That is enough to open the passing windows and give Rees a chance to throw effectively.

On the other hand, Hendrix is a horse who can run but has been too inconsistent throwing the football. IMO, Kelly might really focus on developing him as both a read and sprint option QB. The read option typically involves just the QB and the TB. Hendrix can read the end and hand off to the TB or run with authority. But in the sprit option (and ND showed this a little bit last year) the QB reads the end and if he hands off the TB runs inside the end. If the end closes on the TB, the QB keeps and runs outside the end. Now here is where the sprint option gets really interesting. When the QB gets outside the end, he will typically face a safety closing but now imagine Neal chasing the play from his Slotback position and giving Hendrix another option. Oh I hope the safety closes on Hendrix and Hendrix pitches to Neal who takes the pitch in space and has room to run and set up/juke DB's.

The obvious problem with this scenario is practice time. How the heck do you find the time to pactice all of this stuff with these three QB's. But you have to give them all snaps in order to make sure you have a next man in at QB. The toughest to practice, IMO, is the pitch Hendrix must make to Neal and the "path or route" that Neal must run so that Hendrix will know where he is when he decides to pitch. But it does not have to be a "blind" pitch like OU used in its wishbone days. It can be a visual pitch like Tommie Frazier used at Nebraska. Hendrix is big enough to make the pitch at hit the safety keeping him off of Neal.

Now, if Kelly can figure out how to practice all of that, ND could have a vastly improved QB unit in '13.

Fan Fun Time.