Nix Improvements next Year

[abw0004 10,109]

15 hours ago, AUght2win said:

Case and point: Nix's knee-jerk reflex to ground the ball at the slightest pressure. 

I am actually okay with this.  It is better than taking a sack, which Stidham was prone to do.  I do like that with pressure, Nix keeps his eyes up wanting to throw the ball over running it unless there is a crazy gap for him to run in.

[abw0004 10,109]

Personally, I think Nix will improve next year and it will be pretty notable.  A few of the reasons will be Nix will have had a full year to continue to develop timing with all of his receivers (most are returning).  A better offensive line.  At home Nix still has his dad to help him out and when he returns to Auburn he has Chad Morris.  On top of that he is just a gamer and wants to get better.  He does not seem like the kind of guy to phone something in or take days off.  I continue to be excited for his future with us.

[AuburnTiger4Life 2,225]

Burrow and Tua are gone. Now it’s your time to shine Bo

[AUght2win 6,827]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

I just can't believe he wouldn't be further along with his fundamentals though

People keep saying this but I don't see it. His fundamentals look great to me. He just misses. He lacks touch and is too juiced sometimes. What about his fundamental mechanics, specifically, do you see as being bad? 

[Gowebb11 9,313]

2 hours ago, copper4eva said:

I never got this take. He does recruit running QB's. He actually recruits too many if anything. He's certainly recruited more "dual threat" guys than "pro style" guys.

You’re talking QBs who can run. I’m talking running QBs. Cam and Nick had 1,000 yard seasons as a QB. They were a threat to take it to the house on any play. They could’ve ran the wishbone of the 70s and 80s. White, Johnson, Stidham, Nix, those guys have some speed but are not 1,000 yard guys or take it to the house guys. 

 

2 hours ago, copper4eva said:

They don't respect the deep game. Minnesota especially stacked the box.

And we made no adjustment. None. That handicaps any QB, and that’s what I’m talking about with Nix. Gus isn’t putting him in a position to develop or succeed to his potential. 

 

2 hours ago, copper4eva said:

I think he's wasted his time.

Exactly. How much time does Saban, Dabo, Smart, etc....waste on recruiting? They get guys who fit their system, or they adapt their system. 

[cole256 17,042]

10 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

People keep saying this but I don't see it. His fundamentals look great to me. He just misses. He lacks touch and is too juiced sometimes. What about his fundamental mechanics, specifically, do you see as being bad? 

His foot work. His lower body is really bad. If you look at his upper toro it's very good. It would really take you to see just how supremely accurate some guys can really be with the ball...because we're talking inches usually and we're talking about making the throw every time.....the league and regard people wanted him to be. Accidentally throwing balls out ofbounds is a pretty big deal. 

People love to say how Marshall wasn't a QB....what was the big difference between the two throwing the ball? Every now again there are incredible throws and every now and then there are bad over throws.....same thing. And I don't think you are but I pray you're not the guy who said he was so much better than Taj Boyd because that was one of the most ridiculous takes EVER on this board of opinions

[auburnphan 6,050]

Footwork and learning to square his shoulders when scrambling and rolling out will help his accuracy.  Calling less designed plays with low completion percentages will help as well.

[copper4eva 106]

15 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

You’re talking QBs who can run. I’m talking running QBs. Cam and Nick had 1,000 yard seasons as a QB. They were a threat to take it to the house on any play. They could’ve ran the wishbone of the 70s and 80s. White, Johnson, Stidham, Nix, those guys have some speed but are not 1,000 yard guys or take it to the house guys.

Of course White, Johnson, Stidham, Nix aren't 1000 yard guys. I never said they were.

Obviously there's a difference between Cam/Nick and all those other guys mentioned. But that's the thing. How do you know Nick was gonna be Nick before he came to Auburn? Note that I don't include Newton, because he was a high profile recruit, who was clearly going to at least be an impact player barring any unforeseen issues. Nobody could've realistically known that Marshall would've panned out, and Gatewood didn't (I suppose he still might at Kentucky).

Which goes back to the fact that Gus clearly is bad at evaluating recruits. He's recruited a lot of 4 star QB's who couldn't accurately throw the ball more than 6 yards downfield. Which is why if you've got a choice of a athletic recruit like Marshall/Willis/Gatewood and all them, and a less athletic but can at least throw accurately recruit like White/Nix, I'd rather us recruit the latter.

 

You said you want running QB's. As in, guys who can throw accurately and run the ball. Everybody wants that guy, easier said than done. And, hey, if we can get one or two recruits like that, than freaking awesome, just don't count on it consistently happening. My point is, if you gotta choose between a athletic QB recruit who's very raw in his passing ability (he could be the next Marshall, but more likely the next bust) or a QB who can pass accurately and read defenses a little, I'd rather have the passer. Gus has mostly been recruiting athletic types, and has been busting real hard on them.

[twilli13 600]

3 hours ago, copper4eva said:

Nix has to be more patient, and obviously more accurate. He scrambled out of clean pockets consistently. His OL was actually decent as pass blocking. And he didn't take advantage of that. I feel like accuracy is self explanatory, but I will say if he were to stay in the pocket more often and make comfortable throws, rather than making these throws even more difficult, then he'd probably throw on the money more often.

We flat out gave up on the deep ball like half way through the season. Because Nix wouldn't connect. The deep ball over the middle of the field is probably the throw that Malzahn's offense needs the most. It puts pressure on the safeties, and opens up the box. That's what we had in seasons like 13, 14, and 17, that we didn't have in the other seasons. When teams can stack the box on Gus without getting burned for it, we're kind of screwed.

Right, obviously no QB has reached their peak potential under Malazhn (sarcasm btw). Not trying to praise Malzahn as a QB genius or anything (because I don't think he is one), but what he did with Marshall was amazing. Also, while the 2018 campaign sucked, he did a great job with Stidham in 2017.

Gus keeps trying to chase these raw athlete QB recruits. Malik Willis, JF3, Gatewood, the list goes on. Gatewood wasn't even recruited as QB for most teams. Most wanted him at either DE or TE. He keeps trying to chase after the next Marshall or Newton. If Gus recruited more QB's that actually showed they can read defenses before coming to Auburn, we'd be in much better shape. Guys like, White, Stidham, and obviously Nix.

For Nix it mostly depends on how the OL pans out. If they end up at least as good as the 2019 OL (which is not a very high bar of course) then Nix has no excuses imo to not have a great season. The OL is the main thing potentially keeping him from performing to his "peak potential", other than himself.

I just dont understand why people keep giving Gus credit for Nick Marshall. He set Georgia highshcool records as a QB and then averaged 285 yards a game as a juco QB with a 57% completion rate. His completion rate at AU rose slightly, but not significantly. About the only thing Gus really should get credit for, and its consistent with what folks say is the main thing he coaches his QBs to do, is reduce interceptions. Marshall had 18tds and 20 ints in his last juco year, then lowered INTs a great deal while at AU. But this myth that he turned Nick Marshall from some scrub QB to what he was at AU needs to be bunked stat. Its just not true. NM did way more for Gus than vice versa. 

[AUTigerTime 186]

9 minutes ago, copper4eva said:

Which goes back to the fact that Gus clearly is bad at evaluating recruits. He's recruited a lot of 4 star QB's who couldn't accurately throw the ball more than 6 yards downfield. Which is why if you've got a choice of a athletic recruit like Marshall/Willis/Gatewood and all them, and a less athletic but can at least throw accurately recruit like White/Nix, I'd rather us recruit the latter.

...Gus has mostly been recruiting athletic types, and has been busting real hard on them.

He's constantly been searching for that unicorn after Cam and even Nick. He puts athleticism ahead of everything else and assumes he can turn them into a quality QB. He's been living in a delusion that he made Cam and Nick. And that they were just good athletes that he turned into amazing quality college QBs, when in fact he just happened upon some unicorns early in his career. He continues to shoot for the moon and typically falls on his face.

Nix was thankfully dropped into his lap or who knows where we'd have been with Gatewood this past year. My guess is Malzahn would have been fired after this year.

But yes, evaluating recruits overall is a huge issue for him. Our team has had huge deficiencies. And going into next year, the number of JUCO OL we've targeted is a clear sign of that. He's having to plug holes in our depth that shouldn't be there. For someone who still focuses on running it up the middle in the teeth of the defense, you've got to have quality OL that can generate a push. And he's been treating OL recruiting like it's an afterthought. 

 

[copper4eva 106]

2 minutes ago, twilli13 said:

I just dont understand why people keep giving Gus credit for Nick Marshall. He set Georgia highshcool records as a QB and then averaged 285 yards a game as a juco QB with a 57% completion rate. His completion rate at AU rose slightly, but not significantly. About the only thing Gus really should get credit for, and its consistent with what folks say is the main thing he coaches his QBs to do, is reduce interceptions. Marshall had 18tds and 20 ints in his last juco year, then lowered INTs a great deal while at AU. But this myth that he turned Nick Marshall from some scrub QB to what he was at AU needs to be bunked stat. Its just not true. NM did way more for Gus than vice versa. 

This is a fair perspective. I mostly base my opinion on Marshall's development off of how he changed from his first games at Auburn to his final. He was a much better passer in 2014 than in 2013. I feel like that is hard to deny.

I don't care at all about stats in high school or juco. There are many record breakers that went on to do little to nothing. If I want to judge a players high school career, I simply watch film. It's the only real way. There's just too many cases of players being in very talented offenses, playing against very under talented offenses. I mean, it's freaking high school lmao.

I honestly think it's more about the player than the coach in todays football. These "QB gurus" aren't actually genius coaches, they're genius recruiters. Guys like Meyer and Mullen and so on just have a way of picking motivated talented accurate QB's out of the overrated QB's. That's my take anyways. I'm not saying they're bad QB coaches, but it's all about the recruiting. Gus has to recruit better.

2 minutes ago, AUTigerTime said:

He's constantly been searching for that unicorn after Cam and even Nick. He puts athleticism ahead of everything else and assumes he can turn them into a quality QB. He's been living in a delusion that he made Cam and Nick. And that they were just good athletes that he turned into amazing quality college QBs, when in fact he just happened upon some unicorns early in his career. He continues to shoot for the moon and typically falls on his face.

Nix was thankfully dropped into his lap or who knows where we'd have been with Gatewood this past year. My guess is Malzahn would have been fired after this year.

But yes, evaluating recruits overall is a huge issue for him. Our team has had huge deficiencies. And going into next year, the number of JUCO OL we've targeted is a clear sign of that. He's having to plug holes in our depth that shouldn't be there. For someone who still focuses on running it up the middle in the teeth of the defense, you've got to have quality OL that can generate a push. And he's been treating OL recruiting like it's an afterthought.

This is my point. We could recruit more guys like Nix and Stidham and White. But instead he keeps going pure athleticism. Dude needs to just get a QB.

[Gowebb11 9,313]

46 minutes ago, copper4eva said:

Of course White, Johnson, Stidham, Nix aren't 1000 yard guys. I never said they were.

Obviously there's a difference between Cam/Nick and all those other guys mentioned. But that's the thing. How do you know Nick was gonna be Nick before he came to Auburn? Note that I don't include Newton, because he was a high profile recruit, who was clearly going to at least be an impact player barring any unforeseen issues. Nobody could've realistically known that Marshall would've panned out, and Gatewood didn't (I suppose he still might at Kentucky).

Which goes back to the fact that Gus clearly is bad at evaluating recruits. He's recruited a lot of 4 star QB's who couldn't accurately throw the ball more than 6 yards downfield. Which is why if you've got a choice of a athletic recruit like Marshall/Willis/Gatewood and all them, and a less athletic but can at least throw accurately recruit like White/Nix, I'd rather us recruit the latter.

 

You said you want running QB's. As in, guys who can throw accurately and run the ball. Everybody wants that guy, easier said than done. And, hey, if we can get one or two recruits like that, than freaking awesome, just don't count on it consistently happening. My point is, if you gotta choose between a athletic QB recruit who's very raw in his passing ability (he could be the next Marshall, but more likely the next bust) or a QB who can pass accurately and read defenses a little, I'd rather have the passer. Gus has mostly been recruiting athletic types, and has been busting real hard on them.

FWIW, I didn't say I wanted running QBs. I said that for Gus’s offense to run at its peak it needs running QBs, and he doesn’t seem to realize that. Here’s an analogy for you: did Paul Johnson at GT or the coaches at the military academies recruit 6’5’ pocket passers to run their option offenses? No, they recruited guys who fit the system. Wisconsin doesn’t recruit lean offensive lineman, they recruit giant maulers. Because they know what fits their system. Gus doesn’t seem to know what he wants. Thus a growing list of abysmal offensive performances in key games. Our point of agreement seems to be that Gus has proven over 7 years that his offensive system/recruiting is missing the mark and leading to too many 4 and 5 loss seasons. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

15 hours ago, AURex said:

Nix takes no responsibility. He does not mention anything pertaining to self-improvement. He's all about "keeping the team together" and "There’s also no more Joey Gatewood in the quarterback room with Nix. Instead of focusing on beating him out and winning the job, Nix will work on his relationship with his pass-catchers, as well as his own physique. the wideouts getting better, but personally only getting 'bigger and stronger and faster' ". So he knows he has no competition and he can just do his thing as the anointed savior of Auburn football.

I'm sorry, but this is not the attitude I want from a QB. He has been told all his life that he is Mr Wonderful. Somebody needs to ground him and force-feed him some fundamentals. Because this past year, despite all the future projections of wonderfulness, he was mediocre and he really needs to improve.

 

I Agree, you have no idea what you are saying.

You don't think his Dad or these QB gurus that he has spent summers with aren't force-feeding him fundamentals? Sometimes it takes time to make those adjustments, and bad habits come back when a QB is in pressure situations.

And having Pat Nix as his father and coach for all those years, tells me he has not been instilled w/ 'Mr Wonderful' comments. Geez.

Does Bo show some inconsistency? ofc. But let's look at these stats:

He has not thrown an INT since the LSU game. in touching the ball almost 500 times, he has had only 4 fumbles, so he does very well in protecting the ball(which Stidham could not do well). 

[Randman5000 4,226]

15 hours ago, murpjf88 said:

He needs a stout offensive line for that. Every team in America wants him throwing on the run. It's in the gameplan.

NO doubt!!

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 hour ago, copper4eva said:

He was a much better passer in 2014 than in 2013. I feel like that is hard to deny.

I'll deny it. He got a little better because he ran the same offense with a lot of carryover on the offensive line. He kept Sammie Coates who could run under those long balls and he added Duke Williams, who made a *lot* of wow catches in 2014 to help out his QB. His numbers rose slightly because of course they did. 

Nick was a fantastic QB but he wasn't meaningfully better at throwing the ball when he left than he was when he got here.

[Barnacle 9,064]

18 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

I'll deny it. He got a little better because he ran the same offense with a lot of carryover on the offensive line. He kept Sammie Coates who could run under those long balls and he added Duke Williams, who made a *lot* of wow catches in 2014 to help out his QB. His numbers rose slightly because of course they did. 

Nick was a fantastic QB but he wasn't meaningfully better at throwing the ball when he left than he was when he got here.

He improver marginally, and for the all the reasons you just mentioned. Thanks.

[AUght2win 6,827]

2 hours ago, cole256 said:

His foot work. His lower body is really bad. If you look at his upper toro it's very good. It would really take you to see just how supremely accurate some guys can really be with the ball...because we're talking inches usually and we're talking about making the throw every time.....the league and regard people wanted him to be. Accidentally throwing balls out ofbounds is a pretty big deal. 

People love to say how Marshall wasn't a QB....what was the big difference between the two throwing the ball? Every now again there are incredible throws and every now and then there are bad over throws.....same thing. And I don't think you are but I pray you're not the guy who said he was so much better than Taj Boyd because that was one of the most ridiculous takes EVER on this board of opinions

I was. Again you are looking for a fight. I said he was more talented if I recall. Which he is.

[AUght2win 6,827]

2 hours ago, auburnphan said:

Footwork and learning to square his shoulders when scrambling and rolling out will help his accuracy.  Calling less designed plays with low completion percentages will help as well.

It amazes me how we have no checkdowns. Gus will legit send 4 fly routes in max pro and expect it to work every time. 

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Bo needs to improvements a lot for next season. He made too many mistakes in our 4 loses.

[cole256 17,042]

2 hours ago, AUght2win said:

I was. Again you are looking for a fight. I said he was more talented if I recall. Which he is.

Bro you really have to find something else to do besides say somebody is fighting you when they say something you don't want to hear. You asked me a question and I answered it. That's what's going on when people talk about his fundamentals and him not being as talented as many of you think is the other problem. He's not a bad player but he wasn't close to the Trevor Lawrence and tua 's either

[AUght2win 6,827]

2 minutes ago, cole256 said:

Bro you really have to find something else to do besides say somebody is fighting you when they say something you don't want to hear. You asked me a question and I answered it. That's what's going on when people talk about his fundamentals and him not being as talented as many of you think is the other problem. He's not a bad player but he wasn't close to the Trevor Lawrence and tua 's either

I say you want a fight because you brought up a totally inorganic, irrelevant point. We were talking about fundamentals and tried to loop in a comment from a month ago about Nix being more talented than Boyd. 

[cole256 17,042]

5 minutes ago, AUght2win said:

I say you want a fight because you brought up a totally inorganic, irrelevant point. We were talking about fundamentals and tried to loop in a comment from a month ago about Nix being more talented than Boyd. 

I asked if that was you or not because I wanted to realize who I was talking too. Should I really explain or should I just say what it is without it because you're not going to be objective. But either way you say it every other post, we're on a message board.....no it's not fights it's a discussion. Not everybody is so personally invested in particular players

*and after going back checking you aren't the guy I was talking about, even though you're wrong too you didn't say the super crazy stuff. Just the crazy stuff

[AUght2win 6,827]

5 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I asked if that was you or not because I wanted to realize who I was talking too. Should I really explain or should I just say what it is without it because you're not going to be objective. But either way you say it every other post, we're on a message board.....no it's not fights it's a discussion. Not everybody is so personally invested in particular players

*and after going back checking you aren't the guy I was talking about, even though you're wrong too you didn't say the super crazy stuff. Just the crazy stuff

You are so ANGRY! 😂

[cole256 17,042]

Just now, AUght2win said:

You are so ANGRY! 😂

Nah you're just sensitive until it's a Bo thread 😂. But this would be trying to start a "fight" passive aggression and deflection are common with a weak position. But anyway like I said you asked and I answered, people don't have a conspiracy against the kid, his footwork is horrible. Which can be good and bad when you think about it

[roe4christ 940]

7 hours ago, AuburnTiger4Life said:

Burrow and Tua are gone. Now it’s your time to shine Bo

Anyone want to take a guess at who the starting quarterback will be for the teams on our SEC schedule this next season?  Ready go.....