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A-Day Game thread


Tigerpro2a

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4 hours ago, Didba said:

I have yet to see anyone advocating for Holden to start. I am definitely not.  People are excited.  He showed some very nice things.

Yeah. I read that. And thought what the hell is wrong about being excited over the play of a young man in his first taste of college football.

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3 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

Calzada did nothing at A&M to indicate that he’s anything more than a bottom 3rd of the league QB, other than beating Alabama. TJ is just too slow to be a QB behind this Oline. We leaned on Bo’s ability to extend plays last year, heavily. This is the same dudes up front. It’s foolish to think we wont need that kind of QB again this year. Also, even the times he did have a chance to sit in the pocket, TJ didn’t throw particularly well.

I didn't ask what Calzada did. I am asking about his play and why you do not think he is good? Do you think he has a bad arm? Inaccurate? Bad decisions? Poor interal clock? Poor mechanics? Bails early? A statue? Etc

Everybody looks at his stat sheet and at his record at A&M and assumes he is trash. I would just like to know your thoughts on why he isn't good?

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6 hours ago, ScotsAU said:

He threw the ball well, but he didn’t have any deep throws, which apparently is where he’s been struggling. 

Where did you hear this? Have there been reports of Holden not being able to throw the deep ball this spring? I haven't heard of them if so.

4 hours ago, au302 said:

Knowing who TJ is right now, imo it comes down to which one of Calzada/Ashfords potential weaknesses or unknowns is better. Calzada's mobility or Robby's ability to stretch the field. Can Calzada roll out and move in the pocket with this bad OL? Can Robby be accurate on deep balls and stand in long enough? Gonna be fun 

Calzada is not a statue. He is plenty mobile enough especially compared to TJ. He isn't Bo mobile, but he is definitely Good and quick enough to escape pressure and extend plays.

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5 hours ago, Didba said:

That's not what I am facepalming. I agree with that. I was facepalming the "everybody"

“Everybody” wasn’t being applied to you, dingus. The college football world at large is the “everybody”.

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9 hours ago, AUght2win said:

Tank going 5 carries for 12 yards against our 2nd team defense is extremely concerning. Still in shock we got no offensive linemen in the portal pre spring.

Nothing out of the portal or Junior College.

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8 hours ago, HabitualChiller said:

You guys really need to slow down on the Holden hype. A true frosh completing routine throws in a literal scrimmage isn't enough to warrant throwing him into the SEC fire.

Cannot wait for post number 18.....

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9 hours ago, Tigerpro2a said:

I didn't ask what Calzada did. I am asking about his play and why you do not think he is good? Do you think he has a bad arm? Inaccurate? Bad decisions? Poor interal clock? Poor mechanics? Bails early? A statue? Etc

Everybody looks at his stat sheet and at his record at A&M and assumes he is trash. I would just like to know your thoughts on why he isn't good?

I mean I haven’t watched enough of Zach Calzada to know anything with any details. I’m also not an evaluator of QB’s. I am strictly going off of his bottom tier stat sheet. That’s a good indicator. Especially for a QB at a place like TA&M where the talent around him is so good.

Also, I think highly of Jimbo Fisher as a QB evaluator and Jimbo went out and grabbed up another QB in the portal, the second he could. Calzada was likely going to be the 3rd string QB for Jimbo. 

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15 hours ago, au302 said:

Knowing who TJ is right now, imo it comes down to which one of Calzada/Ashfords potential weaknesses or unknowns is better. Calzada's mobility or Robby's ability to stretch the field. Can Calzada roll out and move in the pocket with this bad OL? Can Robby be accurate on deep balls and stand in long enough? Gonna be fun 

TJ had 2 interceptions dropped today. In fairness, Dawson dropped a TJ pass too. I just have no confidence TJ can lead us to wins. He is missing something which explains his inaccuracy. I'm certainly not sold on Calzada either.  Which leads to Ashford. He looked better yesterday than TJ. And Ashford was going against the 1st Defense.  To me Ashford looks like a more poised Bo Nix.

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32 minutes ago, NWALA Tiger said:

TJ had 2 interceptions dropped today. In fairness, Dawson dropped a TJ pass too. I just have no confidence TJ can lead us to wins. He is missing something which explains his inaccuracy. I'm certainly not sold on Calzada either.  Which leads to Ashford. He looked better yesterday than TJ. And Ashford was going against the 1st Defense.  To me Ashford looks like a more poised Bo Nix.

The potential on Ashford is high for sure. It looks like the one thing he's gotta get better at is standing in. Cubelic said Harsin stopped practice to congratulate him on finally standing in the other day. Do that, and we're cooking. 

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3 hours ago, NWALA Tiger said:

TJ had 2 interceptions dropped today. In fairness, Dawson dropped a TJ pass too. I just have no confidence TJ can lead us to wins. He is missing something which explains his inaccuracy. I'm certainly not sold on Calzada either.  Which leads to Ashford. He looked better yesterday than TJ. And Ashford was going against the 1st Defense.  To me Ashford looks like a more poised Bo Nix.

Agree with all the above. TJ isn't bad. It was just more of the same that I saw. I think it's easy to like TJ because of the potential he has and he flashes what he can be. Therefore, it's easy to say give him more time and teaching. I get that but at point is it that's just who he is? Again, my biggest issue with TJ is that he's just too slow with reads and reaction. If we had a very good OL and proven WRs...i wouldn't mind going with TJ. What advantages does he bring that helps with our average OL and unproven WRs? That's how i look at the QB race. 

Zach gives you some elusiveness in the pocket but just like TJ he's been inconsistent. Texas A&M's OL was probably worse than ours as Zach was sacked 17 times(Bo - 13 sacks). I do like his deep throws. 

As for Robby. I really hope he gets a real chance despite the experience of the other 2 QBs. But i just don't have faith at this point he will. DD was given a lot of praise last spring and summer and didn't get a chance for 1 snap so that's my hesitancy in believing Robby will start game 1. I think it depends on how the first 3 or 4 games go. He may have a package or situations in which he goes in but i rarely like that option b/c it usually messes up the rhythm/flow of the offense. 

Zach is the guy i want but if Robby can keep improving on his passes, he just presents additional advantages for us. It's just not about his running ability. If you have a QB that can be elusive and make throws with pressure it presents so many problems for the defense.  

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22 hours ago, abw0004 said:

Still accepting tickets to the Gernier train.  Hopefully now some you guys start believing me.  😂

Certainly the best mechanics of all the QBs. Still would be shocked if he doesn't redshirt. One of the QBs better step up this year b/c he'll be taking their job next year.

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Opinions :1.ZC will start (actually has beaten Alabama) 2. Will have packages for Robby 3 . HG will redshirt.3. If TJ starts lease will be short. Thank you and have a nice day

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5 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I mean I haven’t watched enough of Zach Calzada to know anything with any details. I’m also not an evaluator of QB’s. I am strictly going off of his bottom tier stat sheet. That’s a good indicator. Especially for a QB at a place like TA&M where the talent around him is so good.

Also, I think highly of Jimbo Fisher as a QB evaluator and Jimbo went out and grabbed up another QB in the portal, the second he could. Calzada was likely going to be the 3rd string QB for Jimbo. 

That's exactly what I figured. Most folks (whether qualified QB evaluators or not) do not even take the time to watch a player to properly critique him. Stat sheet is AN indicator, but only a small piece of the big picture. The other misconception is that "if he didn't do well at A&M where he had all that talent then he isn't going to do well at AU". A&M's OL and WR both performed worse than AU's did last year. 

I for one am happy people are sleeping on ZC. At least then he won't have unrealistic expectations.Everyone here already thinks he sucks from a stat sheet. So he has a low bar to live up to which I fully expect him to vastly exceed.

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My useless observations….

QB is not going to be at the level we need to be successful.   TJ is way too inconsistent.   Zach was last year as well.  Some have attributed that to the shoulder injury.   I’m not sure how true that is.   Robby will get to play some.   Holden seems to be the best, most consistent passer we have.   It sounds like he won’t be ready to be the guy for at least a year or two.    
The RB room is good, but unfortunately our OL stinks, so they won’t have the opportunity for much success.   
TEs are good and deep! 
WRs are average at best.  
Overall, offense is going to be poor.  That starts up front.   Add mediocre QB play and WRs who can’t get much separation or win the 50/50 balls = trouble!

Defense has more potential.   DL should be pretty good.   We have some depth there too.  LB is OP and some inexperienced talent.   OP staying was HUGE for that group!!!   DB has some young talent too.   I think they’ll make a lot of good plays and make their share of rookie mistakes as well.   The defense will have very little room for error, because they won’t get much help from the other side of the ball.  
On ST, Oscar is a weapon!   He will help us with field position.   At FG, I wonder how much power Anders will have, and will he have enough practice reps to have a lot of consistency?   If not, will Alex be ready as a TF?   I’m thankful we have some excellent options there.   
Overall, it appears there’s too much of a talent gap between us and our rivals.   We failed to get a top level QB, a couple of solid OL, and a WR1 in the portal.  Therefore, it appears we’re in for another long, disappointing season.   Unless we make some big personnel changes, 2023 won’t be much better.  It will take at least 2 years of excellent recruiting, a little help from the portal, and a renewed confidence in CBH and his staff for us to be successful in 2024.  I’m just not real sure that’s ever going to happen.  But hopefully so.  
War Eagle either way!

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18 minutes ago, Tigerpro2a said:

That's exactly what I figured. Most folks (whether qualified QB evaluators or not) do not even take the time to watch a player to properly critique him. Stat sheet is AN indicator, but only a small piece of the big picture. The other misconception is that "if he didn't do well at A&M where he had all that talent then he isn't going to do well at AU". A&M's OL and WR both performed worse than AU's did last year. 

I for one am happy people are sleeping on ZC. At least then he won't have unrealistic expectations.Everyone here already thinks he sucks from a stat sheet. So he has a low bar to live up to which I fully expect him to vastly exceed.

If Zach Calzada was good enough to start for a winning SEC program, he would still be at A&M as the incumbent starter. We are essentially taking the 3rd best QB from a team that’s not much better than we are and hoping that he will turn into a good enough QB to have us competing for SEC Titles, with a career WR coach as his primary developer.

Its a huge risk to assume ZC will improve that much. I personally think we have a better shot of finding a diamond in the rough in Ashford.

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24 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

If Zach Calzada was good enough to start for a winning SEC program, he would still be at A&M as the incumbent starter. We are essentially taking the 3rd best QB from a team that’s not much better than we are and hoping that he will turn into a good enough QB to have us competing for SEC Titles, with a career WR coach as his primary developer.

Its a huge risk to assume ZC will improve that much. I personally think we have a better shot of finding a diamond in the rough in Ashford.

Couple things there to address. 

First, I forgot that where a player is on another team/staff's depth chart is always 100 percent accurate indicator of their talent level . There are a number of reasons a QB could be buried on a depth chart and it not be directly correlated with his talent level. 

You make it sound as if I am expecting ZC to improve light years from where he was last year and that is not the case. I do expect some marginal improvement, but I think we will be fine even if he performs at the exact level he did last year. I think his level last year is better than what we have. MAtter of fact, I think if we had him last year we likely win 9+ games.

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Tried watching the replay but I guess you have to have espn+.  Sounds like this game wasn’t worth $6.  

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2 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

If Zach Calzada was good enough to start for a winning SEC program, he would still be at A&M as the incumbent starter. We are essentially taking the 3rd best QB from a team that’s not much better than we are and hoping that he will turn into a good enough QB to have us competing for SEC Titles, with a career WR coach as his primary developer.

Its a huge risk to assume ZC will improve that much. I personally think we have a better shot of finding a diamond in the rough in Ashford.

In your earlier post you point out how his bottom tier stats are especially bad because the talent around him at A&M was so good. Then in your latest post you say we're taking the 3rd best QB from a team that's not much better than we are. I understand your contention that he's not a good QB, and you may very well end up right, just seems that your all over the place on your argument though, lol

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2 hours ago, Tigerpro2a said:

Couple things there to address. 

First, I forgot that where a player is on another team/staff's depth chart is always 100 percent accurate indicator of their talent level . There are a number of reasons a QB could be buried on a depth chart and it not be directly correlated with his talent level. 

.

Malik Willis comes to mind

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7 hours ago, AUinMS9528 said:

My useless observations….

QB is not going to be at the level we need to be successful.   TJ is way too inconsistent.   Zach was last year as well.  Some have attributed that to the shoulder injury.   I’m not sure how true that is.   Robby will get to play some.   Holden seems to be the best, most consistent passer we have.   It sounds like he won’t be ready to be the guy for at least a year or two.    
The RB room is good, but unfortunately our OL stinks, so they won’t have the opportunity for much success.   
TEs are good and deep! 
WRs are average at best.  
Overall, offense is going to be poor.  That starts up front.   Add mediocre QB play and WRs who can’t get much separation or win the 50/50 balls = trouble!

Defense has more potential.   DL should be pretty good.   We have some depth there too.  LB is OP and some inexperienced talent.   OP staying was HUGE for that group!!!   DB has some young talent too.   I think they’ll make a lot of good plays and make their share of rookie mistakes as well.   The defense will have very little room for error, because they won’t get much help from the other side of the ball.  
On ST, Oscar is a weapon!   He will help us with field position.   At FG, I wonder how much power Anders will have, and will he have enough practice reps to have a lot of consistency?   If not, will Alex be ready as a TF?   I’m thankful we have some excellent options there.   
Overall, it appears there’s too much of a talent gap between us and our rivals.   We failed to get a top level QB, a couple of solid OL, and a WR1 in the portal.  Therefore, it appears we’re in for another long, disappointing season.   Unless we make some big personnel changes, 2023 won’t be much better.  It will take at least 2 years of excellent recruiting, a little help from the portal, and a renewed confidence in CBH and his staff for us to be successful in 2024.  I’m just not real sure that’s ever going to happen.  But hopefully so.  
War Eagle either way!

Pretty fair take. I disagree though. I don't think we are going to be poor on offense. I am the minority in this line of thinking and I am ok with that. 

First, I think our QB play is going to be average to slightly above average. I fully expect ZC to win the job and I like ZC as a QB especially under CBH and his offense. I know I am higher on ZC than most, but most haven't even taken the time to look past his stat sheet. He isn't going to be a world beater by any means, and nor do I think he is a game changer, but he is good enough to win some games. He has a good deep ball, hits the short stuff where it needs to be, and is mobile enough to extend some plays. He might not be the reason we win many, but he also won't be the reason we lose games IMO.

Next up..RB. Tank, J. Hunter and S. Jackson are as good of a 3 punch combo as we have had since 2013 IMO.Solid and we will lean on this group more than any other. 

WR- We are highly unproven at WR as we are all aware. We are also fairly thin as of now. We don't have a lot of big bodied possession WR. Maybe Z Capers, but we do have a few guys that can take the top off a Defense and I think we will have a QB more capable of hitting those guys downfield than we have since 2018.  The TE group is going to help with the thin WR room IMO.

TE- Probably the #2 strength of the offense. We have 4 TEs plus LAndon King who is going to be a huge part of our offense with his versatility. JSS is a proven pass catcher. Tyler Fromm has a good skill set and could be a RZ nightmare. 

OL- It is hard to say who the starting OL will be as of right now. Everything hinges on the OL. If we have even a little better OL than we did last year (mainly run blocking) then I believe we can have a successful season and surprise a lot of people. 

On Defense, I think we will have a top 4-5 SEC defense this season. I think a lot hinges on LB position and how much Steiner, Rielly and co improved from last year to this year. I think our secondary is going to be solid. Our DL should be nasty barring injuries especially at Edge. If LB group can come on strong I think we will have another talented Defense.

My prediction as it sits right now we go 8-4 but look good in the losses and competitive for the most part. We pick up some steam in the recruiting and Coach Harsin miraculously rights the ship. I think worst case is 6-6. 9-3 best. 

Right now it is just so early to be writing off a team or crowning one for that matter. We don't know what pieces could be brought in between now and August. We don't know what players just have the light come on. So many variables. 

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34 minutes ago, Tigerpro2a said:

I fully expect ZC to win the job and I like ZC as a QB especially under CBH and his offense. I know I am higher on ZC than most, but most haven't even taken the time to look past his stat sheet. He isn't going to be a world beater by any means, and nor do I think he is a game changer, but he is good enough to win some games. He has a good deep ball, hits the short stuff where it needs to be, and is mobile enough to extend some plays. He might not be the reason we win many, but he also won't be the reason we lose games IMO.

One thing that gives me hope is that I have read a lot of opinions, including some from A&M's own fans, that Jimbo's offense is too complicated for their personnel, unless you have a talent like Jameis. Hard to believe because I know he's a renown coach that draws a huge salary, but it does seem like every time I see them play they're not really that great on offense, but I'm not sure where they ranked statistically 

You could tell ZC was spinning a bit last year at times, but the talent is clearly there. Maybe the strongest arm in the nation. Can he make good decisions and put touch on short and intermediate routes? Can Harsin/Kiesau simplify things a bit for him, and is their system more QB friendly than Jimbo's? It remains to be seen how it plays out, but hopefully so

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20 hours ago, au302 said:

In your earlier post you point out how his bottom tier stats are especially bad because the talent around him at A&M was so good. Then in your latest post you say we're taking the 3rd best QB from a team that's not much better than we are. I understand your contention that he's not a good QB, and you may very well end up right, just seems that your all over the place on your argument though, lol

Auburn has talent too. I never said we didn’t. But Texas AM doesn’t have a receiver depth and talent issue like we have and Calzada still didn’t perform well. So yes, they weren’t much better than Auburn last year, but they still had enough talent for him not to be the 12th best QB, statically, in the SEC. It’s not like he was playing with Vandy level talent.

 

 

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Being high on Calzada is really nothing more than unbridled optimism. I hope yall are right but he's just a massive unknown like all our other QBs and is a year older.

I just hope one can give our team a chance 

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