Jarrett

[aubiefifty 16,836]

maybe he wants more freedom to check out of bad plays etc? if i had as high a ceiling as he has i would want to make use of all the tools i would need to take the next step. i just think being in school another year would be very valuable to mr stidham if the coaches work with him on things that might concern him. he signed up with us so i think we owe it to him to make sure he is all he can be.............

[NorthGATiger 1,801]

9 minutes ago, keesler said:

Does Stidham want to take a chance on an inexperienced Oline next year?  Does he want to see how the RBs pan out?  Will our coach learn how to improve a QB and get them draft ready in the next 12 months behind a green Oline?  Will his coaches somehow, someway be able to get more creative with the schemes and play calling to highlight JS's skills?

I don't like to look back and have regrets, but dang it this was the year to make a splash.

 

Bam, Bam, Bam!  We all speculate on why people do things and why we struggled at times on offense this year.  Some think O-Line.  Some think Jarrett had happy feet in the pocket and lacked the ability to go through his progressions, leaving WR's wide open down the field.  What I do know is what we all saw this year.  WR screen, Screen to Barrett, Deep pass play, hand off to the RB. Lets be honest.  JS saw a better route tree playing scout team QB while he took a year away from college football.  If Gus is not going to do anything more than WR Screen, Deep ball, and an occasional drag across the middle with Hastings or NCM what will next year do to get JS better prepared for what the NFL will throw at him and expect him to do?  For all we know JS hates the passing game at Auburn and thought Chip Lindsey was going to implement a bunch of his stuff here.  I don't think he is near ready myself but I also don't know what another year in Gus' system does for a QB.  Other than a once in a lifetime player like Cam who does Auburn have in the NFL at the QB position anywhere on a roster? 

[imaolgatiger 523]

4 hours ago, caleb1633 said:

His ability to make reads is nowhere near where it needs to be and he needs to be able to make them faster and under pressure. That was his Achilles heel this year. You pressure the guy, and he folded. Being “fortunate” enough to sit in the nosebleeds during the Peach Bowl, I got to see a lot of the plays developing, and there were a lot of open receivers he was missing.

Exactly! I was pointing this out to my friends on the replays. He creates a lot of his problems. He scrambles when he doesn’t have to. He had several wide open receivers and couldn’t find them. He needs to learn to step into the pocket and also develop his ability to find the open receivers when he scrambles. 

[AU64 10,122]

39 minutes ago, WDE0007 said:

My personal observation has been that the most successful QBs under Gus were developed by someone else (Cam, Nick, now Stidham). No offense to Gus, but for an "offensive guru and genius," he is not the greatest QB developer.

Developed elsewhere....at Juco?     gotta seriously disagree on that point.....both were playing against inferior talent and coaches mostly turned them loose to do what they wanted to if you watched film of either of them.   Both came to AU with exceptional athletic ability.....but were still raw QBs.....and managed to get to national championship games and pretty sure they did not do it on their own. 

As for JS.....JMO but he was far from developed when he got to AU....but made good progress this year.    He has  a good arm but is still far from a poised QB who might be ready for the NFL.   I'm still waiting on him to lead us in an important  come-from-behind win and hope he will stay another year and show us that he can be the team leader who can inspire his team to win some games where they are in trouble..   But if he goes, he goes...and AU will just play "next man up"...which is probably Willis.

[auburnphan 6,050]

Is Stidham ready to start in the NFL, probably not, but then again most rookie QB's are not ready to start.  Is he an NFL talent, no doubt.

Is it more valuable to be a back up in the NFL in a NFL system for 2-3 yrs starting now or to play one more year or two at Auburn and possibly start that process at that point and time.   

I think both choices are smart, I just hope he sticks with us one more year.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

1 minute ago, AU64 said:

Developed elsewhere....at Juco?     gotta seriously disagree on that point.....both were playing against inferior talent and coaches mostly turned them loose to do what they wanted to if you watched film of either of them.   Both came to AU with exceptional athletic ability.....but were still raw QBs.....and managed to get to national championship games and pretty sure they did not do it on their own. 

As for JS.....JMO but he was far from developed when he got to AU....but made good progress this year.    He has  a good arm but is still far from a poised QB who might be ready for the NFL.   I'm still waiting on him to lead us in an important  come-from-behind win and hope he will stay another year and show us that he can be the team leader who can inspire his team to win some games where they are in trouble..   But if he goes, he goes...and AU will just play "next man up"...which is probably Willis.

Totally agree on your first point. Especially for Nick. At least Cam had a season under Urban Meyer...

And as far as your 2nd point, I really thought Stidham was going to bring us to a come from behind victory in the bowl game. That hurt bad. Especially that game clinching INT. I REALLY thought he was gonna pull it out for us.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

33 minutes ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

He absolutely isn't the best QB developer buy it's difficult (for me) to attribute Nicks development to anyone other than himself. He had his high school coach and 1 season of JC coaching to "develop" him at QB. It's not like Nick was developed at QB during his Georiga days.

This. Nicks improvement as a passer from year 1-2 can't just be chalked up as "self-taught". While Cam and Stidham improving throughout the year can be attributed to reps in the system, Nick got some coaching. Now... who did that coaching is anyone's guess... Gus, Rhett... who knows.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

13 minutes ago, AU64 said:

But if he goes, he goes...and AU will just play "next man up"...which is probably Willis.

If he goes, prepare for another round of the famous Gus Malzahn Juco QB scramble. We're 3-1 in that game... hopefully if it happens again we won't be 3-2.

[Woodstock Tiger 131]

4 hours ago, caleb1633 said:

His ability to make reads is nowhere near where it needs to be and he needs to be able to make them faster and under pressure. That was his Achilles heel this year. You pressure the guy, and he folded. Being “fortunate” enough to sit in the nosebleeds during the Peach Bowl, I got to see a lot of the plays developing, and there were a lot of open receivers he was missing.

Totally agreed. I was in the nosebleed section and echo your sentiments.  (Don't know if that was happening all year or not as that's the first game I was able to attend this year.)  If he goes to the NFL, he better have a rock solid O line that doesn't get him sacked much because in those games he got sacked more than a few times this year, he became gunshy quickly and as noted above, take off and run directly INTO trouble for another sack even when the pocket was holding together.  The NFL is a passing league and he ain't there yet.  He obviously peaked in the UGA/Bama games and then regressed.  

[AUsince72 11,084]

Guess the question is... Are their NFL teams wanting to sign him?  (Serious question.... I don't know...)

I do believe he has the talent & temperament to play in the No Fun League.  Therefore, if there IS even 1 team wanting to sign him as a project/back-up, he should go.

A lot has been made about the short shelf-life of NFL RB's but being a back-up QB can be a very long & very lucrative career.  Just google back-ups who became starters (stars even) and you'll see an impressive list of guys with long careers.

I love AU football and I hate players leaving early (I'm admitted selfish fan who wants to be entertained by my chosen team) but under the current circumstances, JS going pro would be a good choice for him.

....again, IF there's a guaranteed team that wants him.

[alexava 6,973]

4 hours ago, caleb1633 said:

His ability to make reads is nowhere near where it needs to be and he needs to be able to make them faster and under pressure. That was his Achilles heel this year. You pressure the guy, and he folded. Being “fortunate” enough to sit in the nosebleeds during the Peach Bowl, I got to see a lot of the plays developing, and there were a lot of open receivers he was missing.

Probably why we didn’t throw in the middle of the field. Maybe Gus knew what he was doing after all. Putting him in position to not fail. 

[Randman5000 4,229]

Not sure why people want Willis so much, do we want to go back to throwing the ball 6-7 times a game? All the while the defense is just teeing off on the run with an unstable offensive line.Good Defenses have figured out the read option. Stidham needs good QB coaching and we need Stidham next year. 

[DAG 34,002]

28 minutes ago, Randman5000 said:

Not sure why people want Willis so much, do we want to go back to throwing the ball 6-7 times a game? All the while the defense is just teeing off on the run with an unstable offensive line.Good Defenses have figured out the read option. Stidham needs good QB coaching and we need Stidham next year. 

Probably because the best success CGM has had has been with his type of skill set . Just spitballing here

[AUApostle 7,651]

31 minutes ago, Randman5000 said:

Not sure why people want Willis so much, do we want to go back to throwing the ball 6-7 times a game? All the while the defense is just teeing off on the run with an unstable offensive line.Good Defenses have figured out the read option. Stidham needs good QB coaching and we need Stidham next year. 

6-7 times a game is the perception; however, Nick actually averaged 18 passes/game in '13 and 22 passes/game in '14.  18 per game is not going to keep all those bluechip WRs happy...but if it wins games that's the main goal.

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

1 hour ago, BJCrawford said:

Only thing is, would he do this to his coaches? And I mean not tell them sooner so they could possibly add a QB to their recruiting list.  Seems we would be awfully thin with only two on the roster.

He has until Jan. 15th to decide. Unless we're willing to take a 2 or low 3 star project QB it's pretty late in the recruiting process to get them. 

[Weagle_Weagle 7]

Good defenses “figured out” the read option when Jeremy Johnson, Sean White, and Jarrett Stidham ran it. No so much when Nick Marshall and Cam Newton ran it. 

[DAG 34,002]

1 minute ago, Weagle_Weagle said:

Good defenses “figured out” the read option when Jeremy Johnson, Sean White, and Jarrett Stidham ran it. No so much when Nick Marshall and Cam Newton ran it. 

Yeah I was thinking , I don’t think the stats back up that claim. 

[WDE0007 166]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Developed elsewhere....at Juco?     gotta seriously disagree on that point.....both were playing against inferior talent and coaches mostly turned them loose to do what they wanted to if you watched film of either of them.   Both came to AU with exceptional athletic ability.....but were still raw QBs.....and managed to get to national championship games and pretty sure they did not do it on their own. 

As for JS.....JMO but he was far from developed when he got to AU....but made good progress this year.    He has  a good arm but is still far from a poised QB who might be ready for the NFL.   I'm still waiting on him to lead us in an important  come-from-behind win and hope he will stay another year and show us that he can be the team leader who can inspire his team to win some games where they are in trouble..   But if he goes, he goes...and AU will just play "next man up"...which is probably Willis.

Just because they had a year at JUCO doesn't mean they weren't around good coaches or good players. Hence why so many JUCO players get recruited year in and year out. So I stand by my statement.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 hour ago, lionheartkc said:

This. Nicks improvement as a passer from year 1-2 can't just be chalked up as "self-taught". While Cam and Stidham improving throughout the year can be attributed to reps in the system, Nick got some coaching. Now... who did that coaching is anyone's guess... Gus, Rhett... who knows.

How much Marshall actually improved his passing from '13 to '14 is very much up for debate. His completion percentage went up a point and a half... not much. His yards per attempt didn't even go up a yard. His rating went up by a larger margin, presumably because he threw 6 more touchdowns in 36 more attempts. 

He was in his 2nd year in the system, so yes, you would expect the same standard trend of improvement from year 1 to year 2 that you would expect from September to November. 

Also, he added Duke Williams in 2014, who made several passes look much better than they were. 

This conversation won't be settled anytime soon, unless Stidham makes a big leap this season. 

[auburnphan 6,050]

1 hour ago, lionheartkc said:

This. Nicks improvement as a passer from year 1-2 can't just be chalked up as "self-taught". While Cam and Stidham improving throughout the year can be attributed to reps in the system, Nick got some coaching. Now... who did that coaching is anyone's guess... Gus, Rhett... who knows.

Nick gave credit to the off season and having the time to work with the wr's on their own.  Said he didn't change anything with his mechanics but getting better timing with the wrs and having a better understanding of the offense allowed for things to slow down for him.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

5 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

How much Marshall actually improved his passing from '13 to '14 is very much up for debate. His completion percentage went up a point and a half... not much. His yards per attempt didn't even go up a yard. His rating went up by a larger margin, presumably because he threw 6 more touchdowns in 36 more attempts. 

He was in his 2nd year in the system, so yes, you would expect the same standard trend of improvement from year 1 to year 2 that you would expect from September to November. 

Also, he added Duke Williams in 2014, who made several passes look much better than they were. 

This conversation won't be settled anytime soon, unless Stidham makes a big leap this season. 

I know I'm definitely not one to fall back on the "eye test", but he looked like a more polished and confident passer. I can't argue with the numbers that you presented, but the thing that sticks out to me is that he threw the ball almost 60 more times in 2014, and ran it 20 fewer times for almost 300 fewer yards.  That tells me that the coaches were more confident in calling passes in year 2, and utilized his legs more in the red zone then when driving down the field.

There is also the fact that Gus made it known that the focus between 2013 and 2014 was improving him as a passer.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 minutes ago, auburnphan said:

Nick gave credit to the off season and having the time to work with the wr's on their own.  Said he didn't change anything with his mechanics but getting better timing with the wrs and having a better understanding of the offense allowed for things to slow down for him.

Interesting. I haven't seen that quote. Good on him if he was able to do it on his own. 

[metafour 4,969]

1 hour ago, lionheartkc said:

This. Nicks improvement as a passer from year 1-2 can't just be chalked up as "self-taught". While Cam and Stidham improving throughout the year can be attributed to reps in the system, Nick got some coaching. Now... who did that coaching is anyone's guess... Gus, Rhett... who knows.

Nick made little to no "improvements" at his time here that weren't a direct result of simply having more receiving talent around him and the need to throw the ball more as we couldn't rely on just running on every play like in his first season due to personnel losses (Greg Robinson, Prosch, etc).  His raw stats were better because we threw considerably more (logic: the more attempts you make, the more completions and therefore yards and touchdowns you will witness) but his completion percentage and general outlook as a passer was virtually the same from year one to year two.  His plays were still virtually all scripted.  He still over-threw receivers.  He still had the same obvious mechanical flaws.  If he made so many improvements, why was no one in the NFL willing to even give him a summer camp at QB to see if he could improve any further before moving him to DB? Logically if he improved so much in one year in college (he really didn't) then superior NFL coaching should have at least had some semblance of intrigue to see if they could coax out even MORE improvement out of him.

I've explained this a million times and it still comes up.  His perceived "improvement" was simply more pass attempts and more receiving talent.  There was some improvement within the system itself, but any QB should be showing that from year to year as they gain experience within a set system.

[Mike4AU 1,739]

If Stidham is willing to be drafted in the 4th or 5th round, have at it. If he wants to go higher, he needs to show on the field that he is worth a high draft pick. I think he can be, but he sure needs a lot of improvement.  I hope he stays!

[AUsince72 11,084]

1 minute ago, lionheartkc said:

I know I'm definitely not one to fall back on the "eye test", but he looked like a more polished and confident passer. I can't argue with the numbers that you presented, but the thing that sticks out to me is that he threw the ball almost 60 more times in 2014, and ran it 20 fewer times for almost 300 fewer yards.  That tells me that the coaches were more confident in calling passes in year 2, and utilized his legs more in the red zone then when driving down the field.

There is also the fact that Gus made it known that the focus between 2013 and 2014 was improving him as a passer.

That was exactly my rant a couple years ago.

The offense was an absolute Juggernaut in 2013 as-is....so let's change it.

Therefore let's focus on recruiting more pass first QB's (who can run a little) and "say" we're improving the passing game but really, still try and run the same zone-read option (that a run-first QB would excel at) so that we have 1 less true running threat so that the D can focus on our 1 true threat, while we DON'T really do anything else to actually improve the passing game....just the same stagnant routes, even still today....but hey, the QB can throw with better mechanics.

I still contend that as long as Gus is running the philosophy, if not the actual offense, AU needs to stick to the Nick'esque (ala Malik Willis) type of recruits.

If he'll actually let Chip take over, then it's a different conversation.