BLUM: Let's make a QB deal

[intrepid27]

Sam just does not seem comfortable or confident a lot of time. I'm sure that rubs off on the rest of the offense at times. There are plent of times when good stats don;t tell the story.

Cole Netten is also statistically a good kicker but seems to wilt when the heat is on.
Also, I can't remember the number but Terry Bradshaw had a very poor QB rating but he managed to win 4 Super Bowls.

 

[brentblum]

QB #1:

QB Rating: 79.9
Yards Per/g: 220
TD/INT ratio: 1.32 to 1



QB #2:

QB Rating: 85.2
Yards Per/g: 232
TD/INT ratio: 1.42 to 1


Elway = #1
Cutler = #2

Nobody would confuse the two. The QB position has changed more than any other position over the past 15 years. I don't think Drew Brees is an all time top 10 QB but his stats say he is top 5. Rules, style of play, etc make it really easy on the offenses these days.

Also, no offense to Lane and Jack, but I'm guessing Seneca wouldn't have minded throwing to some bigger WR's like we currently have. Would be some nice targets.

Glad I could make you think Adam! Mission accomplished.

 

[dualthreat]

I hate Janet

 

[FreeBorn]

I'm suggesting that the talent level is there to be competitive and he hasn't been. I have said for a long time that I believe its a coaching and mental problem with him. His decision making is very questionable despite the fact that he has had some nice compliments on the field with him.

Yep. Good O-Line, very good receivers and a good, young back. Sam just ain't a d-1a qb.

 

[SECyclone]

Two of those quarterbacks were NFL quarterbacks, one won't be. There is something about a quarterback, you have to have confidence and play with an edge, two of those quarterbacks had that, one of those doesn't. SR reminds me a lot of a Jay Cutler, while both are good people, neither have that leadership ability you need in a quarterback.

I am no bears fan, but I get what you are saying. Seems like when Sam makes a mistake early he can never shake it off. First throw being an INT vs Tech doomed the game from the start in my opinion. A good QB needs to shake off a bad play and start from scratch each series. Sam is a good QB when the game is in our favor most of the time.

 

[AdamJGray]

Glad I could make you think Adam! Mission accomplished.

I hate you so much right now!

 

[SCNCY]

Coaching. If the team comes out unprepared. If they aren't putting what was taught in practice to results on the field, it's coaching.

And this is where I keep coming to. Coaching. All of the offensive stats will say we should be better and be scoring more points, but we are not. On the defense side of the ball, we have improved here as well, Texas Tech was a no win situation for them. But in the end, it seems like the team cannot pull it together and come out with a win, and it keeps coming to the coaches.

 

[FreeBorn]

Honest question, how would Seneca do with this receiving core? His best receiver was Jack Whitver.

He probably would have been top 10 qb (in nation) concerning total passing yards

 

[norcalcy]

And this is where I keep coming to. Coaching. All of the offensive stats will say we should be better and be scoring more points, but we are not. On the defense side of the ball, we have improved here as well, Texas Tech was a no win situation for them. But in the end, it seems like the team cannot pull it together and come out with a win, and it keeps coming to the coaches.

Agreed. A bunch of things that are just out of synch. Rhoads is the anti-Harbaugh. He makes the sum of the whole less than the value of the individual pieces. Total dysfunction last Saturday. Sam is part of it, but the buck stops with the people who have six and seven figure incomes. ISU has the talent right now to be a 6-6 team. It does not have the coaching.

 

[tzjung]

Blum, I agree with your article, and I'm not saying that QBSR is a terrible QB who needs to be benched. Unfortunately, that's not the argument that's going to convince me that we should stay with QBSR. So...what my argument is, and what I'd guess most who want to give Lanning or Rohach a chance would say is the following:

Fact: ISU is staring straight in the face at a 2-10 season
Fact: QBSR is a senior
Fact: Having QBSR as our QB will probably NOT lead us to any additional victories more than what one of our replacement options would give us
Fact: Giving a QB experience in 2015 during losses MAY HELP their progression for us to win additional games in the 2016 season.

Unfortunately, CPR is coaching for his job, and he doesn't have the job stability to 'coach' for next year. This year is his last year if we finish 2-10. This is ultimately the reason that QBSR is still the QB. Coach thinks he can win the fans back if he can get an unlikely upset, and QBSR is the best chance at that. It does not have a GOOD chance of happening at all, but it's his best chance and that's how he is going to coach. It's fight or flight mode right now for CPR.

 

[jburke]

Examples? There are plenty of times Richardson has gotten us in position to win, but someone else screwed it up. West Virginia a few years ago, Texas two years ago, Texas last year, Toledo this year, KState last year off the top of my head. He also had a couple clutch drives to win at Iowa last year. Most of our close losses the last few years have been caused by the defense not being able to stop anybody when it counts.

UNI, and Texas(threw pick after the fumble recovers ref screw, plus we had the damn ball at the 6 the previous drive and ended with 3) 2 years ago, K-State, Texas Tech, and WVU(all home games with key INTs at horrible times in the game) last year, Iowa this year.... more than not when the pressure is put on him to make a play to keep a drive going he make a mistakes that ends any chance....

I agree, in general that not all of this falls on Sam, and more than that this year (up until last week) I believe he has improved a lot with decision making and decisiveness.

 

[cyatheart]

I understand what you are saying, to some degree you have a vaild point, people put too much blame on the QB, but at the same time it is without question the most important position on the field by far. That is what you sign up for as a QB. All that said, any fair minded person can see there isn't any real comparison here, it's apples and oranges for about 15 reasons.

I think this staff has really just put our QB's in bad spots a lot as well. Sam in particular, has been put in a spot he should have never been recruited to be in. Jantz, Sam, Jared Barnett have done nothing but regress and lost all confidence as football players. But anyone that watches Sage, Seneca, and Sam play and come to the conclusion that their is any comparison to be made, well, I am not sure I can help you. If you think 2 plus 2 is 5, then there isn't any reason in trying to convince you otherwise.

And really it doesn't matter, it's over now, it's too late to make a difference. I mean what is the point in arguing about this anymore, let the kid be. No sense in beating a dead horse. He tried, it just didn't work out. Doesn't matter whose fault it is. It's over. There isn't anything to argue about, the story is written. Whether Sam plays or doesn't play, or plays well doesn't matter for the program at this point unless he can get 6 wins somehow and that isn't happening. I hope he plays well, we win a couple games, and he leaves with some sense of accomplishment. But Sam could throw for 500 yards and beat TCU and it still won't matter for the program overall anymore, it's just about playing out his last few games now and salvaging what he can.

 

[galactawitz]

This is what the issue is for me. W's and L's. I had been a strong supporter of Sam as I thought the potential would turn into L's and W's. It just hasn't. Some of it has been bad luck, such as the magnificent drive at the end of Toledo that should have won the game. But there have been several other times where he has folded under pressure, such as the end of Iowa. But the point is, he just doesn't seem to have IT. There are some QB's that are just winners and find a way to win, Sam has had so many situations where he could have proven he has IT, but hasn't come through. Statistically he will be one of the best ISU has ever had, but W's is all that matters.

I'm also not a fan of the "but he is in a league full of elite QB's" excuse. You know what, we are in year 7 of the staff, so why don't we have a QB that is elite and fits what we are trying to do? It wasn't that long ago that Baylor was a doormat of the conference. They have had several "elite" qb's since then. K-State game manages like some suggest we do, guess what Collin Klein was a Heisman finalist for them. I am not trying to make Sam the bad guy, I wish he was the guy, but at some point you just have to look at the body of work and say this is not working. We can't keep trying the same thing over and over with poor results and expect there to be some sudden change. I truly hope we can pull together strong showings the next few weeks against the elite conference teams and be competitive, but at this point I just don't have much hope it will happen.

 

[Gunnerclone]

[video=youtube;uIbXvaE39wM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIbXvaE39wM[/video]

 

[cydsho]

Stats are awesome and I totally get Blum's article. But its an almost apples and oranges comparison because of the different styles. Wallace and Sage were in run first-pro style offenses. Did they attempt 10-15 outs to the WR a game? Probably not. Did they attempt more risky passes down field past 10-15 yards? Probably.
The fact that SR only averages 206 yrds a game in a offense like this seems pretty low and not efficient.
If Wallace averages more yards in fewer attempts, seems like that is pretty efficient.
Although I'm surprised at the number of INTs Wallace threw. Funny how you don't remember that because there were more wins involved.
Can you imagine what wallace would do in this offense? His delivery is so much faster, those outs to the WRs would be really interesting.

 

[bringmagicback]

Welp this proves it. New qb/new coach equals us winning 9 games a year!!!

 

[brentblum]

Glad this created some discussion, which was the goal. And no I am not saying Sam is as good as Sage or Seneca. Again, appreciate everyone's thoughts.

 

[CyNerd]

Welp this proves it. New qb/new coach equals us winning 9 games a year!!!

No one is saying that. Great analogy from another message board that applies here.

You are in a relationship and you a clearly a hard 5 on the attractiveness scale (personality, looks, etc.). You are dating a 2 because "you know what you're never going to get a 10." Comment in quotes seems to be the classic ISU attitude, and apparently yours as well.

Well because you are a hard 5 why don't you deserve a 5, hell maybe you will get lucky and even land a 6 or 7. Guess what, you will never get either so long as you stick with the 2.

 

[ArgentCy]

I knew where Blum was going with that and I have to agree. He makes some great passes but then just seems to forget what hes doing the next. I just think he is probably too smart (as that tends to slow down your thought process) and is definitely thinking way too much. I'm afraid the plethora of OC's and playbooks and sacks in his mind are just becoming too much too handle. My advice would be go to a good hypnotherapist and calm his thought process to just go out and play now.

 

[ahaselhu]

Coaching. If the team comes out unprepared. If they aren't putting what was taught in practice to results on the field, it's coaching.



I wish more people would see this. As I've said in many threads, I'm as down on Sam as most. I'm not here to claim that Sam is just getting a bad rap. What I am saying is that our wins and losses go a lot further than the QB, yet everyone wants to focus on the QB being either the reason we lose or the savior to solve all of our problems. That's not the case here. It seems in every loss we have, some part of the ISU game fails. Last week it was the Defense. One of the worst performances I've seen out of an ISU defense to date, yet a lot of fans still wants to say Sam was the reason we lost.

Sam has been good at times, bad at others for sure. We finally get the running game going and it seems like other parts are just falling apart now. But this is more than a Sam issue. And I think that as soon as everyone can realize that, ISU will be a lot better off. Getting a 5 star QB on this team won't matter one bit if we have no kicking game, no defense and receivers that still drop the ball too often. There is a lot more going on than Just the Qb and i wish we could focus on that, instead of putting all the blame on Sam.

Certainly, the defense was the biggest problem against Tech, but I don't think there is a quick fix for that. Either it was an aberration, just an untimely bad game against a very good offense, or it will take time to fix.

The QB position offers the possibility of a quick fix for the offense, particularly if the problem is a lack of "intangibles" at that position.