Can we lay off Hunter Dekkers.

Dekkers is a stud and along with Hutchinson, was the only bright spot on offense this year. Purdy had the luxury of handing the ball off to 3 NFL running backs (ISU had only 4 players with an NFL rush as a RB prior to 2018) and got to throw to 7 more guys that were or will be on NFL active rosters (Hutchinson being the 7th).

I think I counted 5 absolute dimes that were dropped by receivers that should have been TD’s as well.
 
I hate to play the “what-if” game … nah, just kidding, I love it, do it all the time … but as has been said here:

- X catches that pass on his hands, ISU almost certainly beats Texas
- Noel catches that pass on his hands, ISU almost certainly beats Oklahoma State
- Makable field goals get through the uprights, ISU almost certainly beats Texas Tech and does beat Kansas

There’s 4 4th-quarter comeback wins, an 8-4 record, and a bowl game with a chance at 9 wins. With a team that, frankly, still wouldn‘t have had an acceptable Power 5 offensive line or decent special teams. Yes, he has flaws, but saying Dekkers didn’t deliver to bring ISU comeback wins is misplaced.
 
Next year will be one of the more interesting seasons in recent years.

I'm not sure what's there for potential since things were so erratic.
 
I am not against Dekkers. But I judge a QB by his ability to lead the team to victory in the 4th Q of a close game. Don't hold me to accuracy, but other than Baylor, OU and TCU, I believe ISU had the ball with a chance to win or tie in the 4th Q in five different games, and we lost them all under Dekkers (KU, KSU, UT, OSU, TTU). All of them. That is horrible. Not a single comeback win.

And Brock holds a ton of records, but in my memory, he was also terrible under late game pressure.

Dekkers can improve from experience, but I am frankly tired of ISU QB's choking under pressure. I am fine if someone can beat him out.
Brock Purdy was EXCELLENT at leading late game scoring drives.
 
I hate to play the “what-if” game … nah, just kidding, I love it, do it all the time … but as has been said here:

- X catches that pass on his hands, ISU almost certainly beats Texas
- Noel catches that pass on his hands, ISU almost certainly beats Oklahoma State
- Makable field goals get through the uprights, ISU almost certainly beats Texas Tech and does beat Kansas

There’s 4 4th-quarter comeback wins, an 8-4 record, and a bowl game with a chance at 9 wins. With a team that, frankly, still wouldn‘t have had an acceptable Power 5 offensive line or decent special teams. Yes, he has flaws, but saying Dekkers didn’t deliver to bring ISU comeback wins is misplaced.

4th down catch vs. KSU was dropped that perhaps gives the opportunity for a good first down/field goal.

I hate the way ISU runs their offense and that they can't put together an even marginal Oline but missing was that 'go get it'-ness on crucial plays..
 
How many Big 12 QBs started every game this year? That may have been the biggest driver of him being honourable mention.
 
The All Big 12 team is a joke at quarterback. Dekkers and Martinez get an Honorable Mention. Will Howard gets nothing but silence.
This is true. If you look at the HM group, each team got like 6 or 8 people. It looks like each team nominated a player for an award which made them HM if they didn’t get it. The other coaches didn’t think so, it was the teams own coach just placing them there.
 
I hate to play the “what-if” game … nah, just kidding, I love it, do it all the time … but as has been said here:

- X catches that pass on his hands, ISU almost certainly beats Texas
- Noel catches that pass on his hands, ISU almost certainly beats Oklahoma State
- Makable field goals get through the uprights, ISU almost certainly beats Texas Tech and does beat Kansas

There’s 4 4th-quarter comeback wins, an 8-4 record, and a bowl game with a chance at 9 wins. With a team that, frankly, still wouldn‘t have had an acceptable Power 5 offensive line or decent special teams. Yes, he has flaws, but saying Dekkers didn’t deliver to bring ISU comeback wins is misplaced.
And you can probably go through each of those games and find a catch or two that X should not have caught but did an unbelievable job of making the catch. So I cut him some slack.
 
And you can probably go through each of those games and find a catch or two that X should not have caught but did an unbelievable job of making the catch. So I cut him some slack.
Yep, true, that’s why “what-if”ing is just a mental exercise to make us all crazy. But the point stands, Dekkers did his part to get ISU in position for at least 4 late comeback wins, so saying he can’t “finish” is a bit unfair.
 
Comparing him to Brock was never fair. But the message from the program was that there would be little to no drop off so it made that difficult.
Which was surprising to me with what other players we lost on offense. Hunter looked great at times and not so great at times. About what I expected for a first year starter.
 
The All Big 12 team is a joke at quarterback. Dekkers and Martinez get an Honorable Mention. Will Howard gets nothing but silence.
Breece Hall isn't going to be rookie of the year in the NFL either.

Not many players who play in less than half of their team's games make all league teams.
 
I am not against Dekkers. But I judge a QB by his ability to lead the team to victory in the 4th Q of a close game. Don't hold me to accuracy, but other than Baylor, OU and TCU, I believe ISU had the ball with a chance to win or tie in the 4th Q in five different games, and we lost them all under Dekkers (KU, KSU, UT, OSU, TTU). All of them. That is horrible. Not a single comeback win.

And Brock holds a ton of records, but in my memory, he was also terrible under late game pressure.

Dekkers can improve from experience, but I am frankly tired of ISU QB's choking under pressure. I am fine if someone can beat him out.
He threw two should-be game winners that were just flat dropped. So, that basically disproves your entire theory anyway.

And don't forget @iowa, either.

QBwinz is mocked as a way to gauge a QB's performance for a reason.
 
I am not against Dekkers. But I judge a QB by his ability to lead the team to victory in the 4th Q of a close game. Don't hold me to accuracy, but other than Baylor, OU and TCU, I believe ISU had the ball with a chance to win or tie in the 4th Q in five different games, and we lost them all under Dekkers (KU, KSU, UT, OSU, TTU). All of them. That is horrible. Not a single comeback win.

And Brock holds a ton of records, but in my memory, he was also terrible under late game pressure.

Dekkers can improve from experience, but I am frankly tired of ISU QB's choking under pressure. I am fine if someone can beat him out.
Dekkers was plenty clutch.

End of game scenarios where Dekkers made winning plays:

KU - Hutchinson drop and Hutchinson not falling forward for a first down.

KSU - Dekkers lays the ball in Hutchinson's lap to set up game winning field goal, drop

UT - Dekkers lays the ball in Hutchinson's hands, drop

OSU - Dekkers couldn't have thrown a better ball to Noel to win that game at the end. Drop.


Those were not superhuman catches. They were easy ones to make. Quite frankly, by the end of the season I don't blame Dekkers if he had a bad attitude, that is 4 more wins this team should have had.
 
Dekkers has talent. IMO when things broke down he would panic and try to make a play. Very inconsistent when it comes to accuracy. Inconsistent line play makes it difficult.
I'm not sure I saw a problem with "accuracy", seems like he throws the ball exactly where he wanted to most of the time. I see the problem as poor decision making (especially when the play breaks down) which I think can be substantially improved with additional experience. There were some high throws sure, but I don't see "accuracy" as problem going forward.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: quasistellar

Help Support Us

Become a patron