Player Profile: Sam Richardson (QB)

Couple of points on Sam Richardson's senior year.... threw 29 touchdown passes with only 2 interceptions thrown during the regular season. Both of those interceptions were on passes deflected at the line of scrimmage. That's a direct reflection of accuracy and good decision making. The other point that can be brought up is that several (Orlando) area sports writers detailed in their columns that SR's ability to "read" defenses, and appropriately respond with passing to the best positioned receiver, is as good as they have ever seen in a high school QB.
 
His accuracy is about as good as I've seen on any highlight video. What I also noticed was he didn't make any stupid throws into double or triple coverage, and got lucky. I'm more excited about Sam Richardson (QB) than any other recruit since I've been following recruiting the last 5 years.

What excites me even more is Grant Rohach looks like his twin. I love these smart, accurate quarterbacks that read what defenses give them.
 
While I do see good potential in this kid, I saw some things in his film that will need work. He doesn't ALWAYS make good decisions such as throwing the ball into heavy traffic. Good D-I defensive players will break on those a lot more than high school kids. He definately likes to hit stationary targets which correct me if I am wrong but doesn't ISU run lots of slant routes in their offense? If so he'll really have to get accurate throwing to moving targets. That all being said, I would say he is about two-three years from being true starting material, much like AJ Derby is at Iowa (who I personally believe to be the next starting QB after Vandenburg.) They both have lots of raw athletic ablity which under the proper coaching will thrive. Looks like a pretty decent prospect.
 
While I do see good potential in this kid, I saw some things in his film that will need work. He doesn't ALWAYS make good decisions such as throwing the ball into heavy traffic. Good D-I defensive players will break on those a lot more than high school kids. He definately likes to hit stationary targets which correct me if I am wrong but doesn't ISU run lots of slant routes in their offense? If so he'll really have to get accurate throwing to moving targets. That all being said, I would say he is about two-three years from being true starting material, much like AJ Derby is at Iowa (who I personally believe to be the next starting QB after Vandenburg.) They both have lots of raw athletic ablity which under the proper coaching will thrive. Looks like a pretty decent prospect.

Richardson is nothing like Derby. Richardson is a QB with great accuracy. Derby is an athlete playing QB.

One is like Tebow the other is like Bradford. Not even comparable.
 
Last edited:
While I do see good potential in this kid, I saw some things in his film that will need work. He doesn't ALWAYS make good decisions such as throwing the ball into heavy traffic. Good D-I defensive players will break on those a lot more than high school kids. He definately likes to hit stationary targets which correct me if I am wrong but doesn't ISU run lots of slant routes in their offense? If so he'll really have to get accurate throwing to moving targets. That all being said, I would say he is about two-three years from being true starting material, much like AJ Derby is at Iowa (who I personally believe to be the next starting QB after Vandenburg.) They both have lots of raw athletic ablity which under the proper coaching will thrive. Looks like a pretty decent prospect.

Go Hawks!
 
While I do see good potential in this kid, I saw some things in his film that will need work. He doesn't ALWAYS make good decisions such as throwing the ball into heavy traffic. Good D-I defensive players will break on those a lot more than high school kids. He definately likes to hit stationary targets which correct me if I am wrong but doesn't ISU run lots of slant routes in their offense? If so he'll really have to get accurate throwing to moving targets. That all being said, I would say he is about two-three years from being true starting material, much like AJ Derby is at Iowa (who I personally believe to be the next starting QB after Vandenburg.) They both have lots of raw athletic ablity which under the proper coaching will thrive. Looks like a pretty decent prospect.

I don't know whether you are basing your evaluation on this junior year highlight tape; but if you are, you need to see his senior highlight tape. The senior tape is put together chronologically and you can see that he steadily improves as the season progresses.
 
Sam Richardson looks to be one of the best QB's to come to ISU in quite some time. He just looks like a true QB. I'm very excited to see what he can do in a year or two. By the way, I like the Kellen Moore reference. I had actually thought the same myself.
 
Last year when his video was posted as a possible recruit I thought, yeah right there's no way ISU is going to be able to get this kid. When he committed I was floored.
 
Sam Richardson looks to be one of the best QB's to come to ISU in quite some time. He just looks like a true QB. I'm very excited to see what he can do in a year or two. By the way, I like the Kellen Moore reference. I had actually thought the same myself.

Yeah, I was sitting there trying to think of someone he kind of played like and it took me forever but he plays like Kellen does except he throws with his right arm. The just kind of move the same.

When I first watched his videos when he committed I was very impressed by his accuracy. Now, when I watched the last time, I was still impressed by his accuracy, but his ability to move in the pocket and move around pressure really impressed me.

Last year when his video was posted as a possible recruit I thought, yeah right there's no way ISU is going to be able to get this kid. When he committed I was floored.

I don't get why there wasn't more competition. I really don't. I just would think that there would be some teams looking at him. I have a hard time believing there weren't calls made to him late last year to fill a spot. I just assume that his commitment really took away a lot of attention.
 
Yeah, I was sitting there trying to think of someone he kind of played like and it took me forever but he plays like Kellen does except he throws with his right arm. The just kind of move the same.

When I first watched his videos when he committed I was very impressed by his accuracy. Now, when I watched the last time, I was still impressed by his accuracy, but his ability to move in the pocket and move around pressure really impressed me.

He doesn't appear to ever get rattled and I think at the college level it'll pay off huge. That really explains his lack of interceptions as well. Perfect QB to run TH's system.
 
He doesn't appear to ever get rattled and I think at the college level it'll pay off huge. That really explains his lack of interceptions as well. Perfect QB to run TH's system.

And it wasn't like he had all day to throw either. Most of the time he was moving somewhere.
 
While I do see good potential in this kid, I saw some things in his film that will need work. He doesn't ALWAYS make good decisions such as throwing the ball into heavy traffic. Good D-I defensive players will break on those a lot more than high school kids. He definately likes to hit stationary targets which correct me if I am wrong but doesn't ISU run lots of slant routes in their offense? If so he'll really have to get accurate throwing to moving targets. That all being said, I would say he is about two-three years from being true starting material, much like AJ Derby is at Iowa (who I personally believe to be the next starting QB after Vandenburg.) They both have lots of raw athletic ablity which under the proper coaching will thrive. Looks like a pretty decent prospect.

I never saw Derby's tape but I've seen him play numerous times. I don't get your comparison at all other than he may be 2-3 years from being a starter. That's boilerplate.
 
Last edited:
Don't you just love Hawk fans who think they know everything about our team and recruits? Richardson is nothing like Derby. My hawk friends tell me that Derby might not even play QB at Iowa. I also think the comparison to Kellen Moore was spot on. That's exactly who I thought of when saw Richardson.
 
Kellen Moore - Yeah that would work :smile:

Stats Overview Passing
YEAR CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA LNG TD INT SACK RAT
2008 281 405 3486 69.4 8.61 80 25 10 13 157.11
2009 277 431 3536 64.3 8.20 67 39 3 5 161.65
2010 273 383 3845 71.3 10.04 83 35 6 6 182.63
 
I think the most important aspect of his highlight video is that fact that, at about 0:44 you can hear organ music. Organ music at a high school football game? How awesome is that? I so hope they actually have a real organ and it isn't just a recording.
 
In response to all the critics of my Derby comparison, I was comparing the fact that both look to be more athletes than polished QB's. I'm not going to break down every aspect of their game film. But as someone did note, like Derby he's just not ready to go yet. As for whoever said Derby won't play QB at Iowa, welcome to one of the biggest debates on the Hawkeye boards for the past year or so. So WANT him to play LB because he could. However, Ferentz himself has said that Derby has made great strides through his redshirt year as a QB so we will see. It will definately be interesting to see how this Richardson kid fills out in a D-I strength program as well.
 
In response to all the critics of my Derby comparison, I was comparing the fact that both look to be more athletes than polished QB's. I'm not going to break down every aspect of their game film. But as someone did note, like Derby he's just not ready to go yet. As for whoever said Derby won't play QB at Iowa, welcome to one of the biggest debates on the Hawkeye boards for the past year or so. So WANT him to play LB because he could. However, Ferentz himself has said that Derby has made great strides through his redshirt year as a QB so we will see. It will definately be interesting to see how this Richardson kid fills out in a D-I strength program as well.
That fact is simply wrong. If Richardson played a different position he wouldn't be a D1 player. Derby was recruited as a TE, LB, and QB. Derby was recruited to Iowa because he's a great athlete. Richardson was recruited to ISU because he's a great QB.

I think you brought up Derby just to talk about him. The two aren't even close to similar.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PabloDiablo
That fact is simply wrong. If Richardson played a different position he wouldn't be a D1 player. Derby was recruited as a TE, LB, and QB. Derby was recruited to Iowa because he's a great athlete. Richardson was recruited to ISU because he's a great QB.

I think you brought up Derby just to talk about him. The two aren't even close to similar.


Exactly. Richardson is more of a polished QB, Derby is an athlete.
 

Help Support Us

Become a patron