Both QBs have the opportunity to improve before next season starts. Both QBs have areas to improve upon.
Jantz's areas for improvment are more obvious.
1. Turnovers - They are not all a product of injury, but some are. He will have to work to improve his decision making and accuracy to cut down on picks and also work on ball security when running with the ball.
2. Consistency - I think Jantz is by far the more talented passer, but without consistency, it's hard to win games. Another year as a D1 QB will help him with this.
3. Reads - More time in the system and as a QB period will help with passing game reads. Another thing that I have noticed is Jantz's issues with the zone read. He needs to work on making the right read more often. In his last few games, he didn't keep it hardly at all, mostly because I don't think he was healthy. But he also made some bad reads in the first few games. There were times, if he had kept it, that he would have had big gains, instead of handing it off for a couple yards. Most of the times when Jantz showed of his running, it was on roll outs or scrambling on broken plays. The zone read is a big deal in our offense. Barnett doesn't run it perfectly yet, but he runs it better than SJ.
Barnett has won 2 straight, but not against really good teams. A lot of people will fall out of love with him if we lose 2 straight. So far he has shown good poise for a rFR but there is still a lot of work to do.
1. Biggest issue is that he doesn't have a lot of zip on his passes and does not throw a great deep ball. Case in point was during the TTU game. Lenz was WIDE open on one of his big catches. JB floated the ball a bit and Lenz had to slow down to get the ball. Instead of catching a bullet and walking into the end zone, he caught a floater and was pushed out short of the EZ. We ended up getting a TD, but it was a glaring example of JB not having enough on his passes.
Arm strength is VERY hard to improve. Sometimes you either have it (Jantz does, but inconsistently) or you don't. I believe they were working on this a ton with James Capello. They worked on his throwing motion and were trying to get his legs into his passes to get him some more oomph. They will probably try and work on this a lot with JB before next year. A big problem with JBs game, is that if we get behind, he may or may not have a strong enough arm to get us back in it with the deep passing game. Jantz showed that ability at times this season. The last two games JB has done a decent job managing the game, and not losing the game, but can he bring us back and win a game? We'll see.
2. Consistency - Every college QB usually has to work on consistency. If he doesn't improve his deep ball enough, then he will really need to be efficient in the short passing game. ~50% completions isn't going to win a lot of games in the Big12.
Of course, both QBs have their strengths as well.
JB is protecting the ball better than SJ did. He is also much more consistent and running the football. He has done a good job so far with the short passing game as well.
SJ has been much more boom or bust. He has lead 3 big comebacks, but was a big reason that we were behind to begin with. He can throw a beautiful deep ball and has very good zip on his passes. In the Iowa game, I watched him throw a dart, between two closing defenders for a big first down. Seems like a simple play, but I don't think I have seen a QB make that kind of pass in a few years and it takes a really good arm to do it. SJ probably has better overall tools than JB, but is terribly inconsistent in how he uses them. Couple that with a loss of confidence after big losses, and a lingering injury, and you end up with JB taking the reigns. Another year in the system and as a QB should help decision making and consistency, which are SJs biggest weaknesses.
I don't know who will be the QB next fall. JB might just take the momentum from this season all the way through until next year. Or, SJ may work really hard on his weaknesses and put his exceptional tools to good use for his last year. We shall see. I think JB (if he doesn't get completely demolished the last three games) will have an edge in spring ball to start, but from there it will be anyones game. Heck, we don't even know what Sam Richardson (the tall one) has to offer yet either.
Either way, it will be good to have two QBs with starting experience, who both have strengths, going into next season.
