Football question

I do appreciate your optimism, Eielson, I really do...and certainly hope you're right. What I saw from watching Mateer was Trevor Knight. I think we need an upgrade, but if you turn out to be right, I'll be owning what I said next year at this time. He needs to make decisions faster, but he also needs more help - especially from his offensive line. I have to believe there will be some noticeable changes in the offseason, most notably on offense.

I don't see Mateer as a star, but I also think our perspective of what is needed at the QB position is jaded by truly pathetic coaching and roster management at most positions outside of a few offensive positions after Bob left. If we had the offense with Baker, Ceedee, Andrews, and Hollywood -- we could win every CFP game by >20 points with Wichita calling plays.

I've said it repeatedly on here that Mateer is a 70-80 QBR player when healthy, which is all we need. Until last night, our only losses came with QBRs below 50, and both of those came soon after hand surgery. If this Alabama game happened after the Michigan game, we'd all be talking about him as a Heisman. He was a 73.4 QBR last night, which is a formula that very HEAVILY accounts for that pick-6, so if the WR picks up the check that was called and at least bats the ball down, his QBRs is in the 80s. If X doesn't drop that beautiful throw on third down before the dropped punt, he's probably pushing 90, which is truly elite stuff. Nobody shreds this Alabama defense like that.

This Mateer looked much more like what we saw against Michigan, which is good enough as is, and I just don't see how our supporting cast gets worse. Arbuckle loves to use multiple TEs and I think one or two portal additions there will go a long way. The quality RBs we had were not healthy for much of the season, and we will have the Ott money to spend on somebody else. Burks was okay, but given the money we spent, we'll be able to easily replace him. Sategna is about the only painful departure I could see forthcoming, and he's not even remotely close to a 1st or 2nd round talent.

Defensively, I only see it getting better, with many of our best players not even being draft eligible yet. I'd say RMT departure would hurt, but we didn't even have him for most of our key wins, and have guys like Okoye waiting in the wings that will be just fine. Wein and Kip are the two to watch, but I suspect Wein is back, and LB simply isn't a position I worry about with BV around.
 
This is true. We are greedy. But we have moved the goalposts for sure. Its hard not to, bc of HOW we lose the games. Still I would not give BV any more leash than he currently has. And I would bet on another BV 6-7 special than I would another 10 win season next year. Who knows, maybe we change things up and try to upgrade mateer and EVERY position on the team, but I doubt it. We are too loyal and not cutthroat enough

i doubt we have the nil budget to upgrade every position on the team.....and i really don't think that's necessary.
o-line will be better/more experienced next season. i think xr and blaylock are solid rb's
tight end needs lots of attention. wr too.
not worried about the defense at all.

but i don't think lack of talent was the reason for last night's debacle.
that first quarter was a thing of beauty on both sides of the ball.
was not pleased to see the defense give up that 75yd drive in the second quarter.
and then the wheels came completely off after that xr dropped pass. and then things snowballed from there.
it mostly became a mental game after that and the players/coaches just couldn't get things back on track.

mateer has a couple horrendous throws every game....and his sidearm bs is just not p4 level at all.
would love to see a new qb next season but it sounds like he might be on a 2 yr contract and i doubt arbuckle would have the spine to make a change even if he could.
 
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i doubt we have the nil budget to upgrade every position on the team.....and i really don't think that's necessary.
o-line will be better/more experienced next season. i think xr and blaylock are solid rb's
tight end needs lots of attention. wr too.
not worried about the defense at all.

but i don't think lack of talent was the reason for last night's debacle.
that first quarter was a thing of beauty on both sides of the ball.
was not pleased to see the defense give up that 75yd drive in the second quarter.
and then the wheels came completely off after that xr dropped pass. and then things snowballed from there.
i mostly became a mental game after that and the players/coaches just couldn't get things back on track.

mateer has a couple horrendous throws every game....and his sidearm bs is just not p4 level at all.
would love to see a new qb next season but it sounds like he might be on a 2 yr contract and i doubt arbuckle would have the spine to make a change even if he could.
No the mentality needs to be upgrade everywhere every year. We dont have to, but that should be the mindset.
 
This is true. We are greedy. But we have moved the goalposts for sure. Its hard not to, bc of HOW we lose the games. Still I would not give BV any more leash than he currently has. And I would bet on another BV 6-7 special than I would another 10 win season next year. Who knows, maybe we change things up and try to upgrade mateer and EVERY position on the team, but I doubt it. We are too loyal and not cutthroat enough
The other thing about expectations is that the schedule didn’t end up being nearly as tough as expected. Auburn, S Car, and LSU were far worse than expected. That’s beyond dispute. Yes, we still deserve credit for winning games, but if I hear people like Gabe continue saying we won 10 games against the toughest schedule in the country, I’m going to puke. It was expected to be that, but wasn’t in reality.

I’m like you and could see a slide back just as easily as progress next year if we don’t revamp the offense. There isn’t a single position I feel good about. And people who think the line will automatically improve just haven’t been paying attention. Hell, we are more likely to see returning players get hurt than make a big jump.

There are already a lot of good quarterbacks in the portal and it will suck seeing us sit on the sidelines. Nagy better back up his big talking by actually landing some true difference makers this time.
 
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