Spoke with Richard Schnyderite who runs the Rutgers Rivals site and knows them as well as anybody, the obvious topic being Gavin Wimsatt with his visit to UK.
Here are his comments:
"Obviously his accuracy's an issue but at times he'll have two or three passes in a row where you see that cannon of an arm and you see those darts over the middle. Then all of a sudden the next four or five would go over someone's head or underthrown. There have been a lot of inconsistencies. It's hard to teach accuracy in Year 2 or 3 of college. That's going to be tough. Personally, I'm in the Mike Leach boat, in that you can't teach (accuracy). You either have it or you don't. You may have a coach who can help teach accuracy but he's definitely going to be a unique QB.
"He has a high ceiling based on his dual threat ability. He wasn't asked to run a ton. Mind you, h e had some really good games running the ball. He had one game (against Indiana) with 130 or 140 rushing yards and in moments he looked like a true dual-threat quarterback. He had some two TD games. Against Miami he had two TDs but they were tush pushes on the 1-yard line. There are moments when hit looks really good. In one game, maybe against Michigan, he had a big 40 yard run and then you won't see anything for the rest of the game.
"He needs to learn when to tuck it and run. Sometimes it's no, no, no, that's guy's wide open. Other times he'll throw it where he could have tucked it to gain 10 or 15 yards. The big thing is getting everything to slow down pretty much. He did that in high school with ease but that accuracy was an issue in high school.
"He led Rutgers to their first bowl game victory in 10 yards and that's impressive nonetheless. There have been some games he cost them with an interception.
"As far as the spring (quarterback) battle, it was sort of close. Athan (Kaliakmanis) is a better version of him in my opinion, because he is more accurate. But you have to understand, Rutgers runs the ball like 75% of the time. They don't ask their quarterbacks to do a whole lot. They ask them to do the bare minimum and where Gavin struggled was with things like touch on little check downs or a bullet to someone five yards in front of him. Guys are open and it was bouncing off their chest, and they hope the new QB is a more natural quarterback. He's more polished but he doesn't have the arm that Gavin has and he doesn't have the legs."
Here are his comments:
"Obviously his accuracy's an issue but at times he'll have two or three passes in a row where you see that cannon of an arm and you see those darts over the middle. Then all of a sudden the next four or five would go over someone's head or underthrown. There have been a lot of inconsistencies. It's hard to teach accuracy in Year 2 or 3 of college. That's going to be tough. Personally, I'm in the Mike Leach boat, in that you can't teach (accuracy). You either have it or you don't. You may have a coach who can help teach accuracy but he's definitely going to be a unique QB.
"He has a high ceiling based on his dual threat ability. He wasn't asked to run a ton. Mind you, h e had some really good games running the ball. He had one game (against Indiana) with 130 or 140 rushing yards and in moments he looked like a true dual-threat quarterback. He had some two TD games. Against Miami he had two TDs but they were tush pushes on the 1-yard line. There are moments when hit looks really good. In one game, maybe against Michigan, he had a big 40 yard run and then you won't see anything for the rest of the game.
"He needs to learn when to tuck it and run. Sometimes it's no, no, no, that's guy's wide open. Other times he'll throw it where he could have tucked it to gain 10 or 15 yards. The big thing is getting everything to slow down pretty much. He did that in high school with ease but that accuracy was an issue in high school.
"He led Rutgers to their first bowl game victory in 10 yards and that's impressive nonetheless. There have been some games he cost them with an interception.
"As far as the spring (quarterback) battle, it was sort of close. Athan (Kaliakmanis) is a better version of him in my opinion, because he is more accurate. But you have to understand, Rutgers runs the ball like 75% of the time. They don't ask their quarterbacks to do a whole lot. They ask them to do the bare minimum and where Gavin struggled was with things like touch on little check downs or a bullet to someone five yards in front of him. Guys are open and it was bouncing off their chest, and they hope the new QB is a more natural quarterback. He's more polished but he doesn't have the arm that Gavin has and he doesn't have the legs."
