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Is developing a QB a thing of the past?

wildcatglenn

All-SEC
Mar 8, 2005
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Feels like everyone is looking for the instant impact transfer. And QBs don't hang around long enough to develop. It's a double edge sword
 
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Yeah, it seems to be a thing of the past. I'll tell you what else also seems to be a thing of the past....having a competent back-up QB on the roster who can take over and run the team well should the starter go down. From here on out, a team's season is going to be totally dependent on the well being of their starting QB. The #2 guy is pretty much going to be a major drop-off in terms of talent if he has any experience. The very top programs might manage to have a good true freshmen QB on the roster to use a back-up for an upperclassmen starter. But the days of programs having 2 or 3 guys that are all capable of starting are over.
 
Yea, I think developing a QB is a thing of the past unless they are that frosh that has high promise early as well as a way to play early. Like for example when Auburn brought in Bo Nix and even that didn’t work out
 
Yes.

Probably half of the starting P5 QB's next season are not currently enrolled at the school they will be starting at.
At least half of the SEC programs, right now, do not have their 2023 starting QB on the roster yet. Maybe more. And it's probably the right call to promise the job to someone unless you have a crystal clear, heir apparent option.
 
I don't thnk so.

Stetson Bennett, JJ McCarthy, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, etc...all developed and stuck. I think the days of grooming your backup who then takes hte starting gig might be harder and harder to do now.
 
Not sure the last time it was a thing.
Yeah, maybe back 25, 30 years ago.
But a shift happened where, athletes train so much more and better than back then.
A freshman can come in and run sophisticated offenses for a while.
They don't need developing.
I think they've been smart about going where they can play immediately.
And now, seniors are getting pushed aside and are finding holes to fill in.
 
A salient question for UK is why would a top HS QB come here when it seems evident that we almost always end up starting a JUCO or transfer? Honestly, seems like that would be a huge problem on the recruiting front.
 
Honestly, seems like that would be a huge problem on the recruiting front.
And if everyone else, including Play Off contenders were not doing it, it would be.

If a recruit expressed concern that we had taken transfers at QB, just ask him who doesn’t. Maybe EKU?
 
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I don't thnk so.

Stetson Bennett, JJ McCarthy, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, etc...all developed and stuck. I think the days of grooming your backup who then takes hte starting gig might be harder and harder to do now.
Yeah you’re right but most of these guys played early and the world knew they would starters from day on except maybe Bennett. The days of guys developing over 2-3 years and becoming starts into their redshirt junior years are over.
 
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And if everyone else, including Play Off contenders were not doing it, it would be.

If a recruit expressed concern that we had taken transfers at QB, just ask him who doesn’t. Maybe EKU?

It is not taking JUCOs and Transfers that would turn off HS players, because you are correct, everyone does, but at UK, it is that we almost never actually play a kid that we signed out of HS, in fact, have not regularly started a HS signee at QB since Patrick Towles (except for first two games of 2016 season with Drew Barker).
 
I don't thnk so.

Stetson Bennett, JJ McCarthy, CJ Stroud, Bryce Young, etc...all developed and stuck. I think the days of grooming your backup who then takes hte starting gig might be harder and harder to do now.
did any of them sit for 2- 3 years and develop before they started
 
UK should have hit the transfer portal for a QB LAST year... A kid with talent they could massage into the culture and system and lifestyle, and that could learn for a year behind Levis to take over next summer.

But I'd think it shouldn't be hard to pick a QB to develop for a year behind your starter.

Ideally, I'd like two year cycles... So a freshman QB can RS, then spend a year as a backup.
 
UK should have hit the transfer portal for a QB LAST year... A kid with talent they could massage into the culture and system and lifestyle, and that could learn for a year behind Levis to take over next summer.

But I'd think it shouldn't be hard to pick a QB to develop for a year behind your starter.

Ideally, I'd like two year cycles... So a freshman QB can RS, then spend a year as a backup.
Well, I think we did.

Hogan, Iowa.
 
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