Less Time making videos and more time watching film.
The elephant in the room, passing yardage
- Thread starter stuway
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I agree with this.
Seems to me he is slow to go from main guys and his accuracy on short throws needs work.
The biggest play of the game last night was 3rd and 2. Fake to CRod and rolled left and threw the ball between two receivers. I don’t know if Riggs was looking for the ball but it was a bad pass.
5-0 is pretty damn good though!!!
There is no doubt our passing game in general and Levis in particular have rough edges which need to be worked out. But Florida is likely the 2nd best defense we will play. Held Alabama to 10 points over the last 3 quarters and shut out Tennessee in the 2nd half. We're just not going to go up-and-down the field against that team they're too good and too fast.
If we are talking about the same play, not sure if we are or not honestly. If we are, Rigg messed that play up, he has to engage the DE long enough to break his stride, then slip out three yards for the pass. It was play side, Levis was rolling that way and the DE basically rushed unimpeded. They run this one a lot in the NFL, works beautifully if the TE gets the block right.
Combination of all of it. Frankly the challenges are similr to what we have had for several years except we have Robinson and Levi’s has a big arm and is a more willing runner into contact than what Wilson became over time.
Run blocking o-line. We don’t just ole but we don’t give great amounts of time either.
QB with accuracy issues and not great footwork.
While playmaking has improved with Robinson we still don’t have much else.
Run blocking o-line. We don’t just ole but we don’t give great amounts of time either.
QB with accuracy issues and not great footwork.
While playmaking has improved with Robinson we still don’t have much else.
And to me , this is exciting. We haven’t even scratched the surface of what this offense can do .
Why is LSU doubtful? They are decent but I dont think they are better than Florida and we beat them.
I think Levis is going to be very good. Gotta remember this is a new system for him and his 1st year here. It may take a little time. But you can see he clearly has all the potential in the world.
I thought our O-Line played a tremendous game. Levis seems to have very little awareness in the pocket, it’s like he’s not aware when he has good protection. If he knows he doesn’t have the protection though, he’s actually good at escaping the pocket and picking up yards on the ground. So it was kinda strange to see him get caught up a few times when he had clear lanes to scramble out of the pocket. Overall, Levis is the most complete QB of the Stoops era, but he is probably not an NFL QB and definitely has some limitations.
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I'm glad this hasn't turned into a Levis bashing thread. He's a first-time starter, playing at a new school for a new offensive coordinator. IMHO, he has the highest ceiling as a passing quarterback of any UK starting qb in years. If he can improve his accuracy by 10-15% and develop better field vision, he's gonna work out just fine. In the meantime, he does enough in the passing game to take some of the defensive pressure off our run. On top of all of that, he's got grit and he wants to win. (Maybe too much grit; protect yourself young man!) I really hope/expect in Levis's second year that our passing game will hit the next gear.
I thought after the first couple games he would be serviceable but he’s been awful the few games. Last night was Terry Wilson bad with his accuracy. He completed 7 passes with probably 5 of them being screen passes. He’s tough as nails but we need to be a running team and rely on our defense. I wanted to kill Coen last night especially on that 3rd and 2 late in the game and he threw the damn ball. nearly cost us the game.
people gave a lot of crap to Gran but at least he understood he didn’t have a good QB. Coen seems to want to mix it up regardless of the talent of the QB. Levis is not good and Coen better find a way to use him better if he wants to throw the ball as much as he wants to
people gave a lot of crap to Gran but at least he understood he didn’t have a good QB. Coen seems to want to mix it up regardless of the talent of the QB. Levis is not good and Coen better find a way to use him better if he wants to throw the ball as much as he wants to
I would like to see Levis given fewer options. Start with two reads and then work up to three. If nothing is there then take off running and get what you can. Right now I think he gets a little over-whelmed with processing everything.
Also, are there any folks in Lexington who can our QB skeet shooting? He needs help learning how to lead a target in the worse way!
Also, are there any folks in Lexington who can our QB skeet shooting? He needs help learning how to lead a target in the worse way!
Yeah! then we have to put up with crap like 5-0,3-0. We'd be winning these games by 60 if not for Stoops evil conspiracy to constantly sabotage the aerial attack. I'm good with zero passing yards next week as long as we emerge 6-0.
In Smokes defense, he did try to cut block the guy, but was outweighed and outsized by 100 lb. I think Levis needs to calm down in the pocket. He seems to me to get more and more excitable as the plays come faster. If he can just take a breath, and focus, I think we will see improved short yardage passes.
Or passing stats would look a lit better except for Florida tackling Wan'dale on the post route and not even getting a flag.
Those were all schemed. Levis locks on wandale, missing other open players, and just isn't consistently accurate.
He has all the tools. He just isn't there yet
Agreed - I was just using those to illustrate he is willing to throw to other guys, which is why I agree that he only doesn’t because he isn’t seeing the field quick enough
A new QB and new O-coordinator should put 450 yards a game up in the SEC through the air
Look at all the yrds 3-2 Miss State under Mike Leach puts up!!!
Look at all the yrds 3-2 Miss State under Mike Leach puts up!!!
Think he will be fine and numbers will improve. Like someone said, you don’t even entertain this conversation being 5-0 and off a win over UF.
Exactly, there were a couple against Florida that if the touch had of been there and where the back could have caught in stride would have been major gains that we might have scored. Yes, I agree that he needs improvement, especially spreading the ball around, but with no spring game and limited time with his receiver it about what I expected. You have to love his effort and physicality, hurdling the Florida player for extra yardage type plays will wantball his teammates to play extra hard with him. IMO he'll keep improving the longer he's in Levis's offense.
Absolutely. This is almost exclusively how Penn State used him. He’s not a great pocket passer … put his legs and size to work. That will set up more in the play action.
Levis obviously has great potential, he has 3 years of eligibility as well, which makes him worth the patience and effort.
I like how he's built like Tebow and runs with a nasty streak. His arm is strong, just needs refinement.
I like how he's built like Tebow and runs with a nasty streak. His arm is strong, just needs refinement.
Yes, Levis can improve, but there's probably a reason he was a Backup at Penn St.
Barker and Allen are/were not top notch SEC level QBs. If so, they would be playing a lot more.
Stoops for some reason has ignored the most important position on a football team. It's kind of baffling.
This is a good post and a fair assessment, thus far into the season, reconciling passing results against levels of competition. Hopefully, there is the ability to improve in may ways. There certainly is enough time to do so.
It's not just Stoops. UK has struggled to get a top notch SEC caliber QB for the vast majority of years. It is kind of maddening.....especially when a second rate school like UofL can somehow manage to land guys like LaMar Jackson, Chris Redman and Teddy Bridgewater. Other than Tim Couch and Andre Woodson none of the QB's UK has fielded would start for any other team in the SEC except for possibly Vandy. Levis has lots of potential, but has a ways to go compared to many of the other traditional QB's in the SEC.
I don’t quite understand your point as it seems like the goalposts of your argument are moving a bit (or maybe it’s because we are not thinking the same definition for a top notch SEC QB).
Your original statement to which I am referring:
“Blame Stoops for NEVER recruiting and landing a top notch QB.”
You can’t use statistics from their college career b/c that isn’t recruiting, that’s development. Even if you did, Barker and Allen had/have potential, and I think Barker had turned the corner as he had the physical tools but appeared to turn the corner maturity-wise, but a spine injury derailed that.
So, again…
1) how do you define a top notch QB RECRUIT? 4 star, 5 star?
2) How many years do you allow before you say a QB cannot develop into a top notch SEC QB?
Again, it’s easy to say a highly rated recruit didn’t develop, but that isn’t the same as saying that same player wasn’t a top notch RECRUIT
Jackson, 5.8 4-star recruit
Bridgewater, 5.8 4-star recruit
Andre Woodson, 4-star (no RR)
Allen, 5.8 4-star recruit
Barker 5.9 4-star recruit
That doesn’t even account for the fact that UL with Clint Hurt were no doubt cheating/paying recruits when Bridgewater and Jackson were recruited
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I guess it comes down to talent evaluation being subpar then. We are overdue for a top notch QB.
I’m not saying I don’t (and haven’t) want more from the QB position, but I think the guys they’ve targeted have shown good talent evaluation (Mac Jones, anyone?), but superstar QBs are such a crapshoot.
For example…
Mac Jones, 5.9, 4-star (former UK commit)
Jarren Williams, 5.9, 4-star (former UK commit)
How about non-UK players?
Kyle Trask, 5.3, 2-star
Felipe Franks, 6.0, 4-star
In hindsight, Darin Hinshaw didn’t do a great job of developing QBs, so hopefully Coen changes that dynamic as Levis clearly has the arm talent.
Levis has a lot of the limitations But the one thing he did in those first couple games was make teams fear the deep ball. That’s helped up a lot. At some point he’s gonna have to play better tho. Eventually teams are just gonna force him to beat them.
Allen will never be the answer. If he’s starting, we’re in trouble
There were plays to be made last night but Levis didn’t make very good throws.
Levis made some plays hard by throwing hard to catch balls. Both wheel routes to Smoke were behind the RB. While some RBs may have made the catch, turning around to handle a pass that is behind you probably also limits your potential yardage. He also made a similar throw to Bates. While Bates arguably should have caught it, it just was not a good throw. Those passes take some touch and you need to put the ball out in front where your receiver will be. Levis sometimes seems to throw where the receiver IS. The INT simply seemed to be Levis getting jacked up and putting air under the ball. I think he had a man in a seam, he just got too much on it. Throwing the ball too hard and behind his man seems to be a common issue under pressure for the intermediate and short passes. I also think Wandale draws a pass interference at the goal line if Levis did not rocket the ball way out of reach and put it closer to WR.
And touch on his passes. He throws short passes like he’s trying to throw it through a brick wall and like what you posted, accuracy.
I personally think they are walking the line with the running and passing game. If they went all in on passing the ball a lot they obviously would get better, the QB and receivers. But they know it could cost them a game or two doing that. It is simply not enough game reps in the passing game to get really good at it and get more receivers experience. Puts a little more stress on the passer. We need a couple of easy games in a row where we could get away with learning to do this and gain the experience needed doing it live game and still be able to win while getting better at it.
We got as many passing yards as we needed to win, Saturday, when you winning and you're playing lights-out defense why would you put the ball in the air? If we were losing and needed more points we would have generated more passing yards.
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