Bama vs Wisconsin football stuff (it's game week boys and girls!)

from BOL guy

I wasn't planning to do much of anything, but a couple of people (on BOL and in person) asked me to, so here's what I got. Keep in mind, this is a for-fun sort of rambling analysis; I'm a numbers guy, and that doesn't really translate to the preseason. Anyway, here are my musings (SEC focused) for the upcoming season.

-A few thoughts on the quarterback battle:
--First, I'm not the right person to give any deep analysis, as I haven't seen a single snap in fall camp. What I can try to do is comment a bit on quarterbacking in general.
--The first thing I'll note is that it's quite possible to get excellent production from an inconsistent quarterback with a live arm. Jarrett Lee was a guy who couldn't read a defense to save his life. But, in 2011, LSU used Lee's strong arm to create a powerful play-action passing game off the run. Lee's 152 QBR from 2011 would have just edged out Dak Prescott from this past season.
--Second, there's a bit of a false dichotomy in terms of youth vs. experience going around. Some people talk about "play to win today," others, "play the new guy, take your lumps this year." But, there's a third option: play the guy who will win in October. JT Barrett was less than stellar last year in week 2 versus Virginia Tech, but, come the end of the season, he was phenomenal. Though I expect Coker to start for Wisconsin, the staff has to be giving some serious thought to who will be the best player to get us through our stretch run in October.
--Finally, expect the offense to change. Something we forget is that we opened the season as a -huddling- tempo team. Kiffin prefers to run the huddle, have pro-style, complicated plays, and ask the quarterback to check a bit. Despite how much you sometimes here "Sims was perfect for what they did," the truth was, Kiffin made what we did perfect for Sims. But I would expect to see some very different things stylistically this year, especially if we have an inconsistent, big-armed quarterback (see Lee above). The play card experiment was one thing, but, considering our strengths (the run and defense), I expect us to take the tempo back down a little more and play some power football.
--My general belief over the past few years (dating back to 2013) is that our corner play has been our Achilles heel. However, in my humble opinion, it's often been an issue of size more than technique. In the opener, Sylve gave us quality reps, but just couldn't high point the ball over the towering White. Then, against Mizzou, our corners were again thrown past. Further, a huge key to several losses (Oklahoma and Auburn in 2013, for example) it has been an inability to stop the /run/ that has killed us on the perimeter. Sylve is just too small, and Smith has really struggled to get off blocks. Unfortunately, the taller options (Brown and Jackson) have been a liability deep. If Humphrey and Fitzpatrick step up, I feel it will be the increase in size against the pass and especially against the run that will make the biggest impact.
--To toot my own horn a bit, I mentioned in the runup to last year that Cyrus compared favorably to the progression Javy took in his career. Here's to hoping it continues, and Cyrus ends up an all-star player.