re: QB Direction

quote:

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Hurts


Was a true freshman, and won SEC offensive player of the year. His passing stats were exceptional for a true freshman. Again, I don't think people truly realize how difficult it is for a true freshman to not only start in the SEC, but excel to the point of winning OPOTY.

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That opoty award was kind of ridiculous imo. Hurts won that thing because he was the most high profile player on the best team in the nation. That the SEC sucked this year was also a factor. Hurts was absolutely not the best quarterback in the conference. That would be Kelly. As much as I hate to admit it, even Dobbs was better, overall, than Hurts, because he can actually pass with some degree of consistency and can run when he needs to. I'm pretty we'd have had more than 2 drives of 5 plays or more, and won that game, with Dobbs at qb. With Kelly we'd probably have pounded them.

And those passing stats? That's been beaten to death and everybody knows that the majority of Hurts' passing yards were shovel passes on the jet sweeps and screen passes.

He completes just 30.7 percent of his passes while under pressure.
He completes just 33.3 percent of passes more than 20 yards down the field.
80 of his 227 completions were behind the line of scrimmage.



Frankly, it isn't just the lack of accuracy. He doesn't see the field well, missing open receivers. Perhaps he scared because he's too quick to bail and throw away the ball. He isn't good at checking down to other receivers if the primary receiver is covered. He isn't good at reading defenses before or after the snap. He's pretty bad about fumbling the ball. He isn't even a very good game manager. Too many penalties like delay of game.

I'm an Alabama fan and don't really have favorite players. I hope Hurts will make a 180 turnaround next season and be a great runner and passer, and manage the game better than he has, but there is no guarantee that will happen.

edit: Oh yeah, and those passing stats were before the Clemson game. It's worse now.