2008 Heisman Trophy thread

Why did he let his team lose to Ole Miss?

 

He missed his blocking assignment on the PAT.

 

Drafting Stafford ahead of Bradford or Tebow would be choosing Ryan Leaf ahead of Peyton Manning all over again. You can't use a stop watch or a tape measure to determine QB productivity, and you sure as hell can't do it at the freakin' combine.

 

He still hasn't solved world hunger.

 

I thought Obama had that on his second day agenda.

 

I'm sorry, but this post is about eight different levels of wrong.

Leaf and Stafford are not a good comparison. Leaf, for all of his NFL foibles was a DAMN good college QB. Really good. Third in the Heisman balloting good. Only reason Wazzou had a chance against Michigan in the Rose Bowl good. While it seems insane with the benefit of hindsight, an argument could be made for Leaf over Manning in 1998 based on physical skills and his ability to be so successful with a relatively average team around him. Stafford isn't Leaf-level good in college, but neither of them are Dan McGwire. If UGA ran a spread, Stafford might have put up the numbers that would have him in the Heisman hunt.

If there is ANYTHING we have learned about successful NFL quarterbacks, it is that there is no easy formula. Why is it that a guy like Joey Harrington, who looked amazing playing for a good program in college, bombs out while Tony Romo succeeds despite playing for Eastern Illinois? Why is Kyle Boller a bust while Aaron Rodgers looks like a pretty good QB despite playing for the same coach and possessing many of the same skills? Why can Drew Brees play basketball on grass in college and succeed in the NFL while David Klinger and Andre Ware sit by the wayside? Matthew Stafford could be the next Joe Flacco or the next Kyle Boller. I honestly have no idea. But he is probably worth the risk.

 

Some of the draft experts act like the act of getting under center and the footwork involved in dropback passing are intricately difficult acts that takes years to perfect. Bullcrap. Tebow's a football player. He'll figure it out by the second practice of his first minicamp, and go on to what's really important, reading defenses.

Every time some idiot such as Kiper goes on TV and blasts Tebow, I look at NFL rosters and see Sage Rosenfels, Cleo Lemon, the two-headed piles of crap in Minnesota (Frerotte and Jackson), Tyler Thigpen, et al. Those bums are still drawing NFL paychecks. I'm not saying Tebow is the best prospect in the next two years, but he's got to be better than a lot of guys taking snaps or holding clipboards in the NFL right now.

 

Pope, count me in with hondo. It's not that Stafford might not be a successful NFL QB. The available evidence, however, indicates Tebow or Bradford offer a better chance of what's always a high-risk bet to pay off.

 

What does Tebow do that demonstrates he is capable of playing QB at the next level? He has a nice feel for the game but the system has his WR's running open all day. (same for Bradford). Can he sqeeze the ball between the corner and safety on the right sideline from the left hash? Maybe he turns out to be great but he has more of chance of being Alex Smith than Peyton Manning.

 

As always, hondo misses the point.

It isn't the dropback in the pocket that foils the transition. It is that running the spread is like taking the Special Ed version of how to read a defense. When you have offensive players spaced all over the field, it is very hard for a defense to hide what it is doing. A semi-intelligent quarterback can tell pretty quickly man v. zone and most blitzes. You have offensive linemen spaced out in a way to make it easy to see the passing lanes. And you get to calmly stand back and watch it unfold. Talk about slowing the game down for the QB.

The transition to the NFL is hard enough in terms of the speed of the game and reading defenses. Running the spread only makes it that much worse.

You take a player with Tebow's natural athleticism, let him run an offense that makes it easy to read defenses and surround him with the likes of Percy Harvin....good golly, Miss Molly. You get Florida this season. But in the NFL, Tebow won't have those advantages. At best, he is another Vince Young - a QB who finds a way to win in spite of pretty awful numbers.

 

If Tebow leaves early, someone will take a flier on him and he'll be drafted on the first day. But he NEEDS another year of football if he's gonna have any chance at a long NFL career -- and even if he does stick on the next level, it won't be at QB. In the NFL, his running will be completely neutralized, and he's not even close to being an NFL-ready passer. He's Eric Crouch on steroids.

 

This. Sorry, but something's a bit off when so many QBs in the B12 are putting up similar numbers.

And Tebow didn't have Harvin in the SECCG. I think he deserves it, but it will go to Bradford.

Interesting to note, though - how many people are talking about Bradford being a sophomore this year? If he does win it, he partly has Tebow to thank for that.