Summer is here and we’re 100 days from the kickoff vs NDSU. Usually over the summer months I post a position by position discussion. It seems to help time pass for us football fanatics that can’t wait for the season to get started! For the Griz I believe their summer conditioning program starts up in a week or so, I hope that many can return and make the most of it!
As always these are just my observations, add your thoughts and comments! Let’s start off with one of the biggest key positions for the 2015 team, Quarterback.
Starter – Brady Gustafson
Backup – Eric Prater
Depth – Makena Simis / Chad Chalich / Willy Pflug / Will Weyer
It seems to me that this is Brady’s job to lose at this point. He opened day 1 as the starter in spring ball and adapted to the offense much quicker than any of the other QBs. The final scrimmage was a huge boost for the offense as Brady showed ingenuity in the offense with improvising and making adjustments that Stitt wants his QBs to do. Brady is a very tall QB, he’s got a good strong arm, and is fairly accurate. I recall a post on here that he’s a very good student too – which could suggest how he was able to absorb and learn this offense much quicker too. Brady’s challenges that I saw this spring was that of the QB’s he’s maybe the least mobile of the group. Also his passing accuracy when running from the passing pocket wasn’t very good. As we saw this spring the offense doesn’t need a QB as mobile as we’ve had before – but they do have some zone-read and QB option plays. Brady isn’t going to be the best to exploit that. However his accuracy, his height and fairly good arm strength, and what he’s shown for knowledge of the system and ability to adapt has him in front.
Prater I believe is the backup at this point, I’m going to be really interested to see how he adapts with summer conditioning. It was my opinion (and I’d heard it from others as well) that he has the strongest arm of all the QBs. He opened spring ball looking ok and had a bit of a drop-off with a fairly rough 2nd scrimmage. But the coaches saw him improving in practice and he moved up from being in “group b” to being the backup. He’s also not as mobile as others and I think one of our shorter QBs. What I noticed with him was that through the early parts of spring ball his timing with a lot of the WRs was off. While I’m not sure I would assume this was a bit of work on getting to know the offense and work with WR’s that he’s not worked with before. If he makes leaps and bounds through summer conditioning in this offense he could still possibly challenge to start. My guess is that’s a long shot, but he’s just an RS Frosh so he could be looking at opportunities within a year or two.
Moving beyond those two it seems that Simis and Chalich are looking at the #3 job between the two of them. Simis is much better runner but was very streaky with some great practices throwing and some others that weren’t as great. He came here for Pflugrad’s offense and is now adapting to his 3rd offense. He’s a fast runner but he showed some issues with timing on the pass plays. Chalich was up and down and finished spring ball with a bit of a rough patch. He’s not really stood out in one area in particular. I think a lot of people expected him to come in and have more command of the offense – being that he’s the only QB that’s actually started a college game. If he can gain that confidence in this system over the spring we’ll see how he shapes up. Pflug is probably staring at a red shirt, which is just fine. It’s got to be hard for a kid like him to come in and realize his solid chance for a shot to start is probably 2 years away. He’s not looked like many true freshman QBs that I’ve seen before, I’m excited to see him progress over the years. I think the 2017 QB battle could be Prater v Pflug. Weyer has been rumored to be gone, to be on the team, or to be taking some time with an intent to return. We'll have to see with him.
As we’ve heard 1,000,000 times from Coach Stitt, QB is vitally important to this offense. He’s not looking for the strongest arm or the fastest runner. He wants the QB that makes the right reads in this offense to attack what the defense gives them. As we saw in the three scrimmages the offense is FAST and the QB needs to line up, read the defense quick, and have the ball out of his hands and to the WRs in an incredibly quick and efficient manner. The guy that does this best will be our starter, right now all signs are pointing to Brady to be that guy.
As always these are just my observations, add your thoughts and comments! Let’s start off with one of the biggest key positions for the 2015 team, Quarterback.
Starter – Brady Gustafson
Backup – Eric Prater
Depth – Makena Simis / Chad Chalich / Willy Pflug / Will Weyer
It seems to me that this is Brady’s job to lose at this point. He opened day 1 as the starter in spring ball and adapted to the offense much quicker than any of the other QBs. The final scrimmage was a huge boost for the offense as Brady showed ingenuity in the offense with improvising and making adjustments that Stitt wants his QBs to do. Brady is a very tall QB, he’s got a good strong arm, and is fairly accurate. I recall a post on here that he’s a very good student too – which could suggest how he was able to absorb and learn this offense much quicker too. Brady’s challenges that I saw this spring was that of the QB’s he’s maybe the least mobile of the group. Also his passing accuracy when running from the passing pocket wasn’t very good. As we saw this spring the offense doesn’t need a QB as mobile as we’ve had before – but they do have some zone-read and QB option plays. Brady isn’t going to be the best to exploit that. However his accuracy, his height and fairly good arm strength, and what he’s shown for knowledge of the system and ability to adapt has him in front.
Prater I believe is the backup at this point, I’m going to be really interested to see how he adapts with summer conditioning. It was my opinion (and I’d heard it from others as well) that he has the strongest arm of all the QBs. He opened spring ball looking ok and had a bit of a drop-off with a fairly rough 2nd scrimmage. But the coaches saw him improving in practice and he moved up from being in “group b” to being the backup. He’s also not as mobile as others and I think one of our shorter QBs. What I noticed with him was that through the early parts of spring ball his timing with a lot of the WRs was off. While I’m not sure I would assume this was a bit of work on getting to know the offense and work with WR’s that he’s not worked with before. If he makes leaps and bounds through summer conditioning in this offense he could still possibly challenge to start. My guess is that’s a long shot, but he’s just an RS Frosh so he could be looking at opportunities within a year or two.
Moving beyond those two it seems that Simis and Chalich are looking at the #3 job between the two of them. Simis is much better runner but was very streaky with some great practices throwing and some others that weren’t as great. He came here for Pflugrad’s offense and is now adapting to his 3rd offense. He’s a fast runner but he showed some issues with timing on the pass plays. Chalich was up and down and finished spring ball with a bit of a rough patch. He’s not really stood out in one area in particular. I think a lot of people expected him to come in and have more command of the offense – being that he’s the only QB that’s actually started a college game. If he can gain that confidence in this system over the spring we’ll see how he shapes up. Pflug is probably staring at a red shirt, which is just fine. It’s got to be hard for a kid like him to come in and realize his solid chance for a shot to start is probably 2 years away. He’s not looked like many true freshman QBs that I’ve seen before, I’m excited to see him progress over the years. I think the 2017 QB battle could be Prater v Pflug. Weyer has been rumored to be gone, to be on the team, or to be taking some time with an intent to return. We'll have to see with him.
As we’ve heard 1,000,000 times from Coach Stitt, QB is vitally important to this offense. He’s not looking for the strongest arm or the fastest runner. He wants the QB that makes the right reads in this offense to attack what the defense gives them. As we saw in the three scrimmages the offense is FAST and the QB needs to line up, read the defense quick, and have the ball out of his hands and to the WRs in an incredibly quick and efficient manner. The guy that does this best will be our starter, right now all signs are pointing to Brady to be that guy.
