Quote:
Originally Posted by mac4lyfe
^^ Once again, the priviledged coaches kid mentality. Making excuses for poor play. This is not Driskel's first year. He practiced and played last year. He's been in CFB the same amount of time as Bridgewater and an entire year more than Johnny Manziel but for some reason they can actually pass the ball while Driskel is taking WTH sacks. You can see a noticeable improvement by Manziel this year while Driskel seems to be clueless.
I hate to sound so negative because I truly like the kid and I want him to turn it around but I think he's made more for a spread offense. If we're going with a pro style then Driskel isn't our guy IMO.
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I don't know what this "privileged coach's kid" stuff is about. Driskel has no historical relation to the Gator program or any coaches that I'm aware of. In fact, he may have had the least amount of coaching to date of any of our scholarship QBs (I'd argue that it shows)... the biggest thing going for him is his physical skills. He's much more like a Terrel Pryor (brought in on athletic upside) than a "coach's kid".
The comparison to Manziel is apt from a college experience perspective - they've both played about the same amount in college and clearly Manziel is way ahead. Manziel comes from a stronger HS background though. Manziel also had a very experienced OL with two high round draft choice OTs protecting him, along with more weapons to distribute the ball to, and probably more freedom from his coach to make plays.
Bridgewater has a full year more of real playing time in college, and like Manziel comes from a much more accomplished HS program. That extra playing time and coaching in real games against higher level competition makes a difference.
Driskel clearly improved year over year and was improving this season until about mid season, when the already porous OL suffered significant injuries. While I fully agree he has a lot to work on, I think his inability to trust his protection was related and would have impacted most any young QB.
I'm not saying the critiques of Driskel aren't valid. He needs to get much better at presnap reads so he knows where to go with the ball, and hopefully gets us into better plays and protections (when the center doesn't recognize). And he needs to work on the clock in his head and pocket awareness/presence.
In fact, I absolutely think there should be open competition for QB because those are essential aspects of playing the position.
But I think anybody saying JD can't do the job is disregarding his physical upside, his relative inexperience at the HS level, and the challenges he faced behind a porous OL this year. And he still protected the football well for the majority of the year, which is what Muschamp probably wanted most from him, and made some big plays that helped win games for us.
Linear Mode
