Not sure if this is a paywall article, but thought I'd post anyway. Some paragraphs are particularly poignant as we agonize over the what if's of this season and what must be done immediately to save the entire program.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-ba...lege-footballs-quarterback-problem-1514480120
Here are a couple key passages if you can't get the whole article:
"There is no more important talent evaluation in football than figuring out whether a quarterback is good or bad. The coaches who spot good quarterbacks get to keep their jobs. The coaches who pick bad quarterbacks get fired. But coaches are still wrong an unfathomable amount for all the energy and resources they dedicate to finding quarterbacks of the future."
"Over the last five NFL drafts, in fact, only four of the 12 first-round quarterbacks were rated in the top-100 prospects in their recruiting classes. For every Josh Rosen, the UCLA quarterback who could be the No. 1 pick in the draft and was the No. 1 pro-style passer in high school, there is a Josh Allen, the quarterback who could become a top-five pick from Wyoming, which isn’t exactly a football hotbed. "
"Recruiting any position in college football can be a nightmare. In some extreme cases, it requires projecting what a player will look like in 10 years. But coaches say finding quarterbacks is particularly fraught because it amounts to a wild guess as to whether a player will be able to handle one of the most cerebral position in sports.
When Alabama coach Nick Saban referred to a quarterback having “the right stuff” in a news conference last year, even putting air quotes around the phrase, he was talking about those less obvious attributes: judgment, decision-making and how someone processes information under the pressure of 100,000 screaming fans."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-ba...lege-footballs-quarterback-problem-1514480120
Here are a couple key passages if you can't get the whole article:
"There is no more important talent evaluation in football than figuring out whether a quarterback is good or bad. The coaches who spot good quarterbacks get to keep their jobs. The coaches who pick bad quarterbacks get fired. But coaches are still wrong an unfathomable amount for all the energy and resources they dedicate to finding quarterbacks of the future."
"Over the last five NFL drafts, in fact, only four of the 12 first-round quarterbacks were rated in the top-100 prospects in their recruiting classes. For every Josh Rosen, the UCLA quarterback who could be the No. 1 pick in the draft and was the No. 1 pro-style passer in high school, there is a Josh Allen, the quarterback who could become a top-five pick from Wyoming, which isn’t exactly a football hotbed. "
"Recruiting any position in college football can be a nightmare. In some extreme cases, it requires projecting what a player will look like in 10 years. But coaches say finding quarterbacks is particularly fraught because it amounts to a wild guess as to whether a player will be able to handle one of the most cerebral position in sports.
When Alabama coach Nick Saban referred to a quarterback having “the right stuff” in a news conference last year, even putting air quotes around the phrase, he was talking about those less obvious attributes: judgment, decision-making and how someone processes information under the pressure of 100,000 screaming fans."
