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QB in the slow mesh

liveanddiedeac

liveanddiedeac

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First we all love Sam, he’s awesome and a warrior!!! However, the slow mesh requires many throws to be made near the line of scrimmage in traffic made up of your own linemen and the opposing Dline with most 6’3” or better. i also know it’s easier said then done to find them, but it seems to me having a taller, bigger QB would be a big advantage in this offense. Yet we seem to get smaller QB’s right around 6 feet tall, with the exception of Jamie Newman. I watch a lot of college football and I see a lot of teams P5 and G5 that have bigger taller QB’s, so they’re out there. Am I wrong?
 
Don’t think you’re wrong, but I think our O relies on quick reads more so than a few more inches to get the ball up and over DL more efficiently. Now if we can find a taller QB who can make reads in a small amount of time, sure, we would probably benefit with them out on the field.
 
SkyDivingDeacon said:
Don’t think you’re wrong, but I think our O relies on quick reads more so than a few more inches to get the ball up and over DL more efficiently. Now if we can find a taller QB who can make reads in a small amount of time, sure, we would probably benefit with them out on the field.
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Yeah I think Clawson wants the “heady” QB regardless of size, but maybe he should take a chance on a bigger guy and see
if they can develop him?
 
Kerns is taller too, but there’s probably a reason why he is backup to Mitch who is 3 inches shorter.
 
Jeff Sims, yes from crappy GT, would feast in our offense. Maybe he’ll transfer!
 
Don’t leave out Gilliam or a surprise QB commit. True frosh starters are what we do at Wake.
 
liveanddiedeac said:
First we all love Sam, he’s awesome and a warrior!!! However, the slow mesh requires many throws to be made near the line of scrimmage in traffic made up of your own linemen and the opposing Dline with most 6’3” or better. i also know it’s easier said then done to find them, but it seems to me having a taller, bigger QB would be a big advantage in this offense. Yet we seem to get smaller QB’s right around 6 feet tall, with the exception of Jamie Newman. I watch a lot of college football and I see a lot of teams P5 and G5 that have bigger taller QB’s, so they’re out there. Am I wrong?
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You mean guys like Jamie Newman?
 
Not to start this debate again, but I pretty adamantly believe that senior year Wolford was the best quarterback we've seen in this system. He had comparable RBs around him (maybe even a little better) but did not have the same level of WR that Hartman has had the last couple of years. They are similar sizes, but Wolford was an awesome runner. That's the one thing that's missing from this offense, and probably could have slowed UL down. For whatever reason, the QB run is not nearly as much of a threat as it should be.

ETA: it appears that Griffis might be more of a runner than Sam. He sure as hell can throw on the run.
 
wakelaw13 said:
Not to start this debate again, but I pretty adamantly believe that senior year Wolford was the best quarterback we've seen in this system. He had comparable RBs around him (maybe even a little better) but did not have the same level of WR that Hartman has had the last couple of years. They are similar sizes, but Wolford was an awesome runner. That's the one thing that's missing from this offense, and probably could have slowed UL down. For whatever reason, the QB run is not nearly as much of a threat as it should be.

ETA: it appears that Griffis might be more of a runner than Sam. He sure as hell can throw on the run.
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Absolutely, the QB being even a reasonable running threat makes a huge difference. Posted about this in another thread, but Hartman had 11 TDs running last season and nearly 400 yards. He no longer runs.

Wolford, Hinton, Newman, and early Sam all had that as part of their game. It looks like Griffis does as well.
 
One thing that gives me confidence in the future is that Clawson has consistently had good QBs but different QBs.
 
PhDeac said:
One thing that gives me confidence in the future is that Clawson has consistently had good QBs but different QBs.
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Totally agree. Sam might be the best pure passing quarterback under Clawson, but everyone who has started a meaningful number of games has found success, with different styles of play.
 
Deaconblue said:
You mean guys like Jamie Newman?
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Yeah, I think physically, Jamie was the perfect QB for our system. I think Sam is the better QB when you factor in everything, but having to stand in there that close to the LOS, size certainly is a good thing.
 
Find it interesting that WF has started to land highly rated receivers, but has yet to land a transformational QB recruit. 2023 QB recruit Charlie Gillam may turn out to be a stud, but he's not among WF's highest rated commits (WF has two receivers and a ton of defensive commits rated higher).

Stanford had a run (and its still going as Tanner McKee is projected NFL draftee -- McKee was the #3 rated QB in his class) of elite QBs signing there, even though there even thought the offense has sucked for a while. Realize that there aren't a ton of HS QB recruits that have size, can run and throw, but scary to think what a mulit-talented QB could do in this offense.
 
I get it. The basics of the slow mesh are challenging for a QB but great for a WR.

Also keep in mind that most of Clawson's tenure we've had a QB who started since he was a true freshman, so there wasn't much of a window for a top QB. Obviously Hinton got some starts and Newman did beat out Hartman for a time. This would be the class to get a transformational QB since Clawson is willing to hand over the reins to a true freshman and let him work.
 
More teams are running the slow mesh now. Including Stanford.
 
Newman getting a bunch of buzz while at Wake and then completely falling apart after exiting probably didn't help.
 
DCDeac said:
Newman getting a bunch of buzz while at Wake and then completely falling apart after exiting probably didn't help.
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He didn't play due to COVID and now he's playing in the CFL. Plenty of good college players don't make it in the NFL after their college career is over. Hard to call that "completely falling apart."
 
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