QB situation looking good.

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balds

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For the first time in a long time, I feel very good about the teams situation at QB.

I don't like to make assumptions, but I don't think the following are that big of a stretch:

1) Gray plays the entire year like he did the second half of this year.

2) Shortell continues to get some playing time (hopefully in mop-up duty).

3) Nelson Red-Shirts, meaning he will have gone through 2 spring camps, two summer camps and one full season before he ever plays. I think that would be huge for our very talented incoming recruit.

If Nelson indeed starts as a freshman, he will have such a different experience than our last Fr. starter had. I wish Weber would have had a better shake than the crap he went through.
 

I think the QB situation looks good on paper. Nelson still has to prove he is the real deal, Gray has to stay healthy and we need to see more of Shortell to know if he really can be the guy.

However it is nice to have guys we can feel optimistic about. Assuming Gray takes another step in his development during the off season he should give us a very capable option next year and should give the staff plenty of time to figure out what they have in guys like Shortell, Nelson, Foreman, and Leidner going forward.
 

Gray's health is obviously paramount. Pocket passers rarely get hurt. A guy like Gray, who not only takes a lot of hits but initiates contact a lot as well, is much more likely to get hurt. The good news is that he appeared to get stronger as the season wore on.
 

This isn't the NFL. College teams rarely have backup QBs with a significant amount of experience. There are a few rare circumstances where the backup is experienced but the vast majority of the time all you can go off is the backup QBs potential. So the Gophers situation is no different than the rest of college football.
 

Never try to bring up any positives in regard to our stable of quarterbacks. You will get shot down in most replies. We suck at QB, we always will. We have no depth, we have no future. We should switch to a single-wing.
 


highwayman said:
Never try to bring up any positives in regard to our stable of quarterbacks. You will get shot down in most replies. We suck at QB, we always will. We have no depth, we have no future. We should switch to a single-wing.
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Not to mention, all five qb's will probably blow out their knees by the time summer practice is over... (curbing my burgeoning enthusiasm)
 

The future couldn't be brighter at QB or OL for that matter.
 

And at the same time, who are they going to throw it to? Will we ever find a running back? And who is going to team with Hageman at DT? Is Beal real? QB is the least of our concerrns. The goal for the defense should be holding oppponents, all opponents to 18 points or less. I don't think we are there quite yet.
 

We appear to be pretty good at QB, the best I can remember in a while from a depth perspective. Husker makes some good points. I'm convinced we won't be a 7 win team until we have a back that runs for 1000 yards. Can Kirkwood, Gillum, or someone else be "the guy."
 



Everyone is rushing to the conclusion that Nelson will be our starter in 2 years and seems to think that Shortell won't even push him for the job. I have a feeling Shortell may get a year or two as a starting QB before all is said and done.
 

I think people have Shortell very overrated. I don't know enough about Nelson to make any kind of a judgement.
Gray has gotta prove he can stay healthy. He was actually pretty consistent when healthy last year.
 

paulser21 said:
Everyone is rushing to the conclusion that Nelson will be our starter in 2 years and seems to think that Shortell won't even push him for the job. I have a feeling Shortell may get a year or two as a starting QB before all is said and done.
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I feel like if we don't have anyone step-up in the receiving corps and everyone is mediocre, Shortell will start because I think he'd be able to make the receivers better with his throwing. If that makes any sense at all.
 

Rosemountian said:
I think people have Shortell very overrated. I don't know enough about Nelson to make any kind of a judgement.
Gray has gotta prove he can stay healthy. He was actually pretty consistent when healthy last year.
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Shortell was thrown into a pretty rough situation last year. He started games as a true freshmen and was running for his life quite frequent. With another year to develop and with our line continuing to grow and improve I think he could be a heck of a quarterback.

I'm not saying I don't like Nelson. I hope that he will be the superstar that everyone thinks he will turn into. But everyone seems to be down on Max Shortell, the true freshmen from Shawnee Mission, KS (My GF and I would always chuckle as the B10 commentators would say that about 10 times a game).
 



Having disagreement on our future QB is a good problem to have. I see Shortell as our future starter with Nelson having to wait his turn.
 

highwayman said:
Never try to bring up any positives in regard to our stable of quarterbacks. You will get shot down in most replies. We suck at QB, we always will. We have no depth, we have no future. We should switch to a single-wing.
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Didn't realize that having some doubts about exactly what we have at QB was against the rules. I don't see anyone being as doom and gloom as you are portraying here but I also think it is way to early to be totally comfortable in what we have at the QB position. Now if Nelson does in fact prove to be the real deal then we can feel very good about where things stand because Shortell has also displayed some ability in limited action this year. Right now though we really have no clue what to expect out of Foreman, Nelson, and Leidner.
 

MNVCGUY said:
Didn't realize that having some doubts about exactly what we have at QB was against the rules. I don't see anyone being as doom and gloom as you are portraying here but I also think it is way to early to be totally comfortable in what we have at the QB position. Now if Nelson does in fact prove to be the real deal then we can feel very good about where things stand because Shortell has also displayed some ability in limited action this year. Right now though we really have no clue what to expect out of Foreman, Nelson, and Leidner.
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I think highwayman is mad people don't think we have depth at QB.
 

I know I'm not the first to say that this is a nice problem to have. I look forward to having Kill develop this kind of depth across the roster - not just QB and OL. Seems like we thought we had good depth at LB going into this past season.
 

howieramone said:
Having disagreement on our future QB is a good problem to have. I see Shortell as our future starter with Nelson having to wait his turn.
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I see Gray next year with Shortell backing up - then Shortell battling it out with Nelson the following. I would not hand Shortell the future starter role.
 

Parski1 said:
I see Gray next year with Shortell backing up - then Shortell battling it out with Nelson the following. I would not hand Shortell the future starter role.
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Of course not - but you wouldn't just hand it to Nelson, Leidner, Foreman or anyone else.
 


Shortell did come in as a true frosh and almost lead us to a win over usc in their place. I'm very excited to watch him play the next 3 years. i wish we could have redshirted him. I think its way to early to project his future with the team. It would be great for us if he wins the starting gig after Gray has graduated. Then he starts as a junior/senior and Nelson down the road starts as a redshirt sophomore.
 


zambam said:
I think highwayman is mad people don't think we have depth at QB.
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Mad isn't the right word, more like "disappointed". I guess I'd rather be excited about this group rather than discount them, which appears to be the "Minnesota Way". Also, I believe that if Shortell had been red-shirted, we don't get Nelson. If Gregory signs, our depth will become abundantly apparent in 2013-2014...
 

highwayman said:
Mad isn't the right word, more like "disappointed". I guess I'd rather be excited about this group rather than discount them, which appears to be the "Minnesota Way". Also, I believe that if Shortell had been red-shirted, we don't get Nelson. If Gregory signs, our depth will become abundantly apparent in 2013-2014...
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Yes, in the future you could call it depth. Right now it's just numbers. Everyone thought before the year that we depth at RB, how did that turn out?
 



We don't have an outstanding receiver nor RB -- meanwhile we have a surplus of QBs and one of them has proven to be a fine receiver and runs better than any carrier we've had in awhile. And he's going to the NFL as a receiver. Wouldn't everyone be better off if we do the obvious? And wouldn't that help us continue the climb back toward competitiveness ?
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
We don't have an outstanding receiver nor RB -- meanwhile we have a surplus of QBs and one of them has proven to be a fine receiver and runs better than any carrier we've had in awhile. And he's going to the NFL as a receiver. Wouldn't everyone be better off if we do the obvious? And wouldn't that help us continue the climb back toward competitiveness ?
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No. We wouldn't have one a single game last year without Q at QB.
 

FanSinceTheFifties said:
We don't have an outstanding receiver nor RB -- meanwhile we have a surplus of QBs and one of them has proven to be a fine receiver and runs better than any carrier we've had in awhile. And he's going to the NFL as a receiver. Wouldn't everyone be better off if we do the obvious? And wouldn't that help us continue the climb back toward competitiveness ?
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No. If you've been watching football as long as you say, you should know by now that it makes no sense to take the ball out of (far and away) your best player's hands 40-50 times a game so that he can catch 5-7 passes a game, especially at the college level. Further, his NFL prospects are (and should be) of very little concern to any Gopher fan. What matters to us is that he helps us win games, and he has a far greater possibility of doing that from the QB position. In addition, moving him to WR makes us worse at both positions.
 

I can't believe this continues to come up. Q will be and should be our starting QB next year. Shortell had a few nice drives against USC and our QB group looks good on paper, but they are completely unproven and have won 0 games at the college level.
 

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