How long before MarQuies Gray becomes the starter?

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UptownMaroon&Gold

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Ok, im just throwing it out there, I know some people wont like it. But its a good debate.

How long until MarQuies Gray takes over as the starter for Adam Weber? I have nothing bad to say about Weber, but I am one of the people who thinks that Gray is just a superior athlete, to good to keep off of the field. I say this with no real insight besides what I've seen of highlight tapes, Gray's HS all-star game and from what so-called experts have said about Gray and his (non game) progress so far. But I think he is the type of QB that could lead us to greener pastures and simply make plays that Weber cannot.

Obviously, Weber is the starter going into the year, but my prediction is Gray will be seeing spot duty until the Wisc, or Purdue game, and at that point he will take over and get more snaps than Weber will for the rest of the year. I dont think Weber will be benched completely but I think Gray will emerge THIS year.

I could be way off base with this and that would be fine. I would love for Weber to have an awesome season, but I am excited to have a premier athletic QB in MarQuies that we havent seen for the Gophers in a long time, if ever.
 

UpTown....while you may think it is a debatable topic, what we need to do is debate after the season starts and we get going. I don't have a clue, except that Adam Weber is our starting QB to start the season. Will Gray get some snaps????? I think yes, but ultimately it is up to Marquis to earn more than just "some snaps". JMO.

p.s. reply to you on this: "I am excited to have a premier athletic QB in MarQuies that we havent seen for the Gophers in a long time, if ever. "

Well, I am old enough to remember Sandy Stephens...QB and DB, played both ways in the early 60's.
 

Gray

I agree with Uptown...except if ever.

Rickey Foggie was pretty dang athletic.

I never saw Sandy play....time will tell if Gray will be any where close to those 2 guys.

Go Gophers!

GM
 

I think the debate will have more meaning after April 25 when we get to see both play in the spring game.
 

He'll take over in 2 yrs. Adam Weber is a good QB with 2 yrs of experience on Gray and is the clear leader of this team. I don't see him loosing his spot unless Gray is really a star
 


oleboy41 said:
He'll take over in 2 yrs. Adam Weber is a good QB with 2 yrs of experience on Gray and is the clear leader of this team. I don't see him loosing his spot unless Gray is really a star
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agreed. i would bet that out of the 10 other big ten teams, 9 of them would trade their QB for weber in a second. and in 2010 he will be a senior with three years as a starter, can't emphasize how valuable a starting QB with 3 years of experience is, particularly one with weber's ability.

gray would have to be a very special player to justify brewster taking the ball out of weber's hands.
 

bigtenchamps1899 said:
agreed. i would bet that out of the 10 other big ten teams, 9 of them would trade their QB for weber in a second. and in 2010 he will be a senior with three years as a starter, can't emphasize how valuable a starting QB with 3 years of experience is, particularly one with weber's ability.

gray would have to be a very special player to justify brewster taking the ball out of weber's hands.
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Penn State (Clark), Illinois (Juice), Ohio State (Pryor) are probably the only 3 in the conference that woudn't.
 

I think Weber is great, I think he has a chance at being the starter for the next 2 years and I hope he does. He is a great quarterback and I would argue that he is in the top 3 quarterbacks in the Big 10 (ahead of Juice). I also hope Gray gets a lot of snaps, but I don't think its a good idea go 'all-in' on him when we have a proven QB in Weber.
 

It makes me happy that we are bringing in talent where we can even ask the question of whether a 2-year starting QB might lose snaps to a RS Freshman!

The great part is it will start happening more and more at various positions.

Can Carter take the Nickel job, Hageman at TE, Cooper/Maresh at LB, etc.
 



Let's just hope that Weber can stay healthy. The only way he doesn't start for the next two years is if he is injured and can't go.

If Mr. Gray is an exceptional athlete, they might use him as a receiver to get him into some games...if they think he can take the hits he would take as a receiver.

I don't think enough of you have an appreciation of the abuse Weber took under Dunbar's offense. I also don't think you give him near enough credit for what he did. He was the running threat. He was the passing threat. He had to do it all. He took the hits. He never complained. He took too much heat as a red-shirt freshman and a lot of you didn't appreciate him.

I think it is time to start giving Mr. Weber the appreciation he so richly deserves. You will see for yourselves what happens if he is ever injured and can't play for a game or two. Minnesota is very lucky to have had Mr. Weber for the past two years. Minnesota is very lucky to have Mr. Weber for the 2009 and 2010 seson as well.

Good luck to Mr. Gray. I am sure he will become a fine football player as well. He will certainly be the first qb off the bench to relieve Mr. Weber in 2009. Best wishes to him. I think Brewster will most likely try to get him on the field sometimes with Mr. Weber. Look for the old pitch with the option to throw back to the qb in a game or two in 2009.
 

I'm certainly not one of those who is starting a countdown clock to see when Gray will unseat Weber as the starting quarterback. What I'm more interested in is how Marqueis will fit into the equation while utilizing his skill set along with Weber's. In that case, I think we'll see some more interesting formations next year in which both may be on the field at the same time.

At the same time, I don't think Weber has been so good that he can't or won't be overtaken as the starter at some point. It will all depend on how much better Weber has gotten from his first two seasons and what kind of impact someone with Gray's natural athleticism will have on what direction the coaching staff wants to go.

I say Weber will start and play a lot for at least this year. But to not try to take advantage of an athlete with the skill-set of Gray at the same time would be foolish imo. In other words, it'll be a process of feeling out what each brings to the table specifically and then determining who gets the majority of snaps as it relates to helping the team overall.
 

4 Star Recruit: Are you Adam's dad? Or girlfriend, perhaps? "The credit he so richly deserves..." I apologize if I failed to recognize your sarcasm but your language is like a poorly written freshman comp paper. Mea culpa: I'm a Weber guy going back to Mounds View, but there is no way he's above reproach for the way he finished last season -- or the year before. He didn't have the ability to find secondary receivers (it became an issue after Decker's injury) and was very inaccurate. If he doesn't show improvement in those areas this spring, I have no issue with Gray seeing time at QB. But, as they say, a QB's best friend is a running game. Hopefully that will emerge.
 

Weber is the starter and he has earned it. He will start until he graduates. It wouldnt shock me to see Gray used for 6-10 snaps a game in specific packages. Dont forget Gray missed most of his senior year and didnt play at all last year. He might be a little rusty, he needs time to develop.
 



MRJ said:
I say Weber will start and play a lot for at least this year. But to not try to take advantage of an athlete with the skill-set of Gray at the same time would be foolish imo. In other words, it'll be a process of feeling out what each brings to the table specifically and then determining who gets the majority of snaps as it relates to helping the team overall.
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Couldn't possibly agree more. I think Adam Weber is a fine QB. He makes good decisions in the pocket, is a threat to run, and has a good to very good arm. I'm in no rush to see him displaced as the starter for the Gophers. However, MarQueis Gray is a gifted, gifted athlete. To not use him in some capacity would be a massive mistake. Whether he'll actually be the starter before 2011, barring an injury to Weber, is a different story; but I'd be shocked if Gray didn't get 5-10 snaps per game throughout most of next season. And from there, it comes down to whoever brings the most dynamism to the offense.

Stated differently, this is a great problem to have and certainly a problem we Gopher fans haven't had for a long, long time.
 

There is no way, I don't care how athletic Gray is, that he will take over Webers job. Play quite a bit and in certain situations, Yes. The only way Weber has a chance of losing the job is if he doesn't learn to read the field and use all his recievers. I think his accuracy will improve with technique work. But this is a great situation for the Gophs. and for Gray. He can learn and not be under the pressure of all the fans that expect wonders right out of the blocks. And if there is an injury we have something to put in.
 

Let's go back in time....The NCAA only allowed like 5 or 6 substitutions when the team went from offense to defense, and vice versa, so the real athletes were the ones who could go both ways. Think about it...
 

Sandy Stephen, Judge Dickson, Dick Rademacker, Bill Munsey, et.al.
 

The Offense from the backfield became the Defensive backfield....Man oh man, do any of you here remember those days?
 

tomdog: are you blind? If you couldn't see the problems going down the stretch during the final five games last season I suspect that you are. The competition got better and tougher. The offensive line was not capable of playing against decent and some not so decent (Michigan & wisky) Big Ten teams. There was no running game other than what Mr. Weber did. There were only a couple of capable recrivers and the best one was hobbled and injured. Mr. Weber himself was playing injured a good part of the season. He was so beaten up and Dunbar's offense was so ineffective that it was painful to watch. Most quarterbacks would have said: "...sorry Mr. Dunbar/Brewster, I am just too injured to play any more. You will have to bring someone else in..." That was the biggest mistake that I saw Mr. Weber make last season and at times the season before. He was being totally abused by Dunbar's offense and he was the ONLY effective playmaker in Dunbar's offense.

How could Brewster have stood by and watched his injured qb continue to take the field that way? I really had to question Brewster's judgement watching the last five games of the 2008 season. He really did put Mr. Weber in extreme danger of serious injury. The off-season rehabs indicate that not only the knee, but also the shoulder were injured very severely, based upon the surgery and rehabbing needs.

So, I don't know what you were watching. It all starts with the offensive line. It also has something to do with the quality of teams that are played. Indiana, Purdue and Illinois were NOT high quality teams in 2008. Michigan and wisky were pretty shakey. iowa got better as the season progressed, and they had a running game to take the heat off their qb. Ferentz also fianlly settled on one qb and went with him. That NU game was a killer in many ways. The Kansas game? Well, there has never been such a thing as a bad bowl game. But, obviously, Mr. Weber was injured.
 

4starrecruit said:
tomdog: are you blind? If you couldn't see the problems going down the stretch during the final five games last season I suspect that you are. The competition got better and tougher. The offensive line was not capable of playing against decent and some not so decent (Michigan & wisky) Big Ten teams. There was no running game other than what Mr. Weber did. There were only a couple of capable recrivers and the best one was hobbled and injured. Mr. Weber himself was playing injured a good part of the season. He was so beaten up and Dunbar's offense was so ineffective that it was painful to watch. Most quarterbacks would have said: "...sorry Mr. Dunbar/Brewster, I am just too injured to play any more. You will have to bring someone else in..." That was the biggest mistake that I saw Mr. Weber make last season and at times the season before. He was being totally abused by Dunbar's offense and he was the ONLY effective playmaker in Dunbar's offense.

How could Brewster have stood by and watched his injured qb continue to take the field that way? I really had to question Brewster's judgement watching the last five games of the 2008 season. He really did put Mr. Weber in extreme danger of serious injury. The off-season rehabs indicate that not only the knee, but also the shoulder were injured very severely, based upon the surgery and rehabbing needs.

So, I don't know what you were watching. It all starts with the offensive line. It also has something to do with the quality of teams that are played. Indiana, Purdue and Illinois were NOT high quality teams in 2008. Michigan and wisky were pretty shakey. iowa got better as the season progressed, and they had a running game to take the heat off their qb. Ferentz also fianlly settled on one qb and went with him. That NU game was a killer in many ways. The Kansas game? Well, there has never been such a thing as a bad bowl game. But, obviously, Mr. Weber was injured.
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Where are coming from here? Most quarterbacks would have requested to come out of the game? Really? Name one. I've never heard of a quarterback saying "that's it, it's hopeless, take me out before my body is completely destroyed."

The way you tell it, it sounds like some kind of conspiracy theory devised by Brewster and Dunbar to intentionally hurt Weber. The man wanted to play, did play and wasn't good down the stretch. Were there other factors that contributed? Of course, like the fact that the offensive line was abysmal. But Weber was hardly some kind of victim. It's football, it's physical and guys get nicked up. But they don't just quit when things get rough on the field.
 

A cold hard unobjective look at Weber, without taking into account his glowing intangibiles, reveals this.

1) He is mediocre at best as a passer. Locks on early and throws bullets that are usually only "accurate" if the receiver (Decker) is wide open.

2) Is slow and plodding as a runner.

3) Has superior arm strength, if not accuracy

4) Has incredible toughness.

5) Has solid potential, but as of now is nothing more than an average QB
 

A QB's best friend is a solid defense and a running game. The Gophers couldn't run last year, especially in Big Ten Play. Couple that with Decker's injury (I'm not even to go mention the line) and that's why Weber struggled at the end of the season.
 

Weber is one of the top returning quarterbacks in the big ten. Gray is a top quarterback recruit. We're a long way from a debate.
 

Schnoods...you saw my earlier comment in this thread about the real and true athletes. You are right, not even a debate yet, nor time for a debate yet. The young people of today do NOT have a clue what it took to be a FB player. But times change, so I guess I will take my heart meds and dream of what used to be the real and true all around athlete of yesteryear.
 


Weber is fine as a QB but this program will not turn into a serious contender until Gray is the QB. So if you want to wait until 2011 to have a chance at a rose bowl or a January bowl game then leave Gray on the bench. Weber is capable, Gray is the player that resurrects this team.
 

tomdog said:
He didn't have the ability to find secondary receivers (it became an issue after Decker's injury) and was very inaccurate.
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He really didn't HAVE secondary receivers last year. The talented ones were all true freshmen and just started to show flashes of improvement toward the end of the season. It was a very difficult situation for all involved. Hopefully we'll have a healthy group of receivers down the stretch of the season this year.
 

As far as Sandy Stephens and Rickey Foggie go, Today's athletes are on a totally different level then athletes of yesteryear (unless you are from Minnesota in which case you aren't even an athlete). I grew up watching Foggie and loved him, but he is no Pryor or Gray or Young or Vick.
 

Well, Dr. Don has a point that it takes a DIFFERENT kind of athlete to play multiple positions on different sides of the ball, but it does not make the athletes of yesteryear any better.
 

I hope he is the starter in Game 1 vs. Air Force but in reality I think it will be later in the season. I think people who insist Weber must be our starter are viewing things too formulaically. After all, he is a holdover from the Mason era.
 

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