QB for MI and from there

Who should be QB the final 4 games

  • Croft

    Votes: 57 75.0%

  • Green

    Votes: 7 9.2%

  • Morgan

    Votes: 5 6.6%

  • Rhoda

    Votes: 7 9.2%
  • Total voters
    76
  • Poll closed .
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Spoofin

Spoofin

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Lots of talk about QBs. Makes sense. What I think we all can agree on is that the position has been underwhelming this year. The more I think about it, the more I don't know what we should have done or should do now about the situation. I started as being convinced that Croft must be better, then I moved to the idea that we might as well get him experience. I think I am still there (and vote Croft at this time), but if PJ doesn't think Croft will be ahead of Morgan or Green on the depth chart next year (whether that would make him 2nd or 3rd string) - then I am am starting to think it makes sense to give the guy who PJ feels will be ahead of him (whether Green or Morgan) the experience now for next year (even if that means burning Morgan's RS for just 4-games). I don't want our starter and back-up next year both having zero experience. Yeah, PJ was dealt a bad hand at QB.

Who do you think should start at QB the final 4 games?
 

I thought Croft would be better this year as well. He got no help from his WRs on Saturday - way too many dropped passes, bad routes and lack of separation.

Croft should start the rest of the year. Let him gain some confidence and see if he improves. Iowa has a good defense and there aren't many experienced QBs that go into Kinnick and light the place up. Give Croft the chance to get comfortable and see what happens. We shouldn't burn Morgan's redshirt for 4 games.

In the spring, we then have a 3 way competitions between Croft, Morgan and Armstrong. QB play will be better next year. And the entire offense should be significantly better. 4/5 o-lineman return, WR play will be significantly improved as we only lose Carter and will have Johnson back along with Bell, Douglass, Howard and some really talented freshmen. Not to mention Smith and Brooks.
 

I would stay with Croft. Let the QB battle begin next spring.


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John Galt said:
I thought Croft would be better this year as well. He got no help from his WRs on Saturday - way too many dropped passes, bad routes and lack of separation.

Croft should start the rest of the year. Let him gain some confidence and see if he improves. Iowa has a good defense and there aren't many experienced QBs that go into Kinnick and light the place up. Give Croft the chance to get comfortable and see what happens. We shouldn't burn Morgan's redshirt for 4 games.

In the spring, we then have a 3 way competitions between Croft, Morgan and Armstrong. QB play will be better next year. And the entire offense should be significantly better. 4/5 o-lineman return, WR play will be significantly improved as we only lose Carter and will have Johnson back along with Bell, Douglass, Howard and some really talented freshmen. Not to mention Smith and Brooks.
Click to expand...

Iowa’s D is bottom half on the country against the pass.
 

Rhoda is no better than Croft so I don't see the point in starting him. Better to give Croft some experience.

I think Morgan has the potential to be better that Croft but there's 4 games left. No reason to pull his redshirt for that. Not to mention that we don't even know he's better than Croft. It's possible that if we pulled his redshirt, he would play worse than Croft.

I'd like to see how Green plays but I don't want to see him start. If we get into a game where it's not close in the 4th I want to see him get some snaps but he hasn't been promising enough to start over Croft.
 


That was one of the most miserable performances I’ve ever seen by a quarterback last night. Why wouldn’t you play them both??? This getting Croft experience for next year is ridiculous to me. Play to win, not to “get your QB experience”. He can get experience in the first 3 games next year. He can get experience when playing both QB’s. He put together 3 good drives with the game out of reach against MSU. Could he be much worse as a starter??? Play them both! It’s obvious Croft can’t handle being “the man”. Go back to the original plan! What’s changed? A few good series off the bench in garbage time. Then bring him off the bench.

Moreover, his passes were late and off target last night. This drop talk is way overblown. The Wozniak one was behind Woz and late, but could have been caught. The Tyler Johnson over the middle was late and out in front of him with a safety right there,,could have been caught. The TJ down the sidelines was overthrown, shouldn’t have been caught. Both Still passes were late. The 1st was a bad decision as well. Woz in the end zone was awful, even though he had trouble getting off the line and was back pedaling. But give him a chance! It was 4th down!

There is no way Fleck can keep trotting Croft out there vs Michigan, no way. He should let them know they’ll both be playing this week and going forward.


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Regardless of who is at QB the wr's still need to do a better job of getting open. Every year we have 1 receiver that we depend on to force feed the ball to, and this year it is TJ, but as soon as the defense takes him away we need another wr to step up. I have yet to see that with anyone else. Williams showed some flashes in the Mich st game, but then i watched him get locked down by a linebacker on multiple occasions. All of us fans give the qb a hard time, but until we can bring in some more weapons on the outside we are going to get the same results over and over. Manns, Bateman, and Bell will be a good start next year. (Along with TJ)

I agree with the comment above where Croft was a little late on some of the throws, but i do disagree on the Woz take. Woz didn't even give himself a chance to catch the ball, that went out the window as soon as he started backpedaling to it.
 

I voted Croft.

What we don't know is how much worse Morgan or Green are.
Both could be worse, or PJ might like one or the other, but just really wanting to save them for PJ's next 2-4 years as coach.

My unfortunate guess is that Croft is better than Green, but that Morgan might be better, but not significantly enough so to burn a redshirt to win a couple games.

So with that in mind, I think you just play Croft and hope he grows until he breaks team rules or gets hurt.
He is not the runner that I was hoping he was going to be.

We won't really know until next year to see what PJ was thinking this year. If Croft starts next year, he was just the best by default, and that's tough.
If Tanner starts, we can theorize that Tanner might have been good enough this year, but we were more worried about redshirts.
If a true freshman starts next year, we can then just decide that none of them were as good, or the right fit for the offense as what the new kid would be.

To me, Green seems like the outsider in this whole deal. Doesn't seem like he's going to get a shot no matter what happens. Regardless, I think we're in tough shape if any of the kids on the roster are starting for us in 2020, (save Morgan).
 

Has to be Croft. Coach him up. He was bad last night, but there were flashes of adequacy. Rhoda did all he could early this season, but it was very clear that he and Croft are almost exact equals in the passing game, and that the running game goes much better with Croft in there (despite his surprising lack of elusiveness running the ball).
 



Some Day...Maybe said:
That was one of the most miserable performances I’ve ever seen by a quarterback last night. Why wouldn’t you play them both??? This getting Croft experience for next year is ridiculous to me. Play to win, not to “get your QB experience”.
Click to expand...

Well, as a long time Gopher fan, I am not sure that last night is truly an all-time contender for miserable quarterback performance.

I don't know who the other quarterback (Rhoda or Morgan) is in your "play them both" comment, but I don't think it matters either way. Next year is more important than this year, 2019 is more important than 2018, and 2020 is more important than 2019. By 2020 we will understand whether we have a coach we want to retain, or whether we once again have to go through the disruptive process of bringing in a new staff.

It is clear Fleck did not have full confidence in either Rhoda or Croft at the beginning of the season, hence the decision to play them both. Now that this season is shaping up to be a disappointing year, it makes sense to play Croft and find out whether, with experience, he can improve. There is no long term upside to playing Rhoda. 2018 is more important than 2017.

As for Morgan, I agree with those who are hesitant to burn his redshirt. That is because 2019 is more important than 2018, and 2020...

The best part is that we get to watch what happens with no guarantee of success, enjoy the ride along the way, and hopefully be rewarded with a much brighter future. That is what it means to be a Gopher fan.
 

I think we may have beaten Iowa with Rhoda throwing the ball. Both options are fatally flawed. PJ can't win, either way the offense is seriously hamstrung by the lack of QB depth on the roster.

I voted Green, I'd like to see what he can do. No point in playing Morgan, would be a waste to burn his RS at this point. I mean if he was that much better than the others he would be in already. Croft makes more sense over Rhoda given the eligibility moving forward, but he has put on 2 of the worst QB lines I've ever seen in his 2 start. Both against defenses that are far inferior to those on the schedule moving forward.
 

Early in the season I thought Connor threw the ball so much better than Demry and much better than Mitch last year. Connor certainly seemed to struggle as the season continued and I was very impressed with Demry in the MSU game. In the end, I would like both of them to see significant playing time the rest of the season.

I would hate to burn any redshirts at this point at the QB position.
 

Hindsight, what would have happened if PJF did not re-sign Rhoda to a scholie?

I have utmost respect for Rhoda. But, would it have been better to invest in the development of both Croft and Green and even Morgan now for next year?

PJ's mantra about learning through failures rings true. Even in losing, the experience these QBs gain is invaluable.

I think this coaching staff early in the season thought there is a chance to win more games and maybe become bowl eligible?

Gauging how the team will do with the uncertainties, all the departures, the injuries, and inexperienced is a challenge to a new coaching staff.
 



PJ is talking big about Morgan here or there and how he doesn't want to play him. If Morgan might benefit from a red shirt year... then don't play him.

So it's Croft, Rhoda, Green.

Green couldn't even get himself into the competition with Croft and Rhoda, and Croft and Rhoda aren't good... how bad must Green be at this point? So Green is out.

I don't see much difference between Croft and Rhoda as far as winning or losing a game goes. Neither are very good and I'm very skeptical of this whole Croft getting experience thing as just based on his judgments I am highly skeptical that Croft will develop into much.

Flip a coin between Croft and Rhoda I say.

I suspect Croft, Rhoda, Green all may be dead ends as starting QBs go.
 

I'm amused by those waxing about Rhoda's potential to have won yesterday or that he gives us a better chance than Croft going forward. If Conor would have played yesterday his awful habit of back pedaling out of the pocket that he developed the last 2 games he played would have resulted in him being in Ames by halftime.


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I'm hoping Croft needs game time and will look better against Michigan, though they have given a lot of QBs fits this year - but we have protected the QB as well as anyone in the conference. So, who knows? Michigan and Minnesota are almost mirror images in most stats, so it could be an interesting game. I thought Iowa would blow out the Gophers, but they didn't. Our defense was tough after the first Iowa drive, so if the offense finally coheres, we may see a good overall effort at Ann Arbor.
 

SM_25 said:
Regardless of who is at QB the wr's still need to do a better job of getting open. Every year we have 1 receiver that we depend on to force feed the ball to, and this year it is TJ, but as soon as the defense takes him away we need another wr to step up. I have yet to see that with anyone else. Williams showed some flashes in the Mich st game, but then i watched him get locked down by a linebacker on multiple occasions. All of us fans give the qb a hard time, but until we can bring in some more weapons on the outside we are going to get the same results over and over. Manns, Bateman, and Bell will be a good start next year. (Along with TJ)

I agree with the comment above where Croft was a little late on some of the throws, but i do disagree on the Woz take. Woz didn't even give himself a chance to catch the ball, that went out the window as soon as he started backpedaling to it.
Click to expand...

On Woz, even in high school we were told to catch the ball over a shoulder, looking back just at the right moment - that back-pedaling was bizarre. It should have been an easy TD.
 

Croft showed improvement from the week before. Have not seen the whole game yet, just the first half. He threw many good balls in the half, had a few that were off a little and that can be due to a timing with the WR and he had a couple of throws that were off target. He wasn't perfect, but he looked more comfortable with things this week.
The 4th down play was a great play call, when Croft was in throwing motion, Woz was still running towards endzone. Croft let it go and was throwing it to lead Woz into the endzone where he would be the only one to catch it.
 

I don't get hung up on redshirts but unless they truly feel he is ready to go it doesn't make sense to toss Morgan in there at this point in the season. May as well save the year at this point and hopefully have him ready to compete for the job next season.

The real question in all this is the status of Seth Green. Although given that they have not put him out there yet, the answer is probably that he just isn't good enough. And given what he has to be better than, that is a really scary thought.

At this point you stick with Croft unless you feel like Green or Morgan would be enough of an upgrade at the position to propel the team to victory. If you think going to one of those guys wouldn't be enough to change the outcome then it probably doesn't make sense to make a change. I say probably only because Croft has been really bad so I am nearly to the "toss Green out there, even if it is a trainwreck, just to see what he can do" stage.

Bottom line is we need massive improvements at the QB and WR positions, two spots that Kill's squad had a horrible time recruiting. Time will tell if PJ can find play makers at those positions. Here's hoping he can because the offense has been tough to watch for quite some time now.
 

Need to stop posting these polls. It's Croft. Period.
Our team runs the ball better with his mobile threat and, had a stronger arm and is gaining poise. What we need is an OC with a correct game plan and maybe some receivers who can run routes, get separation and catch the balls they get to. How many drops did we have? six?
The fact were targeting woz and not Lingen should end these polls..
 

If Morgan is better than Croft or Rhoda play him. They probably have seen enough in practice that he is not an option right now. Burning a redshirt is a waste if a player isn't ready physically. But most players do not have their best year that 5th year unless they have a legitimate chance at a pro career. As Woody Hayes remarked once the best teams were his junior teams not seniors. That was before redshirting, today that's equilivant to a red shirt soph.
 

Playing both Rhoda and Croft seems to give the team the best chance to win.
It seems to throw-off the opposing defense. Rhoda's experience is an asset. Croft's ability to keep the ball is an asset. With them splitting the starting role, both QB's strengths can be incorporated.
 

Great Plains Gopher said:
I'm hoping Croft needs game time and will look better against Michigan, though they have given a lot of QBs fits this year - but we have protected the QB as well as anyone in the conference. So, who knows? Michigan and Minnesota are almost mirror images in most stats, so it could be an interesting game. I thought Iowa would blow out the Gophers, but they didn't. Our defense was tough after the first Iowa drive, so if the offense finally coheres, we may see a good overall effort at Ann Arbor.
Click to expand...

Croft will look worse against Michigan.


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Gopher028 said:
Need to stop posting these polls. It's Croft. Period.
Our team runs the ball better with his mobile threat and, had a stronger arm and is gaining poise. What we need is an OC with a correct game plan and maybe some receivers who can run routes, get separation and catch the balls they get to. How many drops did we have? six?
The fact were targeting woz and not Lingen should end these polls..
Click to expand...

Check back with me after the first quarter of the Michigan game. Agree with the Lingen vs Woz assessment.

Croft is afraid to throw the ball and when he does it’s late, inaccurate, or the wrong read. He needs extremely simply throws.


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