What grade would you give Athan Kaliakmanis in his season opening start vs Nebraska?

What grade would you give Athan Kaliakmanis in his season opening start vs Nebraska?

  • A

    Votes: 10 7.2%

  • B

    Votes: 83 60.1%

  • C

    Votes: 43 31.2%

  • D

    Votes: 2 1.4%

  • F

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    138
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What grade would you give Athan Kaliakmanis in his season opening start vs Nebraska?
 


B for me. I love him but even fleck said needs to work on accuracy. Airmailed some deep balls. Left receivers with a lot of work to do.

Not concerned - He’ll be great.
 

Solid B. Sophomore qb coming through in some big moments and taking some lumps. Got some
Time to work it out and go outshine Maye in a few weeks
 

He struggled against, frankly, a Nebraska defense that is probably pretty good. It was opening day with a bunch of new faces. As long as we get the W, it was almost the best kind of W you want- one where he struggled, got a lot of bugs out (hopefully), and learned from it
 



The Gophers were 8 of 17 on 3rd down, and how many of those 8 first downs were on the ground? Athan's arm got a lot of them. Like I've been saying, there were a lot of 3rd and longs that Athan had to deal with... so I'm not worried about him, I'm more worried about the lack of a run game.
 

Dude needs a little touch to some of his passes, his shoulder isn't going to make it half the season if he keeps firing Randy Johnson fastballs at his receivers. Laser/rocket arm!
 




B. Lot of arm talent. Run game did him no favors. Couldn't fully tell from the TV perspective if the lack of downfield throws was play-calling or guys not getting open.
 






I guarantee that this will not be his best performance of the 2023 season.

That having been said, Athan accomplished Objective 'A', which is... JUST WIN THE GAME.

Objective 'A' is the one that counts.
 

B minus because he telegraphed interception had some over throws. He will improve as the season goes along I have faith. I was pleased that he used his wheels and rembered he can run. I would have gave a solid B+ without the interception in the red zone.
 

I just watched the highlights. He looked better than I thought at the game. A few passes that defenders could easily vulch, and the offense underwhelmed, but he did make that big time TD throw and moved the team when they had to score.

Underwhelming but not too bad.
 

fmlizard said:
B. Lot of arm talent. Run game did him no favors. Couldn't fully tell from the TV perspective if the lack of downfield throws was play-calling or guys not getting open.
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Nebbie's defenders did their job in spades on those deep balls. Our WRs could not get separation.

Gave Athan a B, although the very poor running game did him no favors. That has to improve or this will be a long season.

Happy with the W. Stayed to the end to witness it.
 

C

He had missed passes.

But guys dropped some too.

Other times I don't know who was at fault...

But he gutted it out and won.

Still, I’m concerned.
 
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gopherdudepart2 said:
B minus because he telegraphed interception had some over throws. He will improve as the season goes along I have faith. I was pleased that he used his wheels and rembered he can run. I would have gave a solid B+ without the interception in the red zone.
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He'll learn from that throw. I didn't think it was telegraphed, it was a misread or bad throw in my mind. Was by my seats, so got a good look at it. He got away from pressure and made throws I haven't seen in a long time. Pocket presence is very good.
 

PMWinSTP said:
He'll learn from that throw. I didn't think it was telegraphed, it was a misread or bad throw in my mind. Was by my seats, so got a good look at it. He got away from pressure and made throws I haven't seen in a long time. Pocket presence is very good.
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He threw it late. Typical of young QB's. If he throws that as the guy is in his break, it possibly goes for a TD. Instead, he threw it as the guy was open after the break, allowing the defender to close and make an easy pick.
 

High highs and low lows. His 3/4 delivery and platform was janky AF tonight, not sure if I noticed that last year. Anyway, I literally held my breath wondering where every pass would land. Not as consistent, polished or accurate on deep balls as a certain QB recently departed but can zip it and better wheels. I’d guess getting behind on standard downs, the big lights, pressure, and some talent on their defense had something to do with it. Way too soon to draw any sweeping conclusions. He’s our quarterback. Probably will have some awesome games and bad games.
 

B, although it would have been a low C or high D if you get rid of the last few mins of the game. Really nice sparks on the passing game and solid for a first game, and the running game really couldn't have been worse. That said, Athan clutched out when he needed to and won us the game. Excited to see how the offense develops this season for sure, there's promise here for sure!
 

Feels like a pretty solid B to me. Some great throws, some not so great ones but in the end he led the team to victory in the first game of the year against a conference opponent. Plenty of room for improvement and I feel confident he will learn a lot from this game that will help him as the season goes on.
 

Gave him a C, he certainly looked to be getting back into the swing of things. We've seen him play so much better, so I'll chalk this up to first game jitters.

Most of his throws were on target, only made 1 bad decision IMO. Think some of his throws had a bit too much heat on them, which caused some drops.

Love to see him keep it and run some more too, but his legs definitely kept plays alive and prevented more than one sack.
 

You have to wonder if ANY QB can play in this offense. They don't seem to script any big plays, ever. And their run game without Mo looks to be a shadow of what it was. Though I thought Bryce ran hard, as always.
AKs biggest challenge, IMHO, will be staying healthy playing against some pretty big and fast conference defenders.
 
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Torres9 said:
B for me. I love him but even fleck said needs to work on accuracy. Airmailed some deep balls. Left receivers with a lot of work to do.

Not concerned - He’ll be great.
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+o4
 

I was pleased with his performance. Fact that we could not run on the 3-3-5 defense and get any hards after contact did not help him. Other teams will now have film on that D and be able to scheme better.

Receivers need more separation where they can be hit in stride.
 

A because he WAS the offense.
MN had no real threat in running the ball .
So NE's DC gets a failing grade for not calling more blitzes. When he did it was usually a success because NE's OL was no better than MN's was.
 

roadrunner said:
You have to wonder if ANY QB can play in this offense. They don't seem to script any big plays, ever. And their run game without Mo looks to be a shadow of what it was. Though I thought Bryce ran hard, as always.
AKs biggest challenge, IMHO, will be staying healthy playing against some pretty big and fast conference defenders.
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Wondering where Evans was? Not listed as out. He has always looked goo in practice.
 

C

He definitely missed a couple throws but I'm not convinced that all the misses were on the QB. Seems there may have been a chemistry issue with some of the receivers where he was expecting someone to sit on a route and they kept running or vice-versa. Some of it will get better just with additional time together.

I love that we have a QB that can evade a sack from time to time.
 

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