 |
|
Asking for debate on 'Can Drink actually judge QB talent?'
Posted on: August 16, 2024 at 16:58:58 CT
JeffB MU
Posts:
72858
Member For:
21.61 yrs
Level:
User
M.O.B. Votes:
0
While he has consistently landed "highly rated" QB recruits, none have come close to contributing, or even challenging for playing time, in any tangible way for MU.
would seem to imply that you thought he may not be a very good judge of QB talent.
I thought it was skewed in that you listed 9 quarterbacks that Drink had recruited, but 5 of them are TBD and 4 haven't been in uniform for a game yet, and the 1st one, Cook, you aren't really counting as a Drinkwitz recruit since he was recruited by Odom and was coming here regardless of who our new coach might have been.
That means only 3 (4 if you count Horn) of the 9 listed would really be relevant to that discussion. Or so it seems to me.
2021 Tyler Macon
2022 Sam Horn
2023 Gabarri Johnson, Jake Garcia (transfer)
I think we should look at their chances of contributing in the context of where they came in.
2020 Bazelak - SEC co-freshman of the year - Drink's first year as Missouri's head coach.
2021 Bazelak - Wasn't very mobile at all but started over redshirt freshman Brady Cook, who came in against Army in the bowl game. Macon was a true freshman, and Brady Cook was a redshirt freshman. Perhaps Drink was a bit too conservative in staying with Bazelak, but he was a year older, had a lot more game experience and as noted earlier was the SEC co-freshman of the year in 2020. In the Army game I remember a play where Brady ran the ball on 3rd down & ran out of bounds just before the 1st down marker. As I recall he got chewed out by Drink for that, took that to heart and was far more aggressive in taking hits after that.
One might ask whether he should have had Brady start sooner, but I'm wondering if Bazelak's immobility was more of a mental than a physical issue. He had torn an ACL his freshman year. Perhaps they hoped that he would break out of it. If that was the case he never did, unfortunately.
2022 Brady Cook did well until he tore his labrum against K-State, but again Drink stayed with the more experienced player. But Sam Horn was a freshman and came into camp late because of baseball. He very well may not have been ready to outperform even an injured Brady Cook whose range was quite limited after the K-State game.
Macon would have been a sophomore but the staff apparently didn't think he could outperform Brady either. But as you noted, he later transferred to Alcorn St. and never really tore things up there either, so our coaching staff's evaluation at that point seemed to be spot on. You might say why did we recruit him, but he was 'A four-star prospect who is the nation’s No. 13-ranked dual-threat quarterback by both Rivals.com and 247Sports.com... Participated in the prestigious Elite 11 Quarterback Camp where he finished among the top 11 and fifth overall in the week’s final pro day session.'* He also didn't play his senior season in high school because of Covid. That limits evaluation obviously.
One might ask, why didn't Drink recruit someone better, but it should also be noted that he signed after Mizzou's 2020 Covid truncated season. He had only 1 full year as a head coach (at Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Conference), and the Covid shortened season, his first in the SEC. We were pleasantly surprised that he went 5-5 that year, but he wasn't exactly as hot a commodity back then as he is now when visiting recruits. Missouri was in rebuild mode and we had hired an unproven, inexperienced head coach to do it.
Your proposed debate was on whether he had a good eye for talent, not whether he could recruit or not, but in this case, I think it may have been largely an issue of recruiting. Who could he have gotten that year who was a better quarterback prospect than Tyler Macon? Anyone he passed over to take Macon that makes you cringe now?
2023 Brady Cook came back after his shoulder surgery with an excellent year & we had an 11 game winning season. He's widely seen as one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC. I really can't see why we should think that the coaching staff was negligent or incompetent in finding a quarterback that would have challenged him for the starting job. Should Horn, Garcia or Johnson have started ahead of him?
* Tyler Macon: https://mutigers.com/sports/football/roster/tyler-macon/12567
Edited by JeffB at 17:08:06 on 08/16/24
would seem to imply that you thought he may not be a very good judge of QB talent.
I thought it was skewed in that you listed 9 quarterbacks that Drink had recruited, but 5 of them are TBD and 4 haven't been in uniform for a game yet, and the 1st one, Cook, you aren't really counting as a Drinkwitz recruit since he was recruited by Odom and was coming here regardless of who our new coach might have been.
That means only 3 (4 if you count Horn) of the 9 listed would really be relevant to that discussion. Or so it seems to me.
2021 Tyler Macon
2022 Sam Horn
2023 Gabarri Johnson, Jake Garcia (transfer)
I think we should look at their chances of contributing in the context of where they came in.
2020 Bazelak - SEC co-freshman of the year - Drink's first year as Missouri's head coach.
2021 Bazelak - Wasn't very mobile at all but started over redshirt freshman Brady Cook, who came in against Army in the bowl game. Macon was a true freshman, and Brady Cook was a redshirt freshman. Perhaps Drink was a bit too conservative in staying with Bazelak, but he was a year older, had a lot more game experience and as noted earlier was the SEC co-freshman of the year in 2020. In the Army game I remember a play where Brady ran the ball on 3rd down & ran out of bounds just before the 1st down marker. As I recall he got chewed out by Drink for that, took that to heart and was far more aggressive in taking hits after that.
One might ask whether he should have had Brady start sooner, but I'm wondering if Bazelak's immobility was more of a mental than a physical issue. He had torn an ACL his freshman year. Perhaps they hoped that he would break out of it. If that was the case he never did, unfortunately.
2022 Brady Cook did well until he tore his labrum against K-State, but again Drink stayed with the more experienced player. But Sam Horn was a freshman and came into camp late because of baseball. He very well may not have been ready to outperform even an injured Brady Cook whose range was quite limited after the K-State game.
Macon would have been a sophomore but the staff apparently didn't think he could outperform Brady either. But as you noted, he later transferred to Alcorn St. and never really tore things up there either, so our coaching staff's evaluation at that point seemed to be spot on. You might say why did we recruit him, but he was 'A four-star prospect who is the nation’s No. 13-ranked dual-threat quarterback by both Rivals.com and 247Sports.com... Participated in the prestigious Elite 11 Quarterback Camp where he finished among the top 11 and fifth overall in the week’s final pro day session.'* He also didn't play his senior season in high school because of Covid. That limits evaluation obviously.
One might ask, why didn't Drink recruit someone better, but it should also be noted that he signed after Mizzou's 2020 Covid truncated season. He had only 1 full year as a head coach (at Appalachian State in the Sun Belt Conference), and the Covid shortened season, his first in the SEC. We were pleasantly surprised that he went 5-5 that year, but he wasn't exactly as hot a commodity back then as he is now when visiting recruits. Missouri was in rebuild mode and we had hired an unproven, inexperienced head coach to do it.
Your proposed debate was on whether he had a good eye for talent, not whether he could recruit or not, but in this case, I think it may have been largely an issue of recruiting. Who could he have gotten that year who was a better quarterback prospect than Tyler Macon? Anyone he passed over to take Macon that makes you cringe now?
2023 Brady Cook came back after his shoulder surgery with an excellent year & we had an 11 game winning season. He's widely seen as one of the better quarterbacks in the SEC. I really can't see why we should think that the coaching staff was negligent or incompetent in finding a quarterback that would have challenged him for the starting job. Should Horn, Garcia or Johnson have started ahead of him?
* Tyler Macon: https://mutigers.com/sports/football/roster/tyler-macon/12567
Edited by JeffB at 17:08:06 on 08/16/24
Please explain why this message is being reported.
MESSAGE THREAD
Asking for debate on 'Can Drink actually judge QB talent?' - JeffB MU - 8/16 16:58:58