Part of that equation is how bad Fyfe's injury is. "He broke his arm" is maybe a bit misleading. He has a broken bone in his wrist. Is it possible that's on the same level of a sprained wrist in terms of pain, hand function, and size of the cast/brace? (The AP article indicated a brace, not a cast.) I don't know...probably not...but I'll play the optimist for once.
Fyfe Injury
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Part of that equation is how bad Fyfe's injury is. "He broke his arm" is maybe a bit misleading. He has a broken bone in his wrist. Is it possible that's on the same level of a sprained wrist in terms of pain, hand function, and size of the cast/brace? (The AP article indicated a brace, not a cast.) I don't know...probably not...but I'll play the optimist for once.
How many games do you think we'd have a third string QB play, regardless of their health. It's not like there have been a lot blowouts. Fyfe has hardly played at all as second string.
Yes. It is very difficult on the defense. They can communicate and say he's covered up, but at your own peril if not called, and offenses will do this intentiaonally to confuse a D. If they account for them, but then not part of a route, often creates a hole for teh O to exploit. Iowa shouldn't have trusted the line judge.
What happened on the Iowa offensive play referenced?
That said, Iowa was on point fundamentally last year. Includes the how they schemed and played Nebraska that dreadful day. The 'we outgained them stickt' is pretty shallow IMO...as is making TA the scapegoat.
Seems imperative both teams need to run the ball, and stop the run this year...and is really the same story every year in this game. The rest is window dressing or complimentary.
Because he requested to convert to receiver. i don't know too many coaches who say, "I know you're a receiver now, but we're gonna throw you out to play some QB, just because. And if Armstrong goes down, we want you to leave the receivers group and warm up Fyfe, even though you're no longer a QB and POB could do the same thing."
When ZD went to receiver, it was a clean break. Only recently, as I understand it, has he practiced QB again. How much he will be able to do is anybody's guess. But once he switched to receiver it shouldn't surprise a single person that he hasn't warmed up Fyfe. No surprise at all.
Keep in mind, Up until maybe a week or two ago, POB was still an option, but as a last resort. The goal was to redshirt him as long as the other QBs stayed healthy. They did, right up until the time the coaches took the possibility of burning the redshirt off the table.
My suspicion as of this Monday is that TA will start the game. If he cannot go, then Darlington will take over at QB. Their style of play/skills appear to be relatively similar as described, which mitigates the issue indicated above of the Offense having to put in two different game plans. Plus Tommy is a competitor and missing his final B1G game would be terrible. Riley seemed hopeful about TA in his Press Conference. Coming off a surgery (even non-throwing hand in only a brace), I think Fyfe will suit but be an emergency option only.
As to the debate regarding POB v. ZD, I have no reason to doubt the staff's indication that they believe it is in the best interest of the team to have Darlington play and keep the redshirt on POB. After three years in the system, hopefully Darlington knows the plays. I have seen no evidence that Darlington can play QB effectively against Iowa; I have seen no evidence that POB can play effectively against Iowa. I simply have no idea. If we lose with ZD at QB, I will not second guess the decision to keep POB under redshirt one bit.
As to the debate regarding POB v. ZD, I have no reason to doubt the staff's indication that they believe it is in the best interest of the team to have Darlington play and keep the redshirt on POB. After three years in the system, hopefully Darlington knows the plays. I have seen no evidence that Darlington can play QB effectively against Iowa; I have seen no evidence that POB can play effectively against Iowa. I simply have no idea. If we lose with ZD at QB, I will not second guess the decision to keep POB under redshirt one bit.
l will answer your question with a question, how good of a QB can ZD be if Fyfe beat him out and then ZD transferred positions? I realize my island is REALLY small here guys, I don't care. POB has to be better, you know how I know? He's still a QB and ZD is at WR. You guys do what you want, I want to win that game on Friday and be 10-2 and none of you have convinced me ZD gives us a better shot at that, in fact the more you guys tell me about him the less I like the idea, especially after Corn's scouting report. I like to win, so I'm going all in against Iowa and I'm not doing that with a kid who couldn't beat out Fyfe and is now a WR.
So two weeks ago it was OK to play POB? But not now?
I DON'T GET IT, I KNOW I'M DUMB, BUT I DON'T GET IT!!!!!!
Don't quote me on the time frame, but something like that, yes... If it came down to it and TA was out for the year, I remember the coaches saying they hope they don't have to burn his shirt. But it was an option, especially with 4-5 games left. At least then he could get some meaningful experience the rest of the season. But with just 1 game left, the coaches have said no.
I will push back a little bit on your comment that you just want to win. That's exactly what the coaches want, that's what we all want, but the question is, at what cost? The coaches believe they can win even if ZD is playing... Is it a better bet than Armstrong? Absolutely not. Fyfe? Who knows, but I'm guessing not him either. But what none of us knows is how well prepared POB is to step in. Can you definitively say POB gives us a better chance than ZD to win on Friday? The answer is no, and I can't tell you that ZD gives us a better chance than POB to win on Friday either. The only ones who can do that are the coaches, who work with the players daily.
I know Corn's scouting report scared you, and that's understandable. It scared me too. But knowing this, isn't it possible that the coaches also know this and will call a game that incorporates what ZD can do? If Armstrong and Fyfe are both out, I hope the coaches call a game that ZD can manage for the victory.
I respect your right to have a wrong opinion
WTF are we gonna talk about when the season is over???? I can't believe it's almost here.
It shouldn't. Fyfe doesn't have a strong arm either and he most definitely can't "legitimately execute vertical routes".
Fyfe will be available. He had a pin inserted in his hand and it will simply be a matter of how they are able to manage his pain and how much pain he can stand. The fractured bone will be more stable than it was in the second half Saturday. If he played a whole quarter with it against Maryland, I expect that he will be able to play just fine against Iowa if need be. It will hurt like hell if he hits it. I expect TA to play as well. Whether or not he can be effective or not is the question. Heck we may see all 3 QBs with situational substitutions. Run Darlington out there, split Fyfe out and run zone read plays. He's run that since he was a pup. There shouldn't be any need to burn POB's shirt for one game.I respect your right to have a wrong opinion
WTF are we gonna talk about when the season is over???? I can't believe it's almost here.
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QB situation: nasty problem to have on the Monday of a short week before a big game. Two borderline injury situations and an untried third-stringer. Don't envy the offensive coaches their job this week.
Hear what your saying about Carter being covered up and the beltline definition. However, all one has to do is watch the Linesman and the Line Judge and they signal to each other what they consider on or off the line of scrimmage, respectfully. The hand signals relay what the offensive line up is on their respective sides of the field. This determines if their are enough players on the line of scrimmage or too many players in the back field or if a player is covering up another player. Then there are other things that could come into play, such as did the pass cross the line of scrimmage. Has the QB called the ball ready for play. There's so much motion in these's offenses, today, to purposely confuse the defense, its hard a times to know if the offensive player is in a set position.
Hopefully T.A. or Fyfe can play so that everyone can rest easy knowing that we put our best qb out there. Riley said in his presser that if Darlington has to start that Lamar Jackson who played wild cat qb in hs might be his backup. To me I know the coaches say they don't want to pull POB's redshirt, but I'm of the opinion that he isn't where the coaches need him to be to throw him out there. Kinda makes sense...he wasn't able to beat Fyfe for the backup job back in fall camp putting him on a redshirt season trajectory, so TA gets most of the practice reps, then Fyfe gets most of whats left, and then Darlington gets the scraps.
Darlington at 1:20. If it wasn't safe to play he wouldn't be out there. he got hit pretty good during the Fresno state 2 point conversion too. On a side note, the very little I've seen him play, he seems to be very accurate and make good decisions. Hard to judge on such a small snapshot but as a 4 star qb I wonder if he couldn't play a decent game and do enough to lead us to a win.
Sorry, I do not. Was just referencing Cornicator's post earlier in this thread. He is very knowledgeable about husker football but I don't know where he gets his information from. You will need to ask him.
I suspect it is what he sees as much as what he hears or reads, but Cornicator is the one you need to seek out.
Either this is a beach coast stoned college student or it's little dirty Johnny's cousin who has strict and physically abusive parents..... Whichever it is, it made me laugh over my whiskey on the rocks! Good stuff and thank you for not editing your post and just correcting it in the next one!
Surfer boy with a gnarly accent or an over punished pissed off kid.... Both are making me laugh! Tanned Lee! Husker QB? I will forever read his name as such!
Not as good as Fyfe, obviously. Neither is O'Brien, by the same evidence.
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To the contrary. POB can come in and be a 2 year starter after a redshirt year and some backup snaps over two seasons.
Starting as Jr. and Sr for QB is quite normal. And normally if you are watching a guy as a freshman play, its typically not that well, and everyone hoping that a couple of seasons go quick enough that we can see him really know what he's doing as an upperclassmen.
You pull his shirt now, POB is possibly a career backup to Lee and maybe a transfer candidate, and at best, a Senior starter.
We are in the predicament we are in because redshirt decisions were made before Bush transferred.
Bush wouldn't have been All-World, but he would have been a warm body to play in the event we find ourselves in now. ZD having a "package of plays" this whole year was the band aid for that and allowing POB to keep the redshirt we decided on way back.
Now if it got to the point where TA was down early, POB probably would have pulled the shirt and played split time with Fyfe and maybe even started eventually. But there's no reason to pull the shirt now. You have enough QB's with functional parts to finish this last conference game.
You are confusing a number of issues here. One, is that you are all over the map with "well this guy was rated good, why isn't he better than a 5th year walk on?". Stars are awarded at least somewhat if not mostly on the basis of potential, not near term impact. In fact, most of the definitions that you see on Rivals site say something to the effect of " a guy this rating is expected to be an All Conference level player" or "a solid contributor" or "an All America type of player". So if POB has a ceiling of All Conference QB or whatever, that is in the future, not now. Some guys do walk in Day 1 and play pretty good football. Obviously with the redshirt decision, the guy is not ready now. With all the talk of "future of the program" the emphasis has always been on future. This was a guy who for the better part of a year, had publication in all the State's newspapers about his future potential, since he was primarily a baseball player growing up.
Secondly, ZD was recruited as a dual threat player in a previous system. He probably requested a position change because he could see that he was probably not on the horizon for prototype QBs here. Good on the kid. Its why we have Lee when Tulane switched systems. The fact that ZD has any QB prep at all, is a blessing in disguise here, but make no bones about it, he wasn't going to walk in as a highly touted recruited in another offensive system, after having not played significant ball in a couple years, and beat out a guy who has taken 5 years of his life to practice D1 QB play, even if he's not All-World.
Fyfe surgery on broken wrist. Tommy still hurt.... "Nobody panic... I got this"pic.twitter.com/QBtbKuQ24I
ZD retweeted this, kinda cool.
ZD retweeted this, kinda cool.
I don't know if ZD is going to play QB this weekend. I don't know if he is ever going to play QB (or anything other than placeholder) at Nebraska. But the last couple of days has made me at least really cheer for the kid and take a liking to him as a player.
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A little update on this-Coach Riley said in the B1G coaches' teleconference today that Armstrong and Darlington split time at QB in practice yesterday, and he called the practice "encouraging" overall and as it related to Armstrong specifically. Ryker Fyfe was not able to practice, but he anticipates him being able to practice today.
