DanDiego1999
October 23rd, 2024 at 10:14 PM ^
I have a ton of gripes against Sherrone and his staff right now, but frankly I'm getting tired of the non-sensical blame thrown on him for not recruiting a 'good' transfer-portal QB - especially in light of all the legitimate reasons and constraints illuminated over the last 2 months on why it was NOT on Sherrone for not getting one.
For myself, I place much of the responsibility on Campbell (and Sherrone for hiring him as a completely unproven OC) for not properly developing the QBs we already had - to at least *being adequate enough at their jobs to deliver a baseline level of production that's expected of a program of Michigan's caliber...
What blows my mind is that we have a QB roster of the following: Jack Tuttle (25 year-old 4-star out of HS), Davis Warren (4th year who and-don't-call-me-Shirley would've been 4-star if not for his cancer ordeal in HS), and Jayden Denegal (3rd year 3.75-star with solid Wilton-Speight-ceiling) - that would've been a roster that most teams around the country would've coveted... And, they collectively shat the bed.
It's hard for me to buy in to (and anyone can convince me otherwise, I'm open) the notion that all our current QB options are talent-deficient which is why they are producing at the abysmal level they are now. The simpler straight-forward reason in my mind is that they were never properly coached and developed by the one person primarily responsible for their coaching and development. For instance, seeing that clip of Tuttle (against Illinois) throwing with the technique of a high schooler tells me that something just didn't happen during the off-season in preparing our QBs to lead this offense.
To me, it's likely that Campbell's reputation was primarily shaped by JJ just being JJ over the past 2 seasons, and folks (including Campbell himself) incorrectly attributed that to his coaching acumen and (an overestimation of his) ability.
Case in point... Say what we want about Scott Loeffler's acumen as an OC, but during his tenure as QB coach here (2002-2007) he demonstrated at least a B+ level of competency in developing QBs for a pro-style offense (see 3-star John Navarre's progression as a starter) in which they delivered a baseline level of solid passing, reading defenses, and decision-making that allowed us to be... well... never at the level where we're at now
I truly wonder how our QB production would be now if they had a coach that worked with the talent he had and invested in their individual growth trajectories without expecting them to be JJ
Of course I'm just an amateur fan and could be completely off base here, but I believe the first priority in the off-season would be to hire both a competent QB coach and OC. Just my two cents
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