I'm moving this from the Oregon game thread to the Offense thread in the event folks want to discuss it further.
This video isn't terribly long and the whole thing is worth a watch. Justin Zwick and Bobby Carpenter make the point that no one who would look at both Luke Fahey and TSC would pick Fahey based upon looks and arm strength - in fact both of them thought Fahey was a walk on at first. Starting around 1:19 of the video, Zwick states (and Carpenter agrees) that coming out of fall practice, TSC was having issues fumbling the ball on both snaps from the center, and on handoffs to his running backs, not to mention having difficulty making reads in Ryan Day's offense. In other words, according to first-hand eye witness accounts from Buckeye alumni, TSC could not be trusted to come in and even attempt to run the offense (at least as observed coming out of fall camp). That is somewhat shocking considering how much longer TSC has been in the program compared to Fahey and that it was said that TSC closely battled Lincoln Keinholz last season for the backup spot.
Now, I thought Fahey flashed moments of being "the guy" in the game against Oregon. Specifically, the first quarter, where he stepped up in the pocket away from pressure, scrambled for yards, and sought out Jeremiah Smith. Kind of looked good again at the end of the game, but Oregon was basically in a prevent defense, so that is to be taken with a grain of salt. The middle 2.5 quarters, Fahey played poorly. Locked on to receivers that he came into the play knowing he would throw to, some of which were potential hospital balls, and none of which would have been for many yards had they been the correct reads, stopped scrambling in a meaningful way, and did not even look Jeremiah Smith's way. For a while, it looked like he only had eyes for Devin McCuin (even when triple teamed). I feel like Fahey went away from JJ for too long a stretch in the USC game as well, but I may be mistaken, and hope I am mistaken, because that kind of pattern, if formed, is really unforgivable.
This video isn't terribly long and the whole thing is worth a watch. Justin Zwick and Bobby Carpenter make the point that no one who would look at both Luke Fahey and TSC would pick Fahey based upon looks and arm strength - in fact both of them thought Fahey was a walk on at first. Starting around 1:19 of the video, Zwick states (and Carpenter agrees) that coming out of fall practice, TSC was having issues fumbling the ball on both snaps from the center, and on handoffs to his running backs, not to mention having difficulty making reads in Ryan Day's offense. In other words, according to first-hand eye witness accounts from Buckeye alumni, TSC could not be trusted to come in and even attempt to run the offense (at least as observed coming out of fall camp). That is somewhat shocking considering how much longer TSC has been in the program compared to Fahey and that it was said that TSC closely battled Lincoln Keinholz last season for the backup spot.
Now, I thought Fahey flashed moments of being "the guy" in the game against Oregon. Specifically, the first quarter, where he stepped up in the pocket away from pressure, scrambled for yards, and sought out Jeremiah Smith. Kind of looked good again at the end of the game, but Oregon was basically in a prevent defense, so that is to be taken with a grain of salt. The middle 2.5 quarters, Fahey played poorly. Locked on to receivers that he came into the play knowing he would throw to, some of which were potential hospital balls, and none of which would have been for many yards had they been the correct reads, stopped scrambling in a meaningful way, and did not even look Jeremiah Smith's way. For a while, it looked like he only had eyes for Devin McCuin (even when triple teamed). I feel like Fahey went away from JJ for too long a stretch in the USC game as well, but I may be mistaken, and hope I am mistaken, because that kind of pattern, if formed, is really unforgivable.
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