ChattaTNVol
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Some of the analysts or evaluators on Harrison Bailey, in particular, those at 247 sports, dinged him for a lack of mobility, presumably, “in the pocket”. He’s a pro-style passer so I can’t see them evaluating him in comparison to dual-threat guys. That would be asinine. Anyway, so a lack of mobility in the pocket to me would seem to suggest he might take a lot of sacks, especially against better defenses, and even more so given the widely acknowledged inferior quality of his offensive line. I don’t think anyone has had anything negative to say about either his physical or mental toughness and his work ethic is reportedly off the charts.
I can’t find anyone who publishes cumulative sack stats for high school quarterbacks but occasionally a sports writer will include the numbers in his postgame write up. For example, in the state championship game that Bailey and the Blue Devils won, he was sacked 6 times according to the staff at GPB sports. As a quarterback, Barton Simmons concedes that Bailey is one of the best but he hedges on his notion of Bailey not moving well enough in the pocket to evade pressure and thus sacks. Kenyatta Watson Sr. famously blasted Simmons for that take, basically accusing Simmons and his crew of faulting Bailey because he had a “below average” offensive line.
I’ve already posted that none of the QBs we put on the field last year were adept with their accuracy, even or perhaps moreso when adjusting for their average depth of throws. I don’t know what Bailey’s accuracy numbers might be but given that he basically completed 70% of his passes last year in 7A Georgia high school football, the largest classification, and had a NCAA passer rating greater than 200, and played against some of the national powerhouses in high school football, I’m thinking his accuracy is probably a leap above what we’ve been putting on the field of late.
There’s another metric that we’ve all become more familiar with in recent years, time to throw the ball. It’s been a repeated knock on JG in both of the last couple years. In 2019 it took JG 2.74 seconds to get rid of the football. I couldn’t find anyone else in the conference, even those with higher average depth of throws who took anywhere near that long, and that includes Brian and JT, both of whom had longer ADOTs than JG but took far less time to get rid of the ball.
Okay, so here’s the kicker. A pro-style passer isn’t going to be able to do much about his offensive line other than to stand in there and keep fighting, a characteristic that both JG and Harrison share. They are unquestioningly physically tough kids and in both cases it’s a well earned reputation.
In 2017, our offensive line allowed 35 sacks, 32 of those coming against conference opponents. That was worst in the conference. In 2018, still without an offensive line to speak of, Friend got his guys to reduce the number of sacks allowed to 23, 16 against SEC foes. Last year, as we continued to build an SEC quality offensive line, we further reduced the number of sacks allowed to 21, 13 in SEC games. We also played 13 games last year as opposed to 12 in both 2017 & 18. For last year against conference teams we were 4th best at preventing sacks and only 3 sacks behind conference leaders Georgia and Alabama at 10 each. We didn’t allow a sack last year against VU or SC. We allowed 1 each against MSU, UK, and MO. We allowed 3 each against GA and UA and allowed 4 against UF. I suspect GA, UA, and UF may not have that level of success against our offensive line this year. jmo.
Let’s go back in history a bit to the last offensive line we had populated with NFL talent. In 2010, their freshman year, we allowed 41 sacks, 29 of which were against SEC teams. In 2011 as those guys developed (and remember Bray was out for several games due to injury) we reduced the number of sacks allowed to 18, 13 against SEC teams. In 2012, we improved further, reducing total sacks allowed to just 8, with 7 of those coming from SEC opposition. Even 2013 without Bray, our pass pro was still better than 2011 in regards to sacks allowed.
My point is this and everyone knows this, Bailey or JG or whoever is at QB for us this year is going to be operating behind a highly talented and highly developed offensive line and so the mobility issue that some pencil necks have been harping on, an issue I haven’t been able to discover in the film I’ve seen, is essentially moot. jmo.
Last week I rewatched much of the Missouri and South Carolina games from last year. There is at least one pass that JG seems never to be able to complete. Whether he’s throwing to Ty Chandler or Eric Gray, Jarrett can’t seem to complete the swing pass out of the backfield to save his life. If we really want to get the ball into these guys hands in space we need someone who can do that. Obviously, Chaney would not continue to call the play if Jarrett wasn’t executing it successfully in practice. Want to know what I think? We have at least one QB on our roster that given his body of work is highly unlikely to ever be saddled with the reputation of being a practice player. jmo.
I’m done.
I can’t find anyone who publishes cumulative sack stats for high school quarterbacks but occasionally a sports writer will include the numbers in his postgame write up. For example, in the state championship game that Bailey and the Blue Devils won, he was sacked 6 times according to the staff at GPB sports. As a quarterback, Barton Simmons concedes that Bailey is one of the best but he hedges on his notion of Bailey not moving well enough in the pocket to evade pressure and thus sacks. Kenyatta Watson Sr. famously blasted Simmons for that take, basically accusing Simmons and his crew of faulting Bailey because he had a “below average” offensive line.
I’ve already posted that none of the QBs we put on the field last year were adept with their accuracy, even or perhaps moreso when adjusting for their average depth of throws. I don’t know what Bailey’s accuracy numbers might be but given that he basically completed 70% of his passes last year in 7A Georgia high school football, the largest classification, and had a NCAA passer rating greater than 200, and played against some of the national powerhouses in high school football, I’m thinking his accuracy is probably a leap above what we’ve been putting on the field of late.
There’s another metric that we’ve all become more familiar with in recent years, time to throw the ball. It’s been a repeated knock on JG in both of the last couple years. In 2019 it took JG 2.74 seconds to get rid of the football. I couldn’t find anyone else in the conference, even those with higher average depth of throws who took anywhere near that long, and that includes Brian and JT, both of whom had longer ADOTs than JG but took far less time to get rid of the ball.
Okay, so here’s the kicker. A pro-style passer isn’t going to be able to do much about his offensive line other than to stand in there and keep fighting, a characteristic that both JG and Harrison share. They are unquestioningly physically tough kids and in both cases it’s a well earned reputation.
In 2017, our offensive line allowed 35 sacks, 32 of those coming against conference opponents. That was worst in the conference. In 2018, still without an offensive line to speak of, Friend got his guys to reduce the number of sacks allowed to 23, 16 against SEC foes. Last year, as we continued to build an SEC quality offensive line, we further reduced the number of sacks allowed to 21, 13 in SEC games. We also played 13 games last year as opposed to 12 in both 2017 & 18. For last year against conference teams we were 4th best at preventing sacks and only 3 sacks behind conference leaders Georgia and Alabama at 10 each. We didn’t allow a sack last year against VU or SC. We allowed 1 each against MSU, UK, and MO. We allowed 3 each against GA and UA and allowed 4 against UF. I suspect GA, UA, and UF may not have that level of success against our offensive line this year. jmo.
Let’s go back in history a bit to the last offensive line we had populated with NFL talent. In 2010, their freshman year, we allowed 41 sacks, 29 of which were against SEC teams. In 2011 as those guys developed (and remember Bray was out for several games due to injury) we reduced the number of sacks allowed to 18, 13 against SEC teams. In 2012, we improved further, reducing total sacks allowed to just 8, with 7 of those coming from SEC opposition. Even 2013 without Bray, our pass pro was still better than 2011 in regards to sacks allowed.
My point is this and everyone knows this, Bailey or JG or whoever is at QB for us this year is going to be operating behind a highly talented and highly developed offensive line and so the mobility issue that some pencil necks have been harping on, an issue I haven’t been able to discover in the film I’ve seen, is essentially moot. jmo.
Last week I rewatched much of the Missouri and South Carolina games from last year. There is at least one pass that JG seems never to be able to complete. Whether he’s throwing to Ty Chandler or Eric Gray, Jarrett can’t seem to complete the swing pass out of the backfield to save his life. If we really want to get the ball into these guys hands in space we need someone who can do that. Obviously, Chaney would not continue to call the play if Jarrett wasn’t executing it successfully in practice. Want to know what I think? We have at least one QB on our roster that given his body of work is highly unlikely to ever be saddled with the reputation of being a practice player. jmo.
I’m done.
