First, it was absolutely awesome to pull that game out. When your offensive game plan and execution are so poor, there's no way you should win a game against a decent team at their place. Even with Eric Murray and BBC and Richardson on your side.
I don't mean to denigrate Mitch Leidner unnecessarily and pile on when I say this, but he's never been a QB that should have played that role after high school. For Lakeville South he was a great athlete with a strong arm. Fine. We had locked up Nelson by the time Mitch came to camp. We weren't desperate.
At camp the coaches didn't know what to look for in a QB, of this I'm pretty sure, and they offered Mitch. How do I feel I know they didn't know what to look for at camp? Mitch Leidner, Chris Streveler, Dimonic McK answer that. And I believe they still didn't have much of a clue when they had Croft in, though he might have been a better breed by that time because the program was turning around. I watched Leidner play in high school after committing and wondered how the Gopher coaches would ever iron out all his flaws and bad habits. They didn't. I see the same guy now that I saw in high school.
What made it worse, I personally think, is that Leidner exhibited all sorts of leadership traits and character that he still has and that are the reason we aren't doomed. He exhibited this all while our immensely talented QB Nelson, I'm surmising, probably had a bigger sense of entitlement and very likely less quality of character. When Nelson got hurt, Leidner filled in admirably. It was a great situation. Very talented starter in Nelson, very gutsy backup in Leidner. Except the coaches had an idea in their mind of the "leader" they wanted, and therefore they wouldn't just let the talented QB know the job was his. The immensely talented, too entitled, flaw-of-character Nelson said screw it, I'll find someone who appreciates me. And I don't blame him, really. I blame the coaches for not developing his leadership skills and attitude, instilling the confidence that he's the man, and giving him the reins.
But they didn't, and they were left three crappy quarterbacks, at least two of whom are awesome competitors, and the other one is gone. They found two reasonable walk-on QBs. And they found a freshman in Croft who appears to look good compared to all the rest of the QBs, but that means incredibly little at this point, because the rest of the QBs are simply not good in one way or another. Demry Croft may end up being good, but I'm pretty sure the optimism surrounding him has far more to do with comparisons to his competition than it does with comparisons to other FBS quarterbacks. The coaches seem to have recognized they have done a crappy job of evaluating QBs, so they changed up their process, and that may or may not be rewarded right away with Poljan, but he's years away.
So Leidner now leads a very flawed offense, flawed in every sense, personnel and coordination. He has one year of being the man behind him, and he did okay that year. Actually, given that he doesn't set his feet correctly when throws (coaches), can't throw a spiral, and has no touch on 75% of throws he needs to have touch on, he did great. But Cobb, Maxx, and the defense made that possible. Defense is still there, Cobb and Maxx are a ways yet from being replaced. KJ Maye and the RB of the moment are average at best, and it looks like he won't get the special help he got last year. So it's on Mitch.
At this point in his fourth year he's not correcting his flaws, but that doesn't mean he won't improve. He'll get more comfortable with his personnel, and he'll find combinations that work for him. The question is whether you think all the things he brings to the table (experience, leadership, guts, knowledge, interception avoidance, and ability to process in a collapsing pocket) are inferior to what a freshman can give you, because Streveler isn't going to improve things. It might actually be that a change to Perra or Croft is an upgrade, but given all the positive traits Leidner has (above), I can see why coaches might think it too risky to try out a freshman. I tend to agree with them, at least at this early stage of the season. The key is to have them ready to go by midseason, much like they did with Nelson three years ago. If it's really not working, then you make the change, but I seriously doubt that a freshman QB with this same offensive personnel and coordination is going to get us more wins. True, it would give us an experienced non-Mitch for 2016, and that is the primary benefit of doing it. But I think changing the QB this year can only keep things even or more likely harm this year.
And that's if Croft and Perra are really, truly, significantly better playmakers than Leidner, something I'm not that sure of.
I don't mean to denigrate Mitch Leidner unnecessarily and pile on when I say this, but he's never been a QB that should have played that role after high school. For Lakeville South he was a great athlete with a strong arm. Fine. We had locked up Nelson by the time Mitch came to camp. We weren't desperate.
At camp the coaches didn't know what to look for in a QB, of this I'm pretty sure, and they offered Mitch. How do I feel I know they didn't know what to look for at camp? Mitch Leidner, Chris Streveler, Dimonic McK answer that. And I believe they still didn't have much of a clue when they had Croft in, though he might have been a better breed by that time because the program was turning around. I watched Leidner play in high school after committing and wondered how the Gopher coaches would ever iron out all his flaws and bad habits. They didn't. I see the same guy now that I saw in high school.
What made it worse, I personally think, is that Leidner exhibited all sorts of leadership traits and character that he still has and that are the reason we aren't doomed. He exhibited this all while our immensely talented QB Nelson, I'm surmising, probably had a bigger sense of entitlement and very likely less quality of character. When Nelson got hurt, Leidner filled in admirably. It was a great situation. Very talented starter in Nelson, very gutsy backup in Leidner. Except the coaches had an idea in their mind of the "leader" they wanted, and therefore they wouldn't just let the talented QB know the job was his. The immensely talented, too entitled, flaw-of-character Nelson said screw it, I'll find someone who appreciates me. And I don't blame him, really. I blame the coaches for not developing his leadership skills and attitude, instilling the confidence that he's the man, and giving him the reins.
But they didn't, and they were left three crappy quarterbacks, at least two of whom are awesome competitors, and the other one is gone. They found two reasonable walk-on QBs. And they found a freshman in Croft who appears to look good compared to all the rest of the QBs, but that means incredibly little at this point, because the rest of the QBs are simply not good in one way or another. Demry Croft may end up being good, but I'm pretty sure the optimism surrounding him has far more to do with comparisons to his competition than it does with comparisons to other FBS quarterbacks. The coaches seem to have recognized they have done a crappy job of evaluating QBs, so they changed up their process, and that may or may not be rewarded right away with Poljan, but he's years away.
So Leidner now leads a very flawed offense, flawed in every sense, personnel and coordination. He has one year of being the man behind him, and he did okay that year. Actually, given that he doesn't set his feet correctly when throws (coaches), can't throw a spiral, and has no touch on 75% of throws he needs to have touch on, he did great. But Cobb, Maxx, and the defense made that possible. Defense is still there, Cobb and Maxx are a ways yet from being replaced. KJ Maye and the RB of the moment are average at best, and it looks like he won't get the special help he got last year. So it's on Mitch.
At this point in his fourth year he's not correcting his flaws, but that doesn't mean he won't improve. He'll get more comfortable with his personnel, and he'll find combinations that work for him. The question is whether you think all the things he brings to the table (experience, leadership, guts, knowledge, interception avoidance, and ability to process in a collapsing pocket) are inferior to what a freshman can give you, because Streveler isn't going to improve things. It might actually be that a change to Perra or Croft is an upgrade, but given all the positive traits Leidner has (above), I can see why coaches might think it too risky to try out a freshman. I tend to agree with them, at least at this early stage of the season. The key is to have them ready to go by midseason, much like they did with Nelson three years ago. If it's really not working, then you make the change, but I seriously doubt that a freshman QB with this same offensive personnel and coordination is going to get us more wins. True, it would give us an experienced non-Mitch for 2016, and that is the primary benefit of doing it. But I think changing the QB this year can only keep things even or more likely harm this year.
And that's if Croft and Perra are really, truly, significantly better playmakers than Leidner, something I'm not that sure of.
