Interesting stat

King was throwing darts for sure. In addition to the throws you pointed out, he threw a laser to Harley on a slant that's gonna go for big yardage at some point. We're going to make some big plays in the passing game.

King was ridiculous in his escapability in the pocket, and as good as advertised in his athleticism and running. Another wrinkle is when King decides to actually keep the ball on those RPO's which he didn't vs. UAB.

I'm a big big fan of King and not hating on him at all. I think he's going to carry us to some big wins this year. He's a MUCH better QB than what we've had lately.

That being said - I'm not the type to sugarcoat things. King averaged 177 yds passing in his last 7 games & 149 yds the last 5 before the UAB game. Then he throws 141 yds vs UAB. He's averaged 172 yds passing over his last 8 games when he averaged 292 yds passing in the 12 games before that. To me, that's a red flag that's very realistically an issue.

I'm not going to tell you it's because he's rusty or UAB is a good defense. I'm going to tell he straight up missed some passes that were badly off. Passes downfield didn't look good. Taking off running at the end of the half on our hail mary play vs. staying in the pocket lead to 31 yd run, which looks great in the stats on paper - but it was a bad decision. Playing UAB and having 25 & 15 yds as your 2 longest pass plays isn't good. It's just not.

I'm not doom & gloom, or think the seasons over. I'm just slightly adjusting my expectations. Coming into the UAB I thought 9+ wins was a very real possibility for this year. Based on the UAB game - I think 7-8 wins is more realistic (which is similar to the type of team we've been).

Now maybe it's me over-reacting or just being negative. I hope I am. Maybe I'm pointing out the elephant in the room. I hope I'm not. I think King being lights out for the rest of the year and carrying us to a great season is still a very real possibility.
Based on 3 bad passes (in his first game in over a year, with a new oc and new receiving corps - and minimal time to gain any sort of connection [3 spring practices, 0 summer ball, weird abridged fall]) and a decision to run instead of lob one in the end zone to end the first half - you think we’ll lose at least 2 more games than you originally thought. I think you can remove the “maybe” from your overreacting comment. You’ve discovered all you need to know... after three quarters of football.

Sure, he only threw for 140 against uab. That was in 3 quarters and on 24 attempts. Closer to 35 attempts (likely more balance in the o moving forward) at 67% and 6 yards per pass and he’s over 200 yards. Connect on one deep ball (I happen to think that’ll happen at least a few times over the course of the season) and the number goes higher.
 
Advertisement
Yes. Holgorson had a bad first year on offense. They dropped from 19th to 85th in passing yardage with King missing 2/3 of the year.

King also got hurt early in his last game of 2018, which led to an 82-yard game (he had 322 and 5 TDs the week before).
I took a look at the stats and have a theory

King's first 12 starts - he got sacked 9 times - 0.75 per game
Kings's last 8 starts - he got sacked 23 times - 2.9 per game

In 2018, he got sacked 5 times in the first 8 games. He had 5 games where he was sacked 0 times. In the last 3 games (when his passing started falling off), he got sacked 9 times.

He's been sacked at least 2 times in each of his last 8 games.

So I have no idea if there were OL injuries at Houston, or what is was - but it looks like he went from getting pretty clean pockets to getting A LOT more pressure.
 
This thread is stupid.

Far worse QB's have won the Coastal than King - We won it with Rosier in 2017. If we don't win the Coastal it won't be because of King's throwing ability. It will likely be because we have a Social Media Influencer as HC.
 
Based on 3 bad passes (in his first game in over a year, with a new oc and new receiving corps - and minimal time to gain any sort of connection [3 spring practices, 0 summer ball, weird abridged fall]) and a decision to run instead of lob one in the end zone to end the first half - you think we’ll lose at least 2 more games than you originally thought. I think you can remove the “maybe” from your overreacting comment. You’ve discovered all you need to know... after three quarters of football.

Sure, he only threw for 140 against uab. That was in 3 quarters and on 24 attempts. Closer to 35 attempts (likely more balance in the o moving forward) at 67% and 6 yards per pass and he’s over 200 yards. Connect on one deep ball (I happen to think that’ll happen at least a few times over the course of the season) and the number goes higher.
To clarify....

I think King is a beast. He's a dynamic runner and good passer. He'll have some huge passing games this year. He'll hit plenty of passes this year I feel he missed vs UAB. I'm in no way saying he can't or won't do those things, I'm saying he will. I'm just concerned the passing game will be more of a struggle than we originally thought, and the big passing plays might not happen as often as we'll need them.

My feeling on win totals is based on what I saw overall as a whole on Offense & Defense. This is in no way all on King. Just focusing on the Offense - King looked like the playmaker he is. TE's are stacked. RB's looked great, but I realize they always look great against CUSA teams. I like our talent at WR's - but I have doubts any of them step up as a real playmaker. OL is a work in progress, and we're already making changes to the starters. How all these things combined looked against UAB made me think we won't hit the high end of what I thought was possible this year.

With the combo of Lashlee & King - I was expecting to see a little more right out of the gate. But outside of last years debacle - our overall yds, points scored, number of plays, yards per play - all that looked no different than usual when we play CUSA teams. And the reasons given as to why - It's just the first game, they're rusty, we had less practice time because of COVID, it's a new system, we'll get better as the year goes on, UAB is actually a good defense, Lashlee was holding back - while all these may be valid, outside of COVID, it just sounds like the same things we say every year. Believe me, I hope to **** I'm wrong.

Vegas has our win total at 7.5 for the season. I was thinking 9 wins, so I was optimistic before UAB, and now have adjusted to 7-8 wins - right in line with Vegas. I don't feel this is some major shift or over reactive doomsday prediction. If we blow out Louisville, I may change back to 9 wins. If we beat Louisville in a close game, they beat us close, or if they blow us out - I'll stay at 7-8 wins. Other than a low scoring defensive battle - I wouldn't be surprised at any outcome, or if either team crushes the other this weekend.

So I want nothing more than to kill Louisville and see all the "over-reactors" like myself get called out as total idiots next week. And if it goes the other way - there will be way more people being way more critical than anything I'm saying now. But I'll feel the same as I do now.
 
Last edited:
To clarify....

I think King is a beast. He's a dynamic runner and good passer. He'll have some huge passing games this year. He'll hit plenty of passes this year I feel he missed vs UAB. I'm in no way saying he can't or won't do those things, I'm saying he will. I'm just concerned the passing game will be more of a struggle than we originally thought, and the big passing plays might not happen as often as we'll need them.

My feeling on win totals is based on what I saw overall as a whole on Offense & Defense. This is in no way all on King. Just focusing on the Offense - King looked like the playmaker he is. TE's are stacked. RB's looked great, but I realize they always look great against CUSA teams. I like our talent at WR's - but I have doubts any of them step up as a real playmaker. OL is a work in progress, and we're already making changes to the starters. How all these things combined looked against UAB made me think we won't hit the high end of what I thought was possible this year.

With the combo of Lashlee & King - I was expecting to see a little more right out of the gate. But outside of last years debacle - our overall yds, points scored, number of plays, yards per play - all that looked no different than usual when we play CUSA teams. And the reasons given as to why - It's just the first game, they're rusty, we had less practice time because of COVID, it's a new system, we'll get better as the year goes on, UAB is actually a good defense, Lashlee was holding back - while all these may be valid, outside of COVID, it just sounds like the same things we say every year. Believe me, I hope to **** I'm wrong.

Vegas has our win total at 7.5 for the season. I was thinking 9 wins, so I was optimistic before UAB, and now have adjusted to 7-8 wins - right in line with Vegas. I don't feel this is some major shift or over reactive doomsday prediction. If we blow out Louisville, I may change back to 9 wins. If we beat Louisville in a close game, they beat us close, or if they blow us out - I'll stay at 7-8 wins. Other than a low scoring defensive battle - I wouldn't be surprised at any outcome, or if either team crushes the other this weekend.

So I want nothing more than to kill Louisville and see all the "over-reactors" like myself get called out as total idiots next week. And if it goes the other way - there will be way more people being way more critical than anything I'm saying now. But I'll feel the same as I do now.
Cool
 
I’m not going to put too much into a stat after 1 game. Consider how high we were about Jarren Williams completion percentage at this point in the season last year. Man, we were so sure that if our QB would just improve a little bit, our defense would lock down the competition. Enos was a QB guru and would show us the way.
 
Advertisement
Everyone cried about the run game last year. We run 52 times for 330 yards, and they want to cry about the passing game now. Last time we saw this team, we were getting anally raped by a CUSA team and never posed a threat to score a point the whole game.

King never was and never will be a drop back dime tosser. He's never going to be Drew Brees or Russell Wilson in the throw game. But he can be an insane weapon in the run game and throwing enough to keep defenses honest. He was off yesterday, but he hasn't played in a long time and is getting used to another new system.

King brings calm. Leadership. And an incredible extra weapon in the run game. He can be an opportune passer who hits some occasional big throws or extends some drives. That run game you saw last night isn't that run game with any other QB because the defense doesn't have to account for other QBs the way they do King.

First game should be the worst game. If we can build each week that should be the goal. Even the great teams usually don't play super clean week one. Add in no spring and probably some limited work in the summer, and you can be a little sloppy offensively.
Just stop Chize. You’re making too much sense for this board..
 
Right - because:

Duke - 111 yds passing
Pitt - 52 yds passing

So 144 yds passing vs UAB is troublesome. I know it's just one game, but here's Kings passing yards in his last 8 games:

141
229
128
139
167
82
322
175

After watching last night - it's hard to brush those numbers off as no big deal. If those passing numbers don't improve, as you've pointed out, those big rushing numbers aren't going to mean much .
Serious question: Did you play sports growing up?
 
We literally struggled against a MAC team last year. Below CUSA.
2019 sucked for sure. We struggled against La Tech & CMU. 2019 was the outlier.

Any other year vs FIU, FAU, Toldeo, Cincinnati, etc. - 90% of these games our RB's are running all over them like we did vs UAB.

We'll have a better idea on the RB's after a couple ACC games - but I think we're gonna like what we see.
 
Last edited:
There's no theory. It's a small sample size being used to substantiate a worried mindset. King's not a great passer, but he's going to put up some numbers, especially if our run game keeps gashing people. Defenses will have to pick their poison.
I'm here, tail between legs, to admit I was horribly wrong.

King has been special. Legit Heisman good. The FSU beatdown was epic. My apologies.
 
I'm here, tail between legs, to admit I was horribly wrong.

King has been special. Legit Heisman good. The FSU beatdown was epic. My apologies.
Baby Hat GIF
 
Advertisement
Back
Top