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Kyle Wright - What was his ceiling?

ddann said:
Pretty much this.

The dude was a National Gatorade Player of the Year, can't-miss, blue-chip, 5-star QB coming out of high school. The buzz was that a QB with an arm like this hadn't been seen in Miami since Marino retired.

It never materialized.

He had some decent games, but he just was never the QB he was supposed to be. Watch his film. He had that weird squatting down thing that he did just as he was about to release the ball. It didn't work.

He is the all-time "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane" QB in UM history, IMO.
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The one year He put up solid numbers He was surrounded by talent.

That 05' team had Ryan Moore, Sinorice Moss, Greg Olsen, Quadtrine Hill, ****, even Charlie Jones was a serviceable replacement after Moss went down.

Also remember, the 2 signature wins of His career came in 05' in road wins vs #20 Clemson & #3 VT.

His descent started in 06', the same year that Coker had to start Brian Monroe at WR, and 2 true freshmen at WR & RB (Shields & James). Any games we won in 06' were mostly because of the D.

Now did He underachieve, sure, but all I'm sayin' is His time at UM requires context.
 
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I remember at the time thinking "if they could just protect him better, he'd be great". The thing is, you could say that about a million guys. The football world is littered with stories of workout warriors who looked like the second coming of Dan Marino and Joe Montana in shorts throwing to guys with no pressure. But you put them in live game action and they fall apart like a cheap suit. He had no feel for the pocket and would often "sack himself" by holding the ball way too long. Poor coaching did him no favors but this guy just didn't have the feel for the game. I really don't see any scenario outside of him maybe playing on the 2001 team where he would have been very successful.
 
DTP said:
I remember at the time thinking "if they could just protect him better, he'd be great". The thing is, you could say that about a million guys. The football world is littered with stories of workout warriors who looked like the second coming of Dan Marino and Joe Montana in shorts throwing to guys with no pressure. But you put them in live game action and they fall apart like a cheap suit. He had no feel for the pocket and would often "sack himself" by holding the ball way too long. Poor coaching did him no favors but this guy just didn't have the feel for the game. I really don't see any scenario outside of him maybe playing on the 2001 team where he would have been very successful.
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I guess the thing to ask is, when you got to 2007 and you were rolling with just 6 real wide receivers (Leggett, Jenkins, Jones, Shields, Farquaharson, and Hankerson) plus a converted DB, and no longer had a game breaking NFL tight end...which of our quarterbacks in the last 25 years would have taken the Hurricanes from 21 pts per game to 30 or higher? Brad Kayaa? Ken Dorsey? Scott Covington? Brock Berlin? Ryan Clement? Jacory Harris?

My thought is that unless we had a Michael Vick / Tyler Murray / Vince Young type of athlete back there...or unless we adopted a triple threat offense that would have suited the talent we had available, I'd say that no other Miami quarterback would have done significantly better than Wright in 2007. Not that Wright was as good as them...it's just that the offense so was thin that it would have taken a superlative QB to have made an impact. And that's why I thought it made judging Kyle so difficult. Miami's wide receiver corp in 2006 and 2007 was by far the weakest (and smallest) that the Hurricanes would see at any point since before Schelly.
 
Kyle was a guy who looked like Tarzan but played like Jane. I don't give a **** who your OC is, eventually you should be able to pick up basic crap and stop doing it. KW never figured out simple crap like "It's third and five, if I run and there's a chance I can pick up the first, sliding 2 yards short of the 1st down is a bad idea"

Kyle was a gutless coward, and a good talent evaluator would have seen right through his nonsense. He was a guy that racked up numbers in HS based on having the physical tools, but you could also see that he wasn't a leader, and he didn't have the intangibles you need from a QB. He was the symptom of a recruiting philosophy based on star ratings, and not on legitimate talent evaluation.
 
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GojiraCane said:
(Leggett, Jenkins, Jones, Shields, Farquaharson, and Hankerson)
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Legget wasted his talent, Jenkins was serviceable college wr, Jones was a MNW kid so was offered but did not deserve the offer, Shields was a DB, Farq got an offer because he had the name Kane, and Hank was catching nothing until senior year.

What a sad state of affairs we went through. All Paper teams. No one willing to work. Wright had the arm but did not seem to have IT factor. Was asked to be a savior on a team that was full of disappointment. Many kids thought the U on the helmet was automatic NFL invite. and many were invited but few stayed. Many college QB's are asked to go through one read and check down. Wright seemed to be given 4 reads. The OL's could not cash that check. Would have been interesting if Wright had a senior year with Jedd Fish. Many of our high rated QB's looked terrible too. what was the common theme?
 
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DMoney said:
Kyle was bad from the moment he got on campus. No instincts.

If anybody got ruined, it was Jacory and Morris.
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Morris had no touch and was slow to process.

Jacory was definitely ruined by Whipple.

Four years under Fisch would’ve been ideal for him.
 
Sometimes, a bust is just a bust. Wright had a 2-cent head. Not much you can do to hide that at the QB spot without plus running ability.
 
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DMoney said:
Kyle was bad from the moment he got on campus. No instincts.

If anybody got ruined, it was Jacory and Morris.
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This. Wright never made a play here. Never. The second we had to rely on him to make something happen, the team imploded.

Morris was inconsistent but at least made a lot of plays, albeit against teams that weren’t so great. But he still could make things happen with his arm, same with Jacory.

Go back and watch Wright’s film. He wasn’t capable of throwing the ball down the field and had zero sense for the game.

Wright was overall about on par with Rosier.
 
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Kyle was everything that Dorsey wasn’t. Strong arm, well built, athletic.
Dorsey was everything that Kyle wasn’t. Film room nut, quick decision maker, good pocket presence.
One set of traits is more important than the other.
 
CaneSince4Ever said:
The one year He put up solid numbers He was surrounded by talent.

That 05' team had Ryan Moore, Sinorice Moss, Greg Olsen, Quadtrine Hill, ****, even Charlie Jones was a serviceable replacement after Moss went down.

Also remember, the 2 signature wins of His career came in 05' in road wins vs #20 Clemson & #3 VT.

His descent started in 06', the same year that Coker had to start Brian Monroe at WR, and 2 true freshmen at WR & RB (Shields & James). Any games we won in 06' were mostly because of the D.

Now did He underachieve, sure, but all I'm sayin' is His time at UM requires context.
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Monroe only played WR during Spring practice. He may have run some routes, but he only played WR during the Spring.
 
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