Kaaya has phenomenal yards per attempt considering how seldom we run the ball. If you check the 10 or so teams above us in yards per attempt, the consistent variable is they help the passing game by running at least 40 times per game. Only Colorado State is an exception. They run roughly the same amount as we do, 34 to 35ish, yet the yards per attempt are even higher. Florida State this year is really trying the one dimensional route, running barely 30 times per game, compared to 36 last season, yet Winston maintains excellent YPA at 8.5.
We really should run the ball at least 38 times per game to help out Kaaya and prevent opponents from confidently attacking our protection and formations, like last week, but that's a point I've made many times previously. At 34 we are really asking for fragility, and succeeding. Makes no sense, given our strengths.
Unlike other positions, college quarterbacks seldom improve their functional strength substantially. That happens later, early in the NFL for those who make it and can devote full time to their craft. I wouldn't expect Kaaya's frame and strength to change much in college. I remember pre-senior hype that Dorsey had gained weight and was markedly stronger. Didn't look like it at all. Then heading to the combine the next spring his agent conceded that Dorsey had been in the 185 range as a senior, and now was stuffing his face with protein shakes and everything else to get above the 200 barrier.
I don't doubt that Kaaya will regress next season. It's simply logical, after such absurdly high YPA as a freshman. The Stacy Coley comparison isn't bad. Very, very few athletes are ultra elite, so elite that the normal rules don't apply. The happy adjusters don't mean to be wrong when they make comical pronouncements that the sky is the limit, etc. They simply have a very poor grasp of probability and normalcy. This kid was a nice high school player but hardly a phenom like Peyton Manning. When you expect a 60 level performance and receive an 80, too many flawed handicappers assert that we're on our way to 90+. Far more often than not, that's not the way it works. There were reasons to expect the 60.
The lack of sense of urgency can be fixed. I hope it's fixed. That annoyed the heck out of me. Kaaya early in the season had no clue when the quarter was ending, and he couldn't find the play clock. James Coley had to babysit Kaaya to point out the play clock. At the game I attended in Blacksburg, Kaaya did his best to run out the clock in the second quarter and blow a field goal opportunity. Only Duke Johnson breaking free in the final seconds saved the scrutiny on that one. Then Kaaya was seemingly bewildered at the end of the Florida State game, acting as if we had an entire quarter instead of 3 minutes. I can see the Peyton Manning comparisons from a physical standpoint but Manning was always the sharpest and most advanced guy out there in terms of strategy and clock management.
