CJM on Fitz improving

[TimberBeast]

He has been a complete disappointment this year and a BIG reason why we have two losses right now.

Actually one of the BIGGEST reasons for one of those losses was a perfectly thrown touchdown pass that was dropped by Mitchell. Fitz isn?t the best passer in college football, and you won?t see anyone saying that. But our wide receivers and pass blocking are killing us, not Fitz?s passing.

[yjnkdawg]

Fitz had limited passing opportunities when he was in high school, with the offense that they ran. He threw 8 passes his junior year with 2 completion. For his 2 year high school career, as a quarterback, he threw only 86 passes and completed 35 for a 40.7% completion rate. His average passing yards per game was 31 yards for his two years.. Mullen recruited Fitz as an athlete playing quarterback, rather than a quarterback who is an athlete. So Fitz just not has had a history as being a passing quarterback. Nobody puts it on the line and leaves it all on the field, as Fitz does. He always gives his all. I hope he can improve his passing proficiency, but it seems like it is what it is.

[TimberBeast]

Actually one of the BIGGEST reasons for one of those losses was a perfectly thrown touchdown pass that was dropped by Mitchell. Fitz isn?t the best passer in college football, and you won?t see anyone saying that. But our wide receivers and pass blocking are killing us, not Fitz?s passing.

No response to this, typical.

[tcdog70]

Actually one of the BIGGEST reasons for one of those losses was a perfectly thrown touchdown pass that was dropped by Mitchell. Fitz isn?t the best passer in college football, and you won?t see anyone saying that. But our wide receivers and pass blocking are killing us, not Fitz?s passing.

Correct. Actually if JoMo had played to Fitz's strength instead of his weakness , we might be 6-0. Use the Auburn game plan and I think we win both games we lost.

[smootness]

Actually one of the BIGGEST reasons for one of those losses was a perfectly thrown touchdown pass that was dropped by Mitchell. Fitz isn?t the best passer in college football, and you won?t see anyone saying that. But our wide receivers and pass blocking are killing us, not Fitz?s passing.

Fitz's accuracy is at least as big a problem as our WRs. Look at the Auburn game - basically every incomplete pass is the result of a poor throw. It's been that way most of the year. Obviously our WRs haven't been great and have dropped some key passes and deserve their share of the blame. But Fitz has not been good passing, you can't blame them and absolve him.

[klc90]

I'll respond. It wasn't perfectly thrown. Was it watchable? Yes. But Mitchell had to turn back to get his hands on the ball, instead of it being in his outstretched hands.

Fitz rarely puts the ball out in front of a receiver. They are usually reaching back or adjusting their route in some way to make a play on the ball. Watch the screens we throw, 85% are throws where the back or WR has to adjust to the ball instead of catching it out in front with momentum.

Fitz is a great runner, but average at best passer. It is what it is.

[BrunswickDawg]

Fitz's accuracy is at least as big a problem as our WRs. Look at the Auburn game - basically every incomplete pass is the result of a poor throw. It's been that way most of the year. Obviously our WRs haven't been great and have dropped some key passes and deserve their share of the blame. But Fitz has not been good passing, you can't blame them and absolve him.

This is very true. Something that we have to keep in mind with this though is that we are talking about a very small number over-all in what Moorhead stated as his goal for the passing Game. Joe wants 65% completion. Fitz has thrown 123 passes and completed 61 for 49.6%. 79 completions gets you to 65%. That's 4 (3.6 to be accurate) completions a game thru 5 starts. For every 4 bad passes Fitz has made - I know that with film study you could find a combination of drops, botched routes leading to incompletions, or throw-aways to avoid a loss due to bad OL protection to equal those 4 bad passes. So while Fitz's accuracy is a big factor, so is the new system, the play calling, the OL play, and WR play. Our lack of production in the passing game has been a team effort across the board. We have not had a game where all of the phases needed be successful have clicked except the ULL game.

In any of this discussion I haven't seen anyone try to absolve Fitz from not getting it done. I have seen people recognizing that for all the potential the kid has, there are factors that can be inhibiting his ability to pick up this offense and make the improvement needed to make it work at a high level. Fitz's lack of experience as a QB is one. His injury is one. Is inability to maintain his mechanics is one. Those things then limit his ability to some of the things other QBs might be able to do in this system. It also might mean that regardless of the amount of work off-field to correct those issues, he might not be able to fully "get it" until much later than someone who played QB since he was 10 and grew up learning the craft of being a QB.

[smootness]

In any of this discussion I haven't seen anyone try to absolve Fitz from not getting it done.

Well, he literally said it was the pass blocking and WRs that were killing us and specifically not Fitz's passing. I'm just saying, he is at least as much to blame as them.

[yjnkdawg]

I'll respond. It wasn't perfectly thrown. Was it watchable? Yes. But Mitchell had to turn back to get his hands on the ball, instead of it being in his outstretched hands.

Fitz rarely puts the ball out in front of a receiver. They are usually reaching back or adjusting their route in some way to make a play on the ball. Watch the screens we throw, 85% are throws where the back or WR has to adjust to the ball instead of catching it out in front with momentum.

Fitz is a great runner, but average at best passer. It is what it is.

Mitchell was trying to run before he secured the ball. He will tell you that he should have made that catch.

[Todd4State]

Actually one of the BIGGEST reasons for one of those losses was a perfectly thrown touchdown pass that was dropped by Mitchell. Fitz isn?t the best passer in college football, and you won?t see anyone saying that. But our wide receivers and pass blocking are killing us, not Fitz?s passing.

You also won't see very many people saying that one play is the biggest reason why a game was lost. A few more completed passes and that game doesn't come down to one play like that. That's sort of my point. We're leaving tons of points out on the field because our QB can't complete short routes consistently.

I agree that the WR's and OL are major issues. However, Fitz doesn't really do a lot to help our receivers at times. I remember Fred Ross having issues catching passes from Fitz and he is one of the best WR's in school history. To me the o-line issue is more on Eiland than the other four.

[Sacrifice]

Good lord, reading this thread you'd think we had Mike Henig playing qb again.