Dak's senior year

[msstate7]

What would you like to see him improve on before usm?

I'd like to see him improve 2 things:

1. Deep ball accuracy. I think we could've scored many more points if dak was better with the deep ball. We need to keep safeties back next season so we can run even better.

2. Improve zone read. It seems dak really struggled late in the year with reads. He held way too much.

[thf24]

I agree with those, and I'll add reading pass coverages. He seemed to really struggle with this towards the end of the season in particular, tending to stop after the first or second man in his progression and either force it there or take off. Any improvement in that area is just a cherry on top for us next season since it's hard to argue that he wasn't an effective enough passer as he was, but it's a must if he wants a shot in the NFL even next year.

[FlabLoser]

Gotta quicker and more confident with reads.

He was totally rattled in the Egg Bowl. Snap, step back, look, scramble. The OM DL was good, but they weren't in his face every play. He had options to throw the ball, but played rattled for all but a little bit after halftime.

[Coach34]

Our WR group for next year will certainly help him. This is going to be an outstanding group of WR's. Ross and Wilson will be able to do some damage- and also open the middle for Gray and Myles. I look for Ross to blow up because teams are going to have to help CB's with Wilson. Stonehands came on and played well- 5 was also decent. Those 2 as back-ups are extremely solid.

Our ur passing game should be outstanding in 2015

[msstate7]

Gotta quicker and more confident with reads.

He was totally rattled in the Egg Bowl. Snap, step back, look, scramble. The OM DL was good, but they weren't in his face every play. He had options to throw the ball, but played rattled for all but a little bit after halftime.

I wonder if Dan hammered no int's into dak's head that week. Seems dak was way too cautious.

[HoopsDawg]

Our WR group for next year will certainly help him. This is going to be an outstanding group of WR's. Ross and Wilson will be able to do some damage- and also open the middle for Gray and Myles. I look for Ross to blow up because teams are going to have to help CB's with Wilson. Stonehands came on and played well- 5 was also decent. Those 2 as back-ups are extremely solid.

Our ur passing game should be outstanding in 2015

Yeah our first group of Wilson, Gray and Ross is probably the best trio we have ever had. The 2nd group of Morrow, Myles, and Brown is better than any trio we had under Croom.

[jumbo]

accuracy in general and better read progression

[Bama_Dawg]

The one thing I think Dak needs is touch on the ball. Too many times he's thrown a fastball to the receiver and the pass fall incomplete. There are many situations where a bit of loft (touch) can go a long way. It even allows you some wiggle room on a completion...and you can "throw" someone open. He does that, and with Bear's leaping ability, we'll have plenty of PI's and long completions next year.

So, yeah, touch and this year's WR corp = Nightmare for the Opposing Secondary.

[ShotgunDawg]

Dak's checklist

1. Learn to throw the deep ball high. It's not so much about accuracy as it is giving your receiver a chance to make a play on the ball.
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2. He needs to spend a ton of time in the film room, learning to break down defenses in both the passing and running game. Dak's ability to put us in the correct running play could be huge.

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3. Develop chemistry with both Gabe Myles, Graham, and Gray on over the middle passes. Teams will have to respect Bear, Ross, Morrow, and Brown next year on the outside. We should be able to destroy people in the middle, but there needs to be chemistry.
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4. Develop a more "athletic" arm. If you watch Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, etc.. they have unique ability to throw from different angles, in order to avoid the pass rush and get off passes with defensive players in their faces. The also enables them to more effectively throw off balance. Basically, Dak currently throws a football like an outfielder throws a baseball. It's a very grooved arm stroke. Dak needs to learn to throw a shortstop. Shortstops can throws from different angles, off balance, on one leg, etc... and this enables them to get the throw off quickly and get the ball to the receiver with proper timing.
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5. Finally, Dak is athletic, but not elusive. He needs to develop some serious moves in the pocket to avoid the pass rush and extend the play within the pocket
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The good news is that Dak won't have many hours in grad school, and can probably spend all the time he wants in the film room this Spring and Summer

He simply needs to become more of PASSER and less of a THROWER

[TheRef]

Christ, Shotgun...enough gifs?

[ShotgunDawg]

Christ, Shotgun...enough gifs?

Just added another

[HancockCountyDog]

What would you like to see him improve on before usm?

I'd like to see him improve 2 things:

1. Deep ball accuracy. I think we could've scored many more points if dak was better with the deep ball. We need to keep safeties back next season so we can run even better.

2. Improve zone read. It seems dak really struggled late in the year with reads. He held way too much.

Im really glad he is coming back selfishly, as we all are.

I just hope we are able to help Dak improve his draft stock by showing off his arm more than his legs. I know that is probably not likely in Mullen's system, but I just hope we do. I feel like we owe it to Dak to not rush him 200+ times next year. Im not saying we don't run it, but I just hope we rely a little more on RB's legs and Dak's arms. With the weapons at WR it just makes sense and it also helps improve the draft stock of one of the greatest to ever wear the maroon & white.

[TheRef]

Just added another

Killing my bandwidth with these gifs, man....

[Coach34]

Lmao@ at Dan Mullen QB not running the football a lot. That is in no way, shape, or form going to change. That is the fundamental foundation of his offense

[ShotgunDawg]

Killing my bandwidth with these gifs, man....

LOL

[smootness]

I just hope he stays healthy. I mean, we had a Heisman contender this year....at QB. Can he improve on some things? Sure. But even if he doesn't (which isn't realistic), he's far and away the best we've ever had and among the best few in the country.

Needs to learn to throw at different angles? Yeah, maybe if we want him to become the best QB in football history by next year, he would need to add all these things, but good grief.

And he isn't elusive? LOL

[ShotgunDawg]

I just hope he stays healthy. I mean, we had a Heisman contender this year....at QB. Can he improve on some things? Sure. But even if he doesn't (which isn't realistic), he's far and away the best we've ever had and among the best few in the country.

Needs to learn to throw at different angles? Yeah, maybe if we want him to become the best QB in football history by next year, he would need to add all these things, but good grief.

And he isn't elusive? LOL

I didn't say he should/could improve all these things, I'm just saying it's a checklist. If he improves 1 or 2 of those things, it will make a drastic difference.

Dak is extremely athletic, but I don't see him as a very elusive target in the pocket. He could improve that by directing his athleticism towards quick moves like you see in the videos.

You are correct, if Dak improves on all this, he may be the best QB in history, but, IMO, that should be his goal. There is not reason to strive to be the best.

[smootness]

Dak is extremely athletic, but I don't see him as a very elusive target in the pocket. He could improve that by directing his athleticism towards quick moves like you see in the videos.

Dak is one of the best at evading the rush and staying in the pocket that I've seen at the college level. I'm not sure what you're seeing here. He's certainly more elusive than Brady and Romo.

[ShotgunDawg]

Dak is one of the best at evading the rush and staying in the pocket that I've seen at the college level. I'm not sure what you're seeing here. He's certainly more elusive than Brady and Romo.

We are seeing two different things then. Romo and Brady are two of the best that's ever lived in buying time and manipulating the pocket to get a pass off. To each his own though

Dak took a number of sacks this year where he was hit straight on.

[NCDawg]

Im really glad he is coming back selfishly, as we all are.

I just hope we are able to help Dak improve his draft stock by showing off his arm more than his legs. I know that is probably not likely in Mullen's system, but I just hope we do. I feel like we owe it to Dak to not rush him 200+ times next year. Im not saying we don't run it, but I just hope we rely a little more on RB's legs and Dak's arms. With the weapons at WR it just makes sense and it also helps improve the draft stock of one of the greatest to ever wear the maroon & white.

If we rely on Dak to be a pocket passer only (e.g., Tyler Russell) to improve his draft status, I don't think we'll win many games this year. I know it is necessary that he improve his passing accuracy for his NFL purposes, but we need for him to utilize his running ability to win.

[HancockCountyDog]

If we rely on Dak to be a pocket passer only (e.g., Tyler Russell) to improve his draft status, I don't think we'll win many games this year. I know it is necessary that he improve his passing accuracy for his NFL purposes, but we need for him to utilize his running ability to win.

No one is saying elimintate the QB runs, but I hope he doesn't have to be our leading rusher again. Probably not going to happen, just something that I wish we could do for him. He isn't going to improve his draft stock running the ball next year.

[maroonmania]

We are seeing two different things then. Romo and Brady are two of the best that's ever lived in buying time and manipulating the pocket to get a pass off. To each his own though

Dak took a number of sacks this year where he was hit straight on.

I would personally like to see Dak learn to throw passes away when nothing is there rather than holding the ball too long and taking a sack.

[HancockCountyDog]

I would personally like to see Dak learn to throw passes away when nothing is there rather than holding the ball too long and taking a sack.

I didn't think he took too many sacks last year. I know down the stretch he did, but overall I don't recall that many sacks.

[GTHOM]

What would you like to see him improve on before usm?

I'd like to see him improve 2 things:

1. Deep ball accuracy. I think we could've scored many more points if dak was better with the deep ball. We need to keep safeties back next season so we can run even better.

2. Improve zone read. It seems dak really struggled late in the year with reads. He held way too much.


You can always get better with the deep ball but down the stretch Dak was really hitting the deep ones, bear wilson and fred ross had some big gains from him. blame mullen for not letting dak throw it deep more against TSUN, when we did we lit them up. Also, unfortunately blame mullen for the zone read problems too, Mullen made dak keep it 100 percent because he was scared of getting him hurt down the stretch. it was obvious, dak would give it when he should have kept it a LOT. also blame our o line for getting demolished in big games. I would like to see Dak play no holds barred turn it loose type football, hes coming back to take us to a championship, take shots deep, dont be afraid to pull it down and run

[GTHOM]

I would personally like to see Dak learn to throw passes away when nothing is there rather than holding the ball too long and taking a sack.

he could definitely throw a few more away next year, not force them into the endzone to bear wilson.

[dparker]

Lmao@ at Dan Mullen QB not running the football a lot. That is in no way, shape, or form going to change. That is the fundamental foundation of his offense

Can we at least get them to run around the pile instead of right into it.

[Coach34]

No one is saying elimintate the QB runs, but I hope he doesn't have to be our leading rusher again. Probably not going to happen, just something that I wish we could do for him. He isn't going to improve his draft stock running the ball next year.

Dakota threw the 3rd most passes in the SEC this year- and he probably will next year as well. But our offense is based off the QB run- that simply is not going to change.

[sandwolf]

I didn't think he took too many sacks last year. I know down the stretch he did, but overall I don't recall that many sacks.

He was sacked 21 times for -125 yards. I really don't know how that stacks up to his peers.

ETA: To put that in perspective:

Blake Sims was sacked 13 times for -88 yards, playing in 1 more game than Dak did.
Nick Marshall was sacked 14 times for -87 yards.
Brandon Allen was sacked 12 times for -91 yards.
Anthony Jennings was sacked 22 times for -164 yards.
Bo Wallace was sacked 31 times for -171 yards.

Based on that I would say that he probably took a few too many sacks last year, but we are only talking about maybe 1 sack every other game.....so it definitely isn't something that he should focus on until he has addressed the other more pressing issues.

[NCDawg]

Dakota threw the 3rd most passes in the SEC this year- and he probably will next year as well. But our offense is based off the QB run- that simply is not going to change.

If we want to win, it's not going to change. We need Dak's running ability to go along with his passing.

[blacklistedbully]

Our O-line is going to have more to do with it than anything. We lose a lot of starts, so the line next season will need to gel quickly and perform well to give Dak the chance to improve.

[TUSK]

I don't know as much 'bout the Dogs as most of you, but I think that in addition to accuracy, an "explosive/game-breaking" RB would help a lot as well....

TUSK's 2 pennies.

[TheRef]

I don't know as much 'bout the Dogs as most of you, but I think that in addition to accuracy, an "explosive/game-breaking" RB would help a lot as well....

TUSK's 2 pennies.

Insert Aeries Williams

[HoopsDawg]

I don't know as much 'bout the Dogs as most of you, but I think that in addition to accuracy, an "explosive/game-breaking" RB would help a lot as well....

TUSK's 2 pennies.

That would be nice, but we don't have one on the roster.

[msstate7]

That would be nice, but we don't have one on the roster.

Hopefully since our rb's are gonna be big, grinding types, we'll implement a lead blocker. I think shump would really benefit

[TUSK]

That would be nice, but we don't have one on the roster.

Shump looked decent the few times I saw him... won't he be "the guy"?

[msstate7]

Shump looked decent the few times I saw him... won't he be "the guy"?

Explosive in 5-6 yards bursts maybe. He's not ripping off many 20+ yarders

[TUSK]

Explosive in 5-6 yards bursts maybe. He's not ripping off many 20+ yarders

roger that... yall gotta get home run hitter...

[HoopsDawg]

Shump looked decent the few times I saw him... won't he be "the guy"?

He will probably be the feature back but he's not a homerun hitter. He can't take it 60 yards. We've got 3 backs and they all are about the same size with the same running style.

[msstate7]

He will probably be the feature back but he's not a homerun hitter. He can't take it 60 yards. We've got 3 backs and they all are about the same size with the same running style.

What about dear and Gibson?

[HoopsDawg]

What about dear and Gibson?

Yeah, I was just talking about Shump, Lee, and Williams. They are all 6'1, 215-220 and run pretty much the same way.

Gibson will probably need redshirt and get in the weightroom.

Dear is the interesting one. He wants to play slot, I think he's a RB. If he will commit to the strength program, commit to be a RB, he could be a playmaker at RB. He's about 5'8 or 5'9 and can carry 205 to 215. He's probably 215-220 right now. He had one run in the MS/AL game where he showed a burst. His sophomore film in HS was electric.

[GTHOM]

roger that... yall gotta get home run hitter...

with our passing offense next year, we should be able to keep the safeties back enough so shump can get into the secondary. if mullen lets dak do it the passing can provide all the home runs we need. i think we underused our deep passing this year. shumps gone be a helluva RB. i do agree i wish holloway would come on