Some Thoughts On Our QB Situation

[Coach34]

Our coaches did all they could with Fitzgerald.

This is where we disagree 100%. Our coaches made him worse as a 5th year starter. They didnt throw any screens. They didnt incorporate anything to make some very easy throws. They incorporated a NE friendly, Big Ten offense that doesnt work in the SEC like it does in the NorthEast. They face so much more pressure and man coverage in the SEC than they have faced in the Northeast. Hopefully they learned their lesson and have adjusted

[HoopsDawg]

This is where we disagree 100%. Our coaches made him worse as a 5th year starter. They didnt throw any screens. They didnt incorporate anything to make some very easy throws. They incorporated a NE friendly, Big Ten offense that doesnt work in the SEC like it does in the NorthEast. They face so much more pressure and man coverage in the SEC than they have faced in the Northeast. Hopefully they learned their lesson and have adjusted

Last year was a joke offensively. I'm tired of our fans blaming Fitz. It was at least 50% Moorhead. I'm really trying to stay open-minded and hopeful for this upcoming season.

[maroonmania]

Redshirting KT this year gives him two years to start.

Oh yea, no doubt it does him right if he stays, but I thought you were talking about doing him right should he decide to leave. If he leaves its the same situation for him either way.

[WinningIsRelentless]

Exactly. Where was the tunnel screen with Guidry or Mitchell? Where was a key or bubble screen with our quick slots? How do you not inject those into the offense? Where were the TB screens? This is why he is JoVester

Jovester problem is he thinks he has to outsmart every coach, hence the snap always at 1 on play clock. He needs to think our balls are bigger and I don?t care what you are showing we are going to stuff up your backside.

[maroonmania]

He had been on campus what, 2 and a half months at that point. Dak didn?t look like much the first spring after EE?ing. It would be crazy to evaluate an EE in his first spring

Dak is not a good comparison to use though because he was a huge outlier and way out of the norm. There has NEVER been a QB at MSU that i've ever witnessed that improved from his FR year to his SR year the way Dak did. Especially with regards to his passing accuracy. Hard to expect that as the norm. Most guys that aren't accurate as FR (like Fitz) never become accurate.

[Todd4State]

Fitz ran the football a career high 221 times in 2018. He didnt need a medical RS- he was fine. He didnt run as wide open as he did in previous seasons because he was worried about getting those legs rolled again. The only problems Fitz had last season were drops and inferior coaching.

Proof is in the pudding- Fla's QB got alot better while ours got worse. KT was the same QB in 2018 he was in 2017.

Healthwise- yes he was fine. But he could have used a complete year and a half to learn the offense. He was missing wide open people consistently all year long. Most obviously on the flea flicker against Alabama. I remember one of his INT's against Iowa we had a guy running down the field completely uncovered and Fitz forced it in to a guy that was double or triple covered and it got picked.


His stats were essentially the same his sophomore through senior year. He didn't progress under Dan either from his sophomore to junior year. And he missed the Stephen F Austin game where he would have padded his stats as he was only responsible for 2 fewer TD's last year than he was in 2017. Which also likely would have padded his completion percentage up a point or two closer to his 55% his junior year. He still had more TD's and fewer INT's last year even while missing SFA and had the most rushing attempts he ever had in his career under Joe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_F...ican_football)


And have you seen Fitz throw a screen? He fires them in at 100 MPH for some reason.

[Todd4State]

Dak is not a good comparison to use though because he was a huge outlier and way out of the norm. There has NEVER been a QB at MSU that i've ever witnessed that improved from his FR year to his SR year the way Dak did. Especially with regards to his passing accuracy. Hard to expect that as the norm. Most guys that aren't accurate as FR (like Fitz) never become accurate.

Dak also played in a similar spread system in high school to what Dan ran at MSU. Fitzgerald ran a triple option offense and rarely threw the ball and only played QB in high school one season. He came to MSU way behind the curve compared to most D-I high school QB's. If he had played in a system similar to even say Dan Mullen's in high school he probably wouldn't have been nearly as raw.

There's a reason why MSU and MTSU were the only ones to recruit him.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Exactly. Where was the tunnel screen with Guidry or Mitchell? Where was a key or bubble screen with our quick slots? How do you not inject those into the offense? Where were the TB screens? This is why he is JoVester

They are built into Moorheads offense, its part of the QBs read on just about every single play that involves a handoff. Fitz just either made the wrong decision or threw a duck, we dropped it or couldnt block them on the perimeter. Like I said, its a perfect storm of bad WRs and fish out of water QB.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Redshirting KT this year gives him two years to start.

Yall can hang all this up. He aint gonna take a RS and IMO he shouldnt take one. He has too much pride and belief in himself to do it. If I was him I would leave too and go somewhere else and play. He has done a lot for this school already no shame in leaving if he doesnt win the job.

[BuckyIsAB****]

This is where we disagree 100%. Our coaches made him worse as a 5th year starter. They didnt throw any screens. They didnt incorporate anything to make some very easy throws. They incorporated a NE friendly, Big Ten offense that doesnt work in the SEC like it does in the NorthEast. They face so much more pressure and man coverage in the SEC than they have faced in the Northeast. Hopefully they learned their lesson and have adjusted

Im guessing nobody in the B10 knows to play man coverage to the RB side or straight man and bring pressure then. Im 99 percent sure Moorhead saw that in the B10. It does help having better players than your opponent and he had that 9/10 at Penn St considering who they played.

I would agree with you if you said he was too confident in his system considering what he had to work with ( a QB who cant do it and WRs that cant either) and still trying to run his offense. He could have done a much better job of adjusting to what he had but in his eyes he figured year 1 was worth the rough spots on O in order to put his system in instead of actually starting it in year 2. I can understand that

[Todd4State]

They are built into Moorheads offense, its part of the QBs read on just about every single play that involves a handoff. Fitz just either made the wrong decision or threw a duck, we dropped it or couldnt block them on the perimeter. Like I said, its a perfect storm of bad WRs and fish out of water QB.

Or usually throw a missile at someone.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Or usually throw a missile at someone.

Or hit a guy in stride and he drops it. I will always love Fitz. He was a cheap ankle injury away from being undefeated vs OM

[Todd4State]

Or hit a guy in stride and he drops it. I will always love Fitz. He was a cheap ankle injury away from being undefeated vs OM

Well, I was talking specifically about screen passes. But I will say that our WR's rarely did him any favors either when they actually had a catchable ball.

Thankfully Joe appears to be correcting Dan's recruiting issues- which is actually the main reason why we struggled on offense last year if we're really being honest with ourselves. Players like Heath are going to thrive in this system.

[Coach007]

Fitz ran the football a career high 221 times in 2018. He didnt need a medical RS- he was fine. He didnt run as wide open as he did in previous seasons because he was worried about getting those legs rolled again. The only problems Fitz had last season were drops and inferior coaching.

Proof is in the pudding- Fla's QB got alot better while ours got worse. KT was the same QB in 2018 he was in 2017.

BS!

His issue last year was the new reads that he was making late and that caused late passes.

The reason FL's QB got better was because of a dumbed down system Mullen put in.

[Jarius]

Fitz was terrible throwing the football last year. This offense worked against some SEC level defenses in the big 10. Michigan and Ohio State have better defenses than everyone but 2 or 3 teams on our schedule every single year. Wisconsin has an SEC defense. Michigan state has an SEC defense.

[MarketingBully]

Jovester, really? That is a dumb as shit nickname.

[maroonmania]

Dak also played in a similar spread system in high school to what Dan ran at MSU. Fitzgerald ran a triple option offense and rarely threw the ball and only played QB in high school one season. He came to MSU way behind the curve compared to most D-I high school QB's. If he had played in a system similar to even say Dan Mullen's in high school he probably wouldn't have been nearly as raw.

There's a reason why MSU and MTSU were the only ones to recruit him.

Dak was just special. I would put Relf and Russell right there with Fitz in that their passing accuracy didn't improve that much over their career at MSU even though they had the same coaching that Dak did.

[Maroonthirteen]

Jovester problem is he thinks he has to outsmart every coach, hence the snap always at 1 on play clock. He needs to think our balls are bigger and I don?t care what you are showing we are going to stuff up your backside.

This ^^^^ all day. Sometimes you just have to use Jackie’s playbook. Here we are. That’s where are going. Try to stop us.

[maroonmania]

Jovester, really? That is a dumb as shit nickname.

I agree, just the recruiting effort should stop that crap. Croom couldn't give effort to get out of his golf cart long enough to recruit someone. Making that comparison is ridiculous.

[msstate7]

Dak was just special. I would put Relf and Russell right there with Fitz in that their passing accuracy didn't improve that much over their career at MSU even though they had the same coaching that Dak did.

Relf, Russell, dak, and fitz improved completion % every year under Mullen... this doesn't include their SSS freshman stats. This was the first year since before Mullen that the returning qb didn't improve completion %, which is the stat C34 used