One Vote For McCummings In New Spread Offense

[Jimdish255]

http://courantblogs.com/uconn-footb...ck/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Everybody is doing the spread thing and everybody who does it right seems to have success with it. UConn has the piece to do it with Scott McCummings. I wouldn’t be surprised if its in the book more than we’ve seen it. McCummings is a solid, big-bodied athlete. Now is the time more than ever to use that young man.

 

[sdhusky]

I don't think McCummings can throw the ball well enough.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him moved to another position.

I'm hoping that CC can win the job in the spring. I like Whitmer but just hate the number of TO's he produced.

 

[businesslawyer]

I don't know many on this board who have anything against a spread offense. But if our staff didn't think that McCummings was capable of throwing the ball effectively one out of 20 times running the wildcat, what would make anyone think the staff thinks he is capable of running the spread?

Teo's story made more sense than this.

 

[UConnDan97]

I'll preface my statement by saying that I will support whomever is chosen to be the starting UConn QB. However, unless there is something that Dez has seen that I haven't of Scott McCummings' ability to throw the ball (which is entirely possible), I don't see this happening at all....

 

[Husky25]

UConn ran the wildcat?

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

Do people understand that the spread is not the option ???

The spread requires an accurate arm, and quick decision making. McCummings can make the decisions, but doesn't have the accuracy for it. Not even close.
If he improves, maybe, but as of now...not a chance

 

[Dann]

i will pay for his cab when he transfers to umass

 

[Husky25]

Do people understand that the spread is not the option ???

The spread requires an accurate arm, and quick decision making. McCummings can make the decisions, but doesn't have the accuracy for it. Not even close.
If he improves, maybe, but as of now...not a chance

Nope. Just like people don't understand the difference between the Wildcat formation and plays designed for the backup QB (ala Tim Tebow at Florida).

 

[businesslawyer]

I don't think McCummings can throw the ball well enough.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him moved to another position.

I'm hoping that CC can win the job in the spring. I like Whitmer but just hate the number of TO's he produced.

We've had this discussion before, but his turnovers went down as he progressed through his first year as a starter and his turnovers will go down more if we are able to get ourselves into manageable third downs by running the ball better.

That having been said, if Casey (or anyone else) is better than what we saw out of Whitmer last year, more power to him.

 

[UConnDan97]

Do people understand that the spread is not the option ???

Instead of saying "people", you can just say "Dez". I think he's the only remaining person who believes this is a good idea...

 

[metsfan2323]

We never found out if McCummings improved his throwing accuracy last year because he didn't get enough chances to throw. When I went to the open practice I did notice that he no longer had the hitch in his throwing motion and he looked much better throwing the ball then the year before.

Personally I hope McCummings gets a fair shot to win the job running the spread with the read option. He's the best athlete we have at the position with the best arm and academically he's very smart (accepted to Harvard). He deserves a fair shot. That said its hard to believe he will beat out Whitmer.

I think the stable of QB's we will have in 2013 will be the best in the programs history.

 

[Kgun7]

We've had this discussion before, but his turnovers went down as he progressed through his first year as a starter and his turnovers will go down more if we are able to get ourselves into manageable third downs by running the ball better.

That having been said, if Casey (or anyone else) is better than what we saw out of Whitmer last year, more power to him.

The only part of that sentence that I disagree with is ... I believe that UCONN can get into manageable third downs by passing the ball better. Stretching the field horizontally on first down with short, quick passes will open up more running lanes on second and 5 and third and 2.

 

[Husky25]

The only part of that sentence that I disagree with is ... I believe that UCONN can get into manageable third downs by passing the ball better. Stretching the field horizontally on first down with short, quick passes will open up more running lanes on second and 5 and third and 2.

The goal is not to have manageable 3rd downs. It's to accumulate 1st downs. Sure if we get to 3rd down, I'd like rather 3rd & 2 over 3rd & 7, but I'd rather be primarily more productive on 1st and 2nd down.

 

[pj]

If he can't throw out of the wildcat when 11 defenders are playing the run, how can he throw out of a spread offense?

 

[Jimdish255]

I'll preface my statement by saying that I will support whomever is chosen to be the starting UConn QB. However, unless there is something that Dez has seen that I haven't of Scott McCummings' ability to throw the ball (which is entirely possible), I don't see this happening at all....

If Dez has seen something why hide this great news until now?

 

[freescooter]

We've had this discussion before, but his turnovers went down as he progressed through his first year as a starter and his turnovers will go down more if we are able to get ourselves into manageable third downs by running the ball better.

That having been said, if Casey (or anyone else) is better than what we saw out of Whitmer last year, more power to him.

Totally agree with this. But I'll say again that I don't think Casey Cochran is any more likely to play quarterback for UConn in the future than McCummings is. And further, I actually think it would be nice to have some stability at the position which is something we haven't really had since Lorenzen was here. After Olovsky we went with bones for a seasons then from Bones to DJ back to Bones then back to DJ. Tyler Lorenzen brought a bit of stability to the position but when he left we suffered through the great Frazer-Endres debate that only ended when Endres got caught failing multiple drug tests...then there was the 3 man rotation...some stability for a few years would I think be very helpful to this offense.

 

[len0322]

If we go "WishBone" or "Flexbone," I like mccummings. To this point, I haven't seen the accuracy or decision making required to run a college passing offense. Whitmer's job to lose

 

[Husky25]

If he can't throw out of the wildcat when 11 defenders are playing the run, how can he throw out of a spread offense?

He never was in the Wildcat...Ergo he couldn't throw out the Wildcat.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Based on his past usage, the only offense I could see him running is an army-like option offense, where he's essentially never asked to throw. A mobile qb is a definite preference for a college spread offense, but not at the expense of his actual qb skills.

 

[sdhusky]

We've had this discussion before, but his turnovers went down as he progressed through his first year as a starter and his turnovers will go down more if we are able to get ourselves into manageable third downs by running the ball better.

That having been said, if Casey (or anyone else) is better than what we saw out of Whitmer last year, more power to him.

He had 5 interceptions in the last 3.5 games.

Looking at this page, I just don't see a positive trend http://espn.go.com/college-football/player/_/id/533264/chandler-whitmer

 

[sdhusky]

"his turnovers will go down more if we are able to get ourselves into manageable third downs by running the ball better."

And more than half his INT's were on first down. Only 4 were on third down.

But nice try.

 

[ibleedhuskyblue]

"his turnovers will go down more if we are able to get ourselves into manageable third downs by running the ball better."

And more than half his INT's were on first down. Only 4 were on third down.

But nice try.

That's fair, but it could easily be said that if the OL was awful, and he wasn't in fear for his life every time he dropped back,the number of picks would have decreased significantly as well.
OR
If we had a WR coach who could teach a WR how to run a route and get open...

I wont say Chandler was perfect, but the blame for the offensive woes, including, but not limited to interceptions, is certainly not all his. He is a good QB playing his first season as a D1 starter. I thought he was pretty darn good all things considered.

 

[Doggie Style]

I don't think McCummings has any future under center here in any way. That being said, I think he's an athlete that we should try to utilize in one capacity or another. I would even like to see him take a few handoffs in the backfield just to see what he can do. I like the way he can shift and accelerate through the line, as we saw him do in the Wildcat. I don't remember a defender getting one solid hit on him when he ran the ball, which is reason enough to evaluate him IMO. If we can do it for Nick, I think we can find something for Scott. As far as QB goes, I believe this will be a highly critical year for CW and doubt he gets a lot of wiggle room or margin for error. Again, it's his job to lose, but I don't think he sticks around for his senior year if he regresses at all this year. At least not if the Mad Texan and Casey step up and compete. Either way, I just want the best QB under center period.

 

[UConnDan97]

Based on his past usage, the only offense I could see him running is an army-like option offense, where he's essentially never asked to throw. A mobile qb is a definite preference for a college spread offense, but not at the expense of his actual qb skills.

To my untrained eyes, McCummings runs something that is almost EXACTLY like what Army runs. It looks extremely similar to the "Belly Option" that Army runs almost exclusively. In fact, I'm willing to start calling our play the "Belly Option", if for no other reason than to insure that we don't get 25 more posts from Husky25 yelling about it not actually being a "Wildcat" play....

 

[joey3$trike$]

the one pass that I remembered SM throw, was a perfect pass to Lyle wide open. Like the rest of our WR's he dropped it.