Bench Bret Meyer?

clonomaniac · 01-22-2007, 04:10 PM

The same was said about Drew Tate, and look what that did to Iowa. You can say they didn't have the good receivers and all that stuff - I still think Drew Tate was just incompetent in key moments and I have the same fear about Bret Meyer. We just need to use Blythe and make him look like the next Heisman candidate. He maybe an arrogant roommate in real life, I DO NOT CARE. When there's a mismatch between our receiver and their defender, Bret needs to pass the ball to a "wide open Blythe" each time.

billdo00 · 01-22-2007, 04:12 PM

Saying that we should start our redshirt freshman QB or a true freshman QB ahead of the most prolific passer in ISU history is just stupid. Sure he was bad at times last year, he isn't a god. Players have bad games. You cant judge Meyer on last years performace. This whole last season was a train wreck and pinning horrible play solely on him is just unfair. I don't care if we dont win a game, Meyer should be our starter every game. Bates should redshirt anyway. I'm not saying Aurnaud shouldn't play at all this year, because i think he should and it can only help him, but Meyer should start every single game. If we are way up on a team, throw in AA. If we are blown out and dont have a shot, throw in AA. I am all for him getting valueable experience this year, but not at the expense of our Senior starting Qb who deserves to go out on top.

amyk33 · 01-22-2007, 04:13 PM

This is not even a debate. Play Meyer. Arnaud watches and learns. If, after several weeks of poor performance Meyer and several weeks of Arnaud beating him out in practice, that is an entirely different conversation.

I think your interest in the coming season is great, but let's please steer clear of acting like Iowa fans in that our best player on our team in the 2nd string quarterback.

BryceC · 01-22-2007, 04:15 PM

I have not seen Arnaud play yet, I am guessing Bret is a better QB in terms of QB draw than Arnaud. Bret can run, again not sure what Arnaud can do better. There's gotta be something Arnaud can do better than Bret. A good coach will know the difference and use these plays to best of their abilities - something DMac would never do.

I have actually seen some film of Arnaud and I would say that he is a better runner than Bret. He is bigger, stronger, and he really churned the legs. This was in Central Iowa football and not the Big 12 however. But I think Arnaud will be an absolutely fantastic Cyclone and I have no doubt about his physical ability.

billdo00 · 01-22-2007, 04:19 PM

AA said himself that he is a better runner than a passer at this stage of his career. This was last year at the beginning of the season so take it for what its worth, but I hear he is also a very quality runner. Lets just wait another year to figure it out.

JJ4ISU · 01-22-2007, 04:24 PM

Iowa will be a lot better off next year having played their back-up in some key situations. I think we'll be a lot better off in 2008 if our back-up gets a few snaps at important times in 2007.

clonomaniac · 01-22-2007, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by amyk33

This is not even a debate. Play Meyer. Arnaud watches and learns. If, after several weeks of poor performance Meyer and several weeks of Arnaud beating him out in practice, that is an entirely different conversation.

Let's just say Bret is injured during the very first game against a miserable Kent State. What do you do?

Bret Meyer clearly didn't play upto his expectation. I am sorry but I won't blame the Offensive coordinator entirely for that. How many times have you seen big holes with a wide open receiver and Bret's inability to convert? We need to have a mindset, going into this season, to play both AA and BM with different strategy. We need to use Bret's experience in the games that we will most likely loss. But in games like Kent State, we shouldn't hesitate to play AA and see what he brings to the table.

Chizik is known for defense, not so much on offense. That makes me nervous. I just want Blythe to be utilized as much as possible. If Bret can recognize open receivers, then play him 24/7 - I won't complain. However, that was not the case last year. Day in and day out his inability to find an open receiver frustrated the heck out of me.

billdo00 · 01-22-2007, 04:32 PM

I'd rather worry about the 2007 season before we start worrying about 2008 and beyond. Meyer is a good quarterback and he will be fine. Hopefully AA gets some time in some blow outs. Why do we have to have the gloomy outlook on this year already with the 2-8 record. Why can't we be 8-2 with him getting plenty of playing time in blowouts.

Jake Christensen didnt impress me that much when he played either by the way. Threw a lot of rainbows and looked horrible in the series he played against Texas. That is unfair to him to judge him against Texas, but he looked horrible.

billdo00 · 01-22-2007, 04:35 PM

Let's just say Bret is injured during the very first game against a miserable Kent State. What do you do?

Then you play the backup. If Meyer is hurt that is a no-brainer. There is no reason to play AA otherwise. If you want Meyer to play well the last thing he needs is to be splitting time with the kid about to take his job on his senior campaign. I think if you split time with Meyer and AA its only going to affect Meyer's play. It didnt work out so well for us when Flynn and Meyer were splitting time, that is why Meyer took over. We should stick with one Qb and thats it, barring any injuries.

amyk33 · 01-22-2007, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by billdo00

Let's just say Bret is injured during the very first game against a miserable Kent State. What do you do?

Then you play the backup. If Meyer is hurt that is a no-brainer. There is no reason to play AA otherwise. If you want Meyer to play well the last thing he needs is to be splitting time with the kid about to take his job on his senior campaign. I think if you split time with Meyer and AA its only going to affect Meyer's play. It didnt work out so well for us when Flynn and Meyer were splitting time, that is why Meyer took over. We should stick with one Qb and thats it, barring any injuries.

Exactly. You obviously play the back up if the starter is hurt. Duh.

clonomaniac · 01-22-2007, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by billdo00

Let's just say Bret is injured during the very first game against a miserable Kent State. What do you do?

Then you play the backup.

Why play BM for the entire game in the first place if it seems to be a blowout. We cannot afford to lose Bret, nor can we let him make fundamental mistakes.

Oklahoma would have won that game anyway if Adrian Peterson didn't play that game. Why play him where the QB can find open receivers?

One thing we need to make sure we have is a solid O-line. I don't think that will improve much from last year. Having said that, I think this year's QB will take many more hits than last year's QB. We need to be ready to play both AA and BM at times.

Cyclonesrule91 · 01-22-2007, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by clonomaniac

Unless you show your improvement, your experience will not win games for you. Bret Meyer could single-handedly turn things around in home games like Kansas. He was horrible to say the least. The O-line did their job that day, Bret just had a bad bad day. We cannot afford to have Bret's bad days translate into losses in conference play. We have the toughest schedule in big 12.

It is my honest opinion that by the time the Kansas game was played, Brett Meyer's confidence in the pocket was shaky at best because of the line play leading up to that game. Sure the OL played better against Kansas, but by that time, the wind could have come up and Meyer would have been more worried about his blind side then checking down receivers. The confidence of a lot of our players was shaky at best.

I am also hoping we don't go to playing two QB's. That takes a whole new level of coaching and player managemet then when you use one QB till the backup shows the coach he is better. With two QB's you get some players forming allegiance with one and might not like the style(or attitude, ability, etc) of the other and thus you get a divided team. I am not saying it can't be done, but it seems like a HUGE risk to me.

I would stick with Meyer and get him a good line so he can get his mojo back. Sounds like Chizik is well on his way to doing that.

billdo00 · 01-22-2007, 05:01 PM

Why play BM for the entire game in the first place if it seems to be a blowout. We cannot afford to lose Bret, nor can we let him make fundamental mistakes.

I am not saying to play Bret for the entire game if its a blowout, that is when I said to play AA. If we have a comfortable lead, then put in AA, but not at the start of the 3rd quarter.

Say we use your theory about playing AA more in the games we SHOULD win for this past year. If it was the same circumstances and we thought we should have dominated the first three games and play AA some throughout the first half and let him finish the game, we would likely have lost 1-2, if not all, of those games. Its not a certainty that we would have, but I am more concerned about getting the W then making sure our backup is ready for next year. You can never be certain that we will win the games we should, as this last season has taught us. Hell being an ISU fan should let you know that nothing will ever play out the way you think or would like.

clonomaniac · 01-22-2007, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by billdo00

Hell being an ISU fan should let you know that nothing will ever play out the way you think or would like.

I honestly think this is the start of something new - something we are unheard of, and something we haven't seen before. A man like Chizik who only went for schools like Clemson, Florida, and Texas wouldn't come to ISU without a plan - I believe he has a plan - something DMac never had on a game day.

billdo00 · 01-22-2007, 05:34 PM

I also believe its a start of something new and I'm very excited about it. He has a strong will to win (not saying Dmac didn't they just have 2 totally different personalities) and i love the mentality he's brought so far.