Steele Jantz: Spread Quarterback?

**klamath632** · 09-09-2012, 06:55 AM

I am having the same misgivings this year as I did last year. I just don't think SJ is a spread offense quarterback. From my inexperienced eye, it looks to me like he just can't make the right read at the mesh point, and the wrong guy ends up with the ball more often than not. At his worst, the ball ends up on the ground and we turn the ball over.

This guy has a freaking cannon for an arm. We should play to that strength and let him be a dropback passer and use a power running style. No zone read, just straight handoffs or play-action. Do these plays truly not exist in Courtney Messingham's playbook? I bet our OL would love to play the role of road grader in this type of offense.

**Die4Cy** · 09-09-2012, 07:03 AM

Jantz has quickness and is elusive. I would think those are key qualities in any prospective quarterback who runs the zone read. SJ's decision making can improve, no doubt about it, but he has the physical skills to be very successful in this offense.

**Mr Janny** · 09-09-2012, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by klamath632

I am having the same misgivings this year as I did last year. I just don't think SJ is a spread offense quarterback. From my inexperienced eye, it looks to me like he just can't make the right read at the mesh point, and the wrong guy ends up with the ball more often than not. At his worst, the ball ends up on the ground and we turn the ball over.

This guy has a freaking cannon for an arm. We should play to that strength and let him be a dropback passer and use a power running style. No zone read, just straight handoffs or play-action. Do these plays truly not exist in Courtney Messingham's playbook? I bet our OL would love to play the role of road grader in this type of offense.

That is far easier said than done. Our guys have not been coached that way. O line play, for example, is significantly different. Our blocking schemes are designed around wide set lineman, and that is significantly different. And that's all our guys have been taught. Switching to a more traditional scheme would require a lot of change in technique. This is not Madden. You can't just make wholesale scheme changes in the middle of the season.

**CyCloned** · 09-09-2012, 07:24 AM

Jantz just needs to settle down and hit the wide open guys on the long passes, and this will force team to back out of the 9 man fronts. The zone read will not work when other teams stack the box and they will continue to do that until Jantz or someone can complete to passes that stretch to field vertically.

There were 4 or 5 times yesterday when a WR was open deep and he didn't hit any of them. One time Horn was all alone and would have walked in if Jantz would have seen him. Jantz played ok yesterday, bet the two INTs were not good at all. Definatelyh something to work on.

**CycoCyclone** · 09-09-2012, 08:16 AM

and on short 2nd and goal from the 2, maybe go under center, instead of the shotgun

**Tedcyclone** · 09-09-2012, 08:19 AM

i agree, zone read is not his thing. is very obvious. he can be a good qb, but not with the zone read this year.

**Bobby45** · 09-09-2012, 08:44 AM

U-Boys be rite....SJ would never ever make a wishbone/ option qb.....Thats not something you can teach by repetition its that you either have it or you dont...see nolan cromwell KU or jack mildren OU or any other of the really successful option qb's......

Iowa shut down our running game and SJ couldnt make them pay with the passing game and when other Def Coordinators see this on tape you can bet your last dollar that they are all gonna shut our running game down and also how can you start on the 3 yard line and end up not getting at least a field goal???.....being too dammed quit by design or trying to fool a defense when you need to block better and get into the flipping endzone....

"Time to clean it up boys"....quoting johnny walters

**Clones85'** · 09-09-2012, 08:49 AM

He made the right read quite a bit yesterday. He checked down and went thru his progressions. As for the zone read, he made the right reads, we just couldn't block them

**cyson** · 09-09-2012, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by CyCloned

Jantz just needs to settle down and hit the wide open guys on the long passes, and this will force team to back out of the 9 man fronts. The zone read will not work when other teams stack the box and they will continue to do that until Jantz or someone can complete to passes that stretch to field vertically.

There were 4 or 5 times yesterday when a WR was open deep and he didn't hit any of them. One time Horn was all alone and would have walked in if Jantz would have seen him. Jantz played ok yesterday, bet the two INTs were not
good at all. Definatelyh something to work on.

This. Steele missed three or four wide open receivers, deep. Until he can make them pay for stacking the box were going to be one dimensional. Get this corrected and were much more lethal.

**Acylum** · 09-09-2012, 08:56 AM

Originally Posted by Clones85'

He made the right read quite a bit yesterday. He checked down and went thru his progressions. As for the zone read, he made the right reads, we just couldn't block them

Yet we kept running it.

**CyCloned** · 09-09-2012, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by Clones85'

He made the right read quite a bit yesterday. He checked down and went thru his progressions. As for the zone read, he made the right reads, we just couldn't block them

I agree, he made the wrong read a couple times, but basically the Hawks sent too many guys to handle or the OL just did a bad job, because there was nothing either way on the zone read. In the end it is just a matter of getting teams to respect the passing game and doing a better job of blocking. If Jantz would have completed just a couple of the deep shots that were open yesterday the game would have been a laugher, even with all of the screw up in the red zone.

**ISpyCy** · 09-09-2012, 09:01 AM

Originally Posted by klamath632

I am having the same misgivings this year as I did last year. I just don't think SJ is a spread offense quarterback. From my inexperienced eye, it looks to me like he just can't make the right read at the mesh point, and the wrong guy ends up with the ball more often than not. At his worst, the ball ends up on the ground and we turn the ball over.

This guy has a freaking cannon for an arm. We should play to that strength and let him be a dropback passer and use a power running style. No zone read, just straight handoffs or play-action. Do these plays truly not exist in Courtney Messingham's playbook? I bet our OL would love to play the role of road grader in this type of offense.

Would be nice if he could connect with moving targets though. I saw more errant long throws yesterday than I needed to.

**Clones21** · 09-09-2012, 09:05 AM

He'll be okay. People jumping down Steele's throat already are the Barnett crowd. I like that we play WIU next so it should give him confidence.

**twistedredbird** · 09-09-2012, 09:09 AM

I thought he did pretty well. Yeah, there were open guys down deep, but that happened usually when Iowa was putting a lot of pressure on the line and he was scrambling....very hard to hit a long pass when you are running east to west scrambling.

Those deep balls seemed to me to be fairly on target, just a step ahead of the receivers. It wasn't like he was spraying passes everywhere.

Some better decision making would help, but the announcers hit it on when they compared him to Favre. He is going to make some amazing plays, then probably a boneheaded play, but in the end, you will be glad he was on your team.

**IcSyU** · 09-09-2012, 09:13 AM

Where did all these zone read specialists come from? He's making the right read more often than not. The people saying he made the wrong read are generally thinking he's always reading the backside defensive end and that's not always the case, we'll read the defensive tackles as well.

And I'll give him a break on overthrowing receivers 55 yards downfield. Would I like to see him throw it more to the sidelines instead of the endzone to let the receiver run under it? Yes, because more often than not the defensive back is going to adjust their pursuit angle to the pylon instead of on ball flight path since they're already chasing the receiver. Just taking these shots downfield however opens everything up just a little bit more.

Yesterday he had spurts where he did an EXCELLENT job going through his progression and other times he locked on (both interceptions were cases of this). It was refreshing to see him looking left for three seconds and them come back to the right side of the field and deliver an absolute bullet. Between him and Barnett last year scanning the field wasn't happening very often and both had a case of the lock-ons.