Quick question about Reggie’s ability to fend off the competition in practice over th

[GTYellowJacket12]

We have all at one point or another and to varying degrees complained about Reggie Ball’s lack of consistency, yet I don’t recall anyone out there ever mentioning that the guy was given as much of a chance as the other QB’s in spring and fall practice and he emerged the starter. So my question to someone who is “in the loop” as in being close to the program and going to the open practices is:

Was everyone of the backups given a fair chance to compete with Reggie for the starting spot and if so how close was it between Reggie and the runner up? Was it close enough for Chan to consider intangibles like leadership and experience as tie breakers?

Someone who is close to the program please let me know, based on the body of work laid out by Reggie and the competition how far ahead of the pack was Reggie if he distanced himself at all at any point in his last 3 years? Is he the best we had?

 

[RamblinPeck]

I'm guessing they all had the same chance, or at least the 2/3 spots did, but thats really neither here nor there. I do think part of the problem is the coaching staff relying too much of the results on the practice field to decide who gets the nod on Saturdays. To use an example of that straight A kid in school who just didn't have a lick of common sense and couldn't make it in the real world, same with a player who consistantly delivers on the practice field but can't seem to put all the pieces together on gameday. At some point you have to realize that its not working and it might be time to try option B, for whatever reason, be it NFL bias, or the other being that bad, it didn't happen.

 

[Boilerbuzz]

I have a hard time believing that Reggie Ball consistently looks that much better in practice based on what I've seen on the field over the last 4 years. I refuse to believe that such an inaccurate guy that makes terrible decisions is that much better than some of the other players at that position.

If that is the case, we may as well start him because the alternatives really do suck...

 

[JTS]

As a freshman, Reggie came in as the 4th or 5th string QB and earned his way into the starting spot. You could tell that the coaches really did not expect him to compete for the starting job, but his performance changed their minds. Anybody who was there and watched his performance that fall came away with a feeling that we had a special player. He displayed great vision, field awareness, and passing accuracy. You really couldn't watch the kid without thinking if only for a second "This is Joe Hamilton only faster with a stronger arm". He was that good.

Sophomore year everyone was clamoring for Pat Carter to challenge Ball. Carter was indeed the QB Gailey seemed to believe had the most potential based on his comments from the previous pre-season. However, Carter never really showed himself to be better than Bilbo yet alone Ball and real story this year was Taylor Bennett beating out Carter. Ball still was clearly better than the competition although he really did not look as good as he did the previous Fall.

The following season Carter transferred and now everyone was clamoring for Taylor Bennett rise up and supplant Ball. Bennett did improve quite a bit over the previous year and Reggie looked about the same maybe a little worse as the previous year, but Ball still was clearly a better QB.

This year everyone was stilling clamoring for Bennett to beat out Ball. Bennett however did not have a very good fall and really did not look much better than the previous year. Ball wins again.

I definitely think that other QBs were given a fair chance to compete for the starting spot and I really believe that if we had a better QB that Gailey would have made the change. I understand why Ball has remained the starter these four years. What I don't understand is how a player that showed so much promise early on could fail to improve or actually get somewhat worse each year for four years and remain the starter without ever really being seriously challenged for the spot.

 

[ncjacket]

Unfortunately the coaches probably don't understand it either. There's just something missing in Reggie's makeup, either physically or mentally, that holds him back from being the QB he can be in spurts.

 

[midatlantech]

No doubt that our coaches are relying too much on the practice field and not the game field. Chan being a NFL coach, doesn't remember that the NFL has exhibition games to see new talent. In college you have to find a way to get the practice/development time for the second string. It never happened, so Reggie is only compared with others in practice.

Unfortunately, not everything can be seen in practice. For example, how much jawing does Reggie do with KHall versus 90,000 fans at UGA? And more importantly, how does he react? Lastly, when things start going bad, in practice they blow the whistle and discuss it. In a game, you get it handed to you and how you react is different than a practice.

 

[GT65_UGA89]

Unfortunately, not everything can be seen in practice. For example, how much jawing does Reggie do with KHall versus 90,000 fans at UGA? And more importantly, how does he react? Lastly, when things start going bad, in practice they blow the whistle and discuss it. In a game, you get it handed to you and how you react is different than a practice.

This is a key point. Although I think his size is a detriment, keeping him from potentially doing certain things that bigger QB's can do, i.e. throw screens (middle screens), thrown over the middle, I think one of the biggest factors in RB not realizing his potential is his mental approach to the game.

RB is his own worst enemy in that he gets so caught up in talking trash to the opposition that IMO he loses focus. We've seen it for years and it was real obvious to me against Wake. The first time he was hit out of bounds it was like he couldn't wait to start running his mouth. Later, when he was hit after throwing a pass and refused to be helped up by the defender, which may have been an OK move to allow your own lineman to help you up, but because of his history, RB came off looking bush-league.

And further, knowing the type of man that HCCG is, I cannot believe that he puts up with RB's antics. I have to believe that RB has probably been told on more than a few occasions to cool it and focus on the game, but he obviously refuses to listen.

 

[midatlantech]

You may find it interesting that I believe Chan's greatest coaching mistake has been to allow Reggie's antics more than once. Chan shut down Reggie against Georgia his freshman year, but generally allowed the show for all four. Kids get conditioned and I doubt that anything Chan has said for the last two years about focusing has ever mattered to Reggie.

 

[RickyReck]

This is a key point. Although I think his size is a detriment, keeping him from potentially doing certain things that bigger QB's can do, i.e. throw screens (middle screens), thrown over the middle, I think one of the biggest factors in RB not realizing his potential is his mental approach to the game.

RB is his own worst enemy in that he gets so caught up in talking trash to the opposition that IMO he loses focus. We've seen it for years and it was real obvious to me against Wake. The first time he was hit out of bounds it was like he couldn't wait to start running his mouth. Later, when he was hit after throwing a pass and refused to be helped up by the defender, which may have been an OK move to allow your own lineman to help you up, but because of his history, RB came off looking bush-league.

And further, knowing the type of man that HCCG is, I cannot believe that he puts up with RB's antics. I have to believe that RB has probably been told on more than a few occasions to cool it and focus on the game, but he obviously refuses to listen.

Height helps but throwing lane are created.
Reggies problems are his inconsistenty and accuracy, He throws off his back foot which can be coached but that said it becomes so ingrained in some kids it continues to pop up which it does in Reggie. He does not have a quick or faster release and when he's under pressure it really shows up. He throws better when not pressured but not well enough to throw into double coverage.

 

[beej67]

I have a hard time believing that Reggie Ball consistently looks that much better in practice based on what I've seen on the field over the last 4 years.

Why?

Reggie has some great games, and then chokes under pressure. Since there's no pressure in practice, I can totally see how Reggie might always have great practices.

 

[floridajacket]

The more I've thought about Reggie's career, especially all the games of the past two years, I've seen how Reggie's performance starts taking a nosedive as the pressure to win becomes greater. As hard as it is to believe after our previous two games, Reggie is probably our best option when he's calm and does what the coaches tell him to do.

Think of his (relatively) good or great performances over the last few years:
- The Syracuse bowl game that didn't mean a whole lot.
- An Auburn game that we were expected to lose.
- The Miami win last year that, again, nobody expected us to win.
- The UVA/VPI/MD games this year which weren't very high pressure compared to say the UGA game or the ACCCG. The VPI game was another game that nobody was expecting us to win.

On the other hand, the losses:
- UGA 2005, where there was, of course, extreme pressure to win.
- UGA 2006, where there was extreme pressure on him to not go 0-fer against the cesspool. Consequently, he played the worst game of his last two years and, after UGA scored the go-ahead TD and it became do or f***ing die, Reggie made arguably the worst decision of his career by throwing to Calvin surrounded by 5 UGA DBs. Despite all the insinuations that he didn't care about his game and his quotes afterward, he put himself under a ton of pressure to perform and he couldn't handle it, at all.
- The Wake game, which he was now under pressure to redeem himself. I still wonder if Nix called all those long balls or Reggie kept deciding to try and go for another highlight reel throw. I bet if I saw the tape the coaches have, there may have been plenty of open screens and comeback routes on those long plays.

The two exceptions seem to be Miami and Clemson this year. I would say Clemson happened because of Reggie's injury making him scared to take the hit. He wasn't doing too bad on the first drive before he reinjured his leg.

The Miami game was pretty much the coastal division championship at the time, although I didn't expect Miami to lose to UVA and MD. Reggie played fairly bad in the first three quarters and somehow overcame pressure to have a very good fourth quarter. For that, I give him credit.

So, I think Reggie is synonymous with a complete inability to handle a big game situation. I wonder what might have become of Reggie if he had a calmer, more coachable personality that rose above pressure and adversity, but unfortunately we'll never know.

 

[cyclejacket]

knowing the type of man that HCCG is, I cannot believe that he puts up with RB's antics. I have to believe that RB has probably been told on more than a few occasions to cool it and focus on the game, but he obviously refuses to listen.

I'd have to say that he he were the kind of disciplinarian you are inferring he is, then he would have benched Reggie during a game when he started his jawing. Whether he "warned" him against it doesn't matter if he wasn't willing to attach consequences to the action. I can't tell you the number of times during the past 4 years I wanted RB benched as a result of his actions, not necessarily as a result of his performance.