Why Reggie, not Taylor? Maybe this helps

mookie43

mookie43

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This is from an article in the Sporting News in August 2000. I found it searching around to understand the events that started to unfold yesterday.

"Gailey's quarterback in Dallas, Troy Aikman, is clearly superior to the quarterbacks he has in Miami, Damon Huard and Jay Fiedler. But Aikman and Gailey went together like plaid and stripes. Aikman's ability to drop back and let 'er rip was hindered by Galley's insistence on having pass routes predicated on defensive alignments. And Gailey's creativity was hindered by Aikman's lack of mobility. "Running the bootlegs, the rollouts, the play action, maybe that was a problem between him and Aikman," says former Steelers personnel boss Tom Donahoe, who twice sought out Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in 1998 to tell him he should consider hiring Gailey as his head coach.
Gailey likes to do some funky things with his quarterbacks, but he couldn't do any of them with Aikman. Gailey will handle his quarterbacks much differently this year. "I like play action, and we will take advantage of a quarterback's mobility when we have that,"

If he was uncomfortable with Aikman, who is in the NFL Hall of Fame, because he was primarily a drop back passer, then I think it may be a major part of why Taylor sat while Reggie struggled.

I wasn't around then, but didn't Reggie replace an existing QB when he came in? Was that QB mobile, or primarily a drop back passer?
 
Good find Mookie. True, Reggie replaced struggling senior AJ Suggs, who was virtually immobile. He was also pushed ahead of Demarius Bilbo who was a fantastic athlete and the strong choice of some to many fans.
CG didn't believe Bilbo worked hard enough to understand the offense.
 
I understand a coach having ...

preferences in style of play but to insist on that style of play when you a) have a dropback passer in the mold of Aikman who is,as you say, an NFL Hall of Famer or b) have a mobile QB who is,over the course of 4 seasons,inadequate seems puzzling. I am of the opinion that a coach should adapt his schemes to personnel rather than the other way around.

Having said that, the idea that he is looking/may be leaving is forcing me to truly evaluate how I truly feel about his leaving. I am/have been rather lukewarm about him (moreso about his personnel decisons and unwillingnesss to deal wit the fanbase through the media) but the fact that he is still considered NFL calibre head-coaching material by people who have more at stake than I do is impressive.
 
After Taylor's performance in the GB, it seemed he was very much in the lead to be the starting QB next year. After reading this, I'm not so sure. If Gailey is here, he may still prefer a mobile QB, putting Taylor and Threet at a disadvantage.
 
Fridge seemed to like mobile qb's too. Some of this is dictated by the quality of the line.

Spurrier had to bench his imobile QB until his line got better then went back to him in the end of the season.

I think about some of the vicious hits Reggie has taken and it is clear our line has gotten better.

Also it is not like the SAME Bennett has sat on the bench for 3yrs. He is a red shirt soph so he probably only recently started making the proper reads. It is not like true freshman qb's are lighting it up in college football.

Feidler in Miami was not a mobile qb for CG.

Also this ONLY became an issue at the Clemson game. When we were winning and in the top #15 we were not going to change QB's.

The truth is CG probably would have changed qb's if he suspected TB would perform as well as he did, but he is not going to say that.

I remember Godsey wasn't on the field late for the central florida game until O'leary told the fridge "hey get the other guy in there". Hall was the QB late in the 4th and then Godsey pulled out the V and the rest is history, so Fridge had the wrong guy in as well.
 
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I remember Godsey wasn't on the field for the central florida game until O'leary told the fridge "hey get the other guy in there". Suggs was the QB late in the 4th and then Godsey pulled out the V and the rest is history, so Fridge had the wrong guy in as well.
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Suggs wasn't here for that game..IIRC, Goose played that whole game.
 
Actually Goose started that game and was lifted at least once and Andy Hall, not Suggs, got some PT. Why Gailey did not do that with Reggie and Taylor this year is anyone's guess.
 
I don't think some of you guys really remember Aikman. Talk about a statue in the backfield. Think Bledsoe for comparison. I don't think Chan needs a scrambling or running QB, he just wants someone who can move around back there. Taylor is plenty mobile for what he wants to do IMO.

I've also seen articles that suggest the Cowboys prior to Chan used a pretty simple offensive philosophy that relied on Harper and Irvin to beat their defender to a spot. Troy would throw on timing and trust them to get the ball. Chan wanted him to read the defense and for him and the receivers to adjust to the coverage. While Troy didn't like it and did have some difficulty, his stats for the two year Chan was in Dallas were better than the years prior to him arriving and after he left.
 
law_bee said:
Also this ONLY became an issue at the Clemson game. When we were winning and in the top #15 we were not going to change QB's.
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Um... and??? I'm not going to get into an argument about it, but come on, thats a ridiculous statement. If we had run the table no one would complaining either. However, we didn't, and had very poor performance from the QB for pretty much 4 of the last 5 games of the season and thats whats being criticed.

I know its a standard lawyer tactic to do the bait and switch and refer to hypotheticals to make a point, but it didnt happen and you're not at a trail here. Ease up, ok?
 
ncjacket said:
I don't think some of you guys really remember Aikman. Talk about a statue in the backfield. Think Bledsoe for comparison. I don't think Chan needs a scrambling or running QB, he just wants someone who can move around back there. Taylor is plenty mobile for what he wants to do IMO.

I've also seen articles that suggest the Cowboys prior to Chan used a pretty simple offensive philosophy that relied on Harper and Irvin to beat their defender to a spot. Troy would throw on timing and trust them to get the ball. Chan wanted him to read the defense and for him and the receivers to adjust to the coverage. While Troy didn't like it and did have some difficulty, his stats for the two year Chan was in Dallas were better than the years prior to him arriving and after he left.
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THe bottom line is that when Gailey was fired by Dallas, Aikman said the objective of the offense is to score points and we just didnt do that enough. Sounds familiar. For Gailey to not have given Bennett chances, after what we saw in the Gator where he proved he's more than capable of running an offense better and more efficiently than Ball, in my eyes just shows he is either just too stubborn or afraid to fail if it didnt workout. Ball never had a fear of being pulled (he knew Gailey wouldnt do it no matter what Gailey would say) and fear of no playing time is the best motivator by far in my mind. Gailey's approach is not that way. Pete Carrol's is. Even with USC thrashing of Michigan, every job- all 22-is open in spring practice as Carroll said- and you know he means it. I like his style. Anyway, Gailey will get us 7 wins in 12 or 9 in 14 and we should all just realize thats good enough at GT- or we need to find another coach.
 
not to be a wet blanket...the only difference between Taylors performance last week and that of Reggie Ball was Taylor had the guts (and sight lines) to be able to throw the ball out there and give CJ opportunities. Of course....as long as CJ is out there that is a BIG DEAL.

We do not score two of our TD's if CJ is not the wide receiver (including the long jump ball that set up TC's TD).

The best throw of the day was the find to JJ (his third option) for a TD.

Again...I am excited to see TB develop...but he does have more work to do and I think the staff has not done the best job in the world handling the QB situation the past two seasons.

Thank God we can move on and lets see if things change....becauase we are THIS CLOSE to an ACC Championship.
 
CG didn't believe Bilbo worked hard enough to understand the offense.
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Yeah, having seen Bilbo transpose numbers and call the wrong plays during 2 minute drills in practice back when OBrian was our OC, I'm going to go with yay Gailey on that one.
 
the only difference between Taylors performance last week and that of Reggie Ball was Taylor had the guts (and sight lines) to be able to throw the ball out there and give CJ opportunities. Of course....as long as CJ is out there that is a BIG DEAL.
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I agree but another big difference is that he threw it to CJ over the middle. CJ has a much better chance of outjumping and outmuscling 2 defenders if it is in the middle of the field. If he has to deal with an inacurate pass, 2 defenders, and the sidelinie then the odds get pretty low. That's one of the reasons our playcalling has been so madening to me.
 
The most positive thing that I saw in the Gator Bowl was the 5 yard passes to the TE's and backs. Those plays sometimes can go long, but most importantly, they put you into less predictable play calls on 2nd and 3rd downs. Even if we don't hit the homerun throws, we were still moving the ball, keeping the defense rested.

Ball never developed a knack for taking the short throw in rhythm and it led to many of our o-line breakdowns, along with his poor positioning in the pocket (imho). Bennett uses the whole field which puts much more pressure on the D. I don't see him with a 30% completion rate.
 
GT1992 said:
The most positive thing that I saw in the Gator Bowl was the 5 yard passes to the TE's and backs. Those plays sometimes can go long, but most importantly, they put you into less predictable play calls on 2nd and 3rd downs. Even if we don't hit the homerun throws, we were still moving the ball, keeping the defense rested.

Ball never developed a knack for taking the short throw in rhythm and it led to many of our o-line breakdowns, along with his poor positioning in the pocket (imho). Bennett uses the whole field which puts much more pressure on the D. I don't see him with a 30% completion rate.
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GT1992, hear hear. I jumped out of my seat when I saw tater throw to the TE and RB/FB. Ball never had any touch with the FB so if he ever threw the short ones he would have broken fingers he would throw it so hard.
 
goldmember said:
I agree but another big difference is that he threw it to CJ over the middle. CJ has a much better chance of outjumping and outmuscling 2 defenders if it is in the middle of the field. If he has to deal with an inacurate pass, 2 defenders, and the sidelinie then the odds get pretty low. That's one of the reasons our playcalling has been so madening to me.
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Those routes have been there all year...they were called....RB never chose that option.
 
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