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Portal Success, 2024

thirdandlong said:
Come on, everyone knew that Sneed would be the starter as soon as Bobby brought him in. You can't remember the big controversy involving Jensen not getting a real chance to be the starter after starting games the previous year, causing him to transfer?

I never said that Fife won't be a good QB. I only said that he did not stand-out over his fellow QBs in the spring like Sneed did. I'm sure most will agree that the book is still out on him going into the season. And I think most would agree that we felt elation about Sneed after spring ball. Big difference in my mind.
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I don't think that's how that went down with Sneed/Jensen. I remember it differently: Bobby brought in Sneed, told Jensen he wasn't guaranteed to be starter, and Jensen took his ball and went home (very similar to the way I believe the Clif McDowell situation went down). Some kids are willing to fight for their jobs, others are going to take their ball and go home.
 
Good post third! I agree that I think we did very well in the portal and that this is probably our best transfer class under this staff. The staff has always done well recruiting the portal, especially last year, but they killed it this year for sure, and they may not be done yet.

As far as QB, I will point out one thing. Brent Pease on the last Inside the Den Podcast stated that after Spring Ball he told the QB'S that they are way far ahead of any of our QB's after last Spring Ball. To hear him say that is encouraging and a bit relieving. We'll see how it all shakes out!
 
Griz til I die said:
Good post third! I agree that I think we did very well in the portal and that this is probably our best transfer class under this staff. The staff has always done well recruiting the portal, especially last year, but they killed it this year for sure, and they may not be done yet.

As far as QB, I will point out one thing. Brent Pease on the last Inside the Den Podcast stated that after Spring Ball he told the QB'S that they are way far ahead of any of our QB's after last Spring Ball. To hear him say that is encouraging and a bit relieving. We'll see how it all shakes out!
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But that doesn't necessarily mean anything...because it took a late summer transfer to be the starter and get it rolling. Now I think the Griz are significantly better now than last year at this time, but I think many of us thought that Vidlak would develop over the summer and be the guy. Let's hope someone actually DOES develop over the summer to be the guy and not need another transfer.
 
I stand firmly behind my opinion that our QB situation is by far the biggest unknown going into the season. I don't worry about any other position, except perhaps how we replace Gubner in the middle.
 
thirdandlong said:
I stand firmly behind my opinion that our QB situation is by far the biggest unknown going into the season. I don't worry about any other position, except perhaps how we replace Gubner in the middle.
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I don't necessarily disagree except to say that what is unknown to the fans and the general public is not necessarily unknown to the coaches. I'm certainly not making any guarantees that Fife is the guy, but I don't really understand why everyone is surprised that he was not the clear number one after his first spring ball at UM. To my way of thinking that's to be expected of someone who's brand new to the program and needs to learn the system and playbook as well as develop rapport and timing with the rest of the offense especially the receivers. That doesn't happen overnight. He'll have all summer to work on those things during player run practices, and he will have limited interaction with the coaching staff as well under the new(ish) rules. Bobby said specifically that he is "learning fast" and "making a move". I don't know exactly what that means but I would interpret that as Bobby believes that Fife will be contending for the starting spot come fall camp.

Having said all that, I just don't think that the sky is falling in regard to the QB situation. However that's not to say that if an amazing transfer came available that the staff would take a pass on him. You yourself have conceded that the staff has done an excellent job in the portal, so one can believe that they will continue to do so.
 
thirdandlong said:
I stand firmly behind my opinion that our QB situation is by far the biggest unknown going into the season. I don't worry about any other position, except perhaps how we replace Gubner in the middle.
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We finally agree on something else.

We will only go this season as far as our QB takes us. Clif may have had his faults and bad games, but he was probably the most effective QB we've had in a very, very long time at picking up 3rd downs. Whether it's running it himself, checking into the correct read in the RPO, or throwing effectively, whoever the QB is has to be able to match that success next year at converting. If he can't do that, it doesn't matter how good the rest of our team is, we will not make it back to Frisco.
 
uofmman1122 said:
We finally agree on something else.

We will only go this season as far as our QB takes us. Clif may have had his faults and bad games, but he was probably the most effective QB we've had in a very, very long time at picking up 3rd downs. Whether it's running it himself, checking into the correct read in the RPO, or throwing effectively, whoever the QB is has to be able to match that success next year at converting. If he can't do that, it doesn't matter how good the rest of our team is, we will not make it back to Frisco.
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While I agree with much of what you said, and I too liked how McDowell got 3d down pickups, McDowell didn't play great in the playoffs. And yet the team kept winning until the last game. So, in my view, while McDowell was big in the successful season, the rest of the team carried the Griz later in the season. Small point.
 
mthoopsfan said:
While I agree with much of what you said, and I too liked how McDowell got 3d down pickups, McDowell didn't play great in the playoffs. And yet the team kept winning until the last game. So, in my view, while McDowell was big in the successful season, the rest of the team carried the Griz later in the season. Small point.
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That may be true, but I don't think we win either of the Furman or NDSU games with the other QBs we had on the roster. Ah Yat might develop into a better QB than McDowell was this season, but I don't think he would've been enough to win either of those games last year.

And for all his struggles in both games in regulation, Clif was fantastic in both OTs and certainly helped get us those wins.
 
uofmman1122 said:
That may be true, but I don't think we win either of the Furman or NDSU games with the other QBs we had on the roster. Ah Yat might develop into a better QB than McDowell was this season, but I don't think he would've been enough to win either of those games last year.

And for all his struggles in both games in regulation, Clif was fantastic in both OTs and certainly helped get us those wins.
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Probably true, but if McDowell had played better in those games, the games probably wouldn't have gone to OT.
 
Another way to think about it is that the Griz haven’t had a (decent to good) returning starter as regularly as everyone (fans and coaches) had hoped. Stability may be a better word. How would we be feeling if Cliff was still here? Content? Relief? Confident? Hard call. I think we want our freshman to now start for 4 seasons to FEEL that knowing confidence/experience was under center in the most important position on the team.
 
DD was a Sophomore when he got this chance v South Dakota State and pulled a 'Jackrabbit ' out of his ass for a Griz win.

Brian Ah Yat was DD's backup, Sophomore in '96, took da Griz to the NC game, AGAIN against Marshall but couldn't overcome the Eric Kresser(Florida drop-down) to Randy Moss(Florida State/Notre Dame reject)one-two punch. Marshall's Best I-AA Team, ever.
And here we sit with Ah Yats son, a Redshirt Freshman ready to follow in his dad's footsteps. Gawd, this year has potential, to say the least.
 
3-7-77 said:
DD was a Sophomore when he got this chance v South Dakota State and pulled a 'Jackrabbit ' out of his ass for a Griz win.

Brian Ah Yat was DD's backup, Sophomore in '96, took da Griz to the NC game, AGAIN against Marshall but couldn't overcome the Eric Kresser(Florida drop-down) to Randy Moss(Florida State/Notre Dame reject)one-two punch. Marshall's Best I-AA Team, ever.
And here we sit with Ah Yats son, a Redshirt Freshman ready to follow in his dad's footsteps. Gawd, this year has potential, to say the least.
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Wasn’t it Chad Pennington to Moss? Or was that the year we won?
 
Give him a chance, and lighten up. He's driving eastbound in the westbound lane, compared to his persona of old.

Wine. I hate wine. I drank nothing but the best, back in the day. 'Boone's Farm' whatever month it was.
 
It doesn't matter how good are QB is unless we take care of our o lineman first. Having a great center who is also a leader on the line will be the most important thing for Montana's offense. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Brent Pease will have the QB, RBs and receivers ready to rock. The same way Ronnie Bradford had a huge impact of the defense, Pease had an equally important impact on the offense. And the continuity amongst the skill positions for being around Pease's offense for a second year will be huge instead of having to learn something new.
I'm not sitting here claiming to know everything about football. Yeah I've played the game and have also coached it. But if you really take a deep dive, even as a fan into what Brent Pease was able to do with his offense, then you would truly be amazed. While most fans only saw the inability to score points in the beginning of the season and the sub par play at QB and also the struggling play of the o line. Many people didn't realize that while we won close games in the begining and lost to NAU, Pease had to keep things basic, so that the QBs could catch up. Yes, McDowell was a great athlete, but not a great QB. This was his 4th or 5th year playing college ball and he couldn't even read and understand basic coverages in defense. Which is what happens to a lot of QBs who rely mostly on athletic talent instead of QB IQ. They have this mentality of looking for 1 or 2 receivers and not even reading the coverage and if those guys aren't open then I'm taking off and running. Which is a prime example of the playoffs and the NC game. Took away his legs and he was struggling. And if some of you fans really go back and watch those games, you'll see that guys are open right away. We had 3 of the best receivers in the big sky and they averaged 3.8 catches a game.
And Pease was able to dumb down the offense enough so that McDowell could be successful which is why the run/pass was 50/50. Usually Pease's offense is minimum 65/35. And I think we will see that more this year with an offense more comfortable overall with the scheme and will be able to do a lot more.
But another thing fans seem to forget also is that it takes the whole team to be successful and get back to the NC game. For someone on here to say that if we don't get back to Frisco then our offense was a failure is probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard. We got to the ship last year because our defense played consistently great all year and coming up with big plays numerous times. And our offense wasn't overly dominating, but we took care of the ball and didn't turn it over. We played pretty good on offense and if we couldn't score TDs, then we were smart enough to chip away with FGs and if we couldn't get that then we would rely on special teams to put our defense in a good spot. With 3 phases of the game, we played great on defense and special teams and good on offense. So in order for us to return to the ship we need to win on all 3 phases which is basic, fundamental football. It's not just the offense or just the defense. So some of you fans please try to understand that before you post one of your outrageous opinions about the offense, QBs and coaches. Try and look at the bigger picture. Go GRIZ!!!
 
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