What will the O be under Collins?

[alphaorange]

Don’t know what he’s capable of re if he can be a plug in and play, The little available film on him suggests he doesn’t have this kind of arm.

Maybe we will be surprised, maybe they will try to keep on keeping on this first game against Duke, and if it’s not successful, go to what I posted above. Never a dull moment in orange land! Guess we will find out

You might be right, but you don't get to be the 10th rated drop back passer in the country without having a decent arm. (in HS)

 

[Ttk.gman2]

Don’t know what he’s capable of re if he can be a plug in and play, The little available film on him suggests he doesn’t have this kind of arm.

Maybe we will be surprised, maybe they will try to keep on keeping on this first game against Duke, and if it’s not successful, go to what I posted above. Never a dull moment in orange land! Guess we will find out

How can people say he doesn’t have the arm? It was reported plenty of times that Rickie had the stronger arm compared to Steve Angeli. Y’all just throw stuff out there without really knowing—just saying things to say them.

 

[CuseCrew08]

I thought he threw a very pretty ball, perfect spirals. Almost had too much zip on them, definitely more than Angeli. Can he drop one in the bucket like the Gill TD yesterday? We shall see.

 

[Keger03]

I don't think the O will change, which right now is kinda scary not in a good way. We were trying to protect a lead yesterday and we slung it around more than we did in the first half. Nixon cannot help himself.

IMO Angeli + Skill Guys + Nixon when he mixes things up gives us a legit Top 15 O. It is a shame that we won't see it the rest of the season.

Angeli the first few games had passes sail on him. It took him awhile to settle in. Plus he had very little time with his teammates to gel. I think we saw that all come together the first half yesterday.

So to be fair Collins was injured for awhile, and he hasn't had first team reps. So hopefully he too can settle in.

That said what I have seen thus far from him hasn't been very good. He has lacked accuracy. That is very dangerous for those over the middle throws. He hasn't been able to get rid of the ball quickly, which has led to sacks. And then that lame duck INT vs Colgate.

In an ideal world Nixon would run it more and cal the passing game to fit Collins. But based on what we saw vs Clemson, I doubt he changes who he is.

I will give Collin’s some credit and Nixon too for that fact, there were a ton of drops by the WR late in the game. They were balls where they hit the WR in the hands, around the chest plate, and they dropped it. The offense took what Clemson gave them but those drops stopped the clock and in hindsight, runs would have been better. Maybe it was a little too cute but I don’t think it was about how Nixon couldn’t help himself and just crap luck.

 

[djorange1989]

The OL needs to keep improving to give Rickie a chance to make plays. This includes a viable run game. I'm confident we can get to at least 6 wins and keep the progress made so far.

The Duke game is huge to get to at least 6, with NC and BC still to play, you have to feel great about it if we take out Duke for number 4. ND,SMU,Pitt,Miami and Ga Tech will all be really rough without Angeli so let’s bank the 4th one next weekend!

 

[Scooch]

The upside is that we have a bunch of receivers who have great hands and can go get 50/50 balls. We also have dual threat RBs. And like others have said, we really don’t know what we have in Collins. Not in terms of how he’ll develop in real game action.

Nixon’s job is to accentuate his strengths and mitigate his weaknesses. Nixon’s damn good at what he does so I suspect he’ll have a good game plan.

 

[Cuse On 3]

We will see growing pains, like angeli he will continue to get better

 

[bigmike]

The OL needs to keep improving to give Rickie a chance to make plays. This includes a viable run game. I'm confident we can get to at least 6 wins and keep the progress made so far.

Good point on the OL. Nothing will work if they don’t continue to gel.

 

[Ttk.gman2]

With Rickie at QB, the offense is going to be simplified — easy reads, rollouts to get him into space, a heavy run focus, and plenty of RPOs. I expect a lot of one-read-and-go type of plays, with a few shots downfield to test the defense. Against a weak Duke defense, we can absolutely win if Rickie protects the football and works through his reads. The trade-off, though, is losing Steve Angeli’s ability to make pre-snap adjustments, which is definitely going to hurt.

 

[swish7]

Nixon has done more than enough to earn our trust, let's just take a deep breath and wait and see.

Its not about trust. I am curious and want to feel like I can envision the type of O we'll have with him. My point is, even after seeing him, I don't know.

1st play against UCONN? Absolutely horrible interception. 2nd play, really nice TD. Then a bunch of handoffs.

Against Clemson, 1st play, a mind blowing TD that perhaps was actually a drop. Then a bunch of handoffs.

Then, the one scramble? He gets caught from behind, rather easily.

So, a good passer? Don't know.
A good runner? Don't know.
A game manager? Don't know.

Just a lot we don't know, even after seeing him.

Not dogging him or Nixon.

Guess I just need to be patient.

 

[Qbobby]

Remember he also hasn't been getting starting reps in practice either. Just having a week of those should help him tremendously shake off a little rust and get into a rhythm.

 

[swish7]

When you pass eleventy thousand times a game 260 ain’t much. Ugh I hated the Dino offense so much… I led to so many unwatchable games even when we won.

Collins definitely looks like a one read type of dude. Granted it was his first action in a hostile environment, but I didn’t see a guy with great feel for a passing game and I didn’t see someone who is some elite runner. One promising sign… he hit Cook across the middle of the field which Cook dropped so he isn’t afraid to throw it inside. But it was for only 3 yards which leads me to believe it was his first read.

Yep. This.

 

[Ttk.gman2]

Its not about trust. I am curious and want to feel like I can envision the type of O we'll have with him. My point is, even after seeing him, I don't know.

1st play against UCONN? Absolutely horrible interception. 2nd play, really nice TD. Then a bunch of handoffs.

Against Clemson, 1st play, a mind blowing TD that perhaps was actually a drop. Then a bunch of handoffs.

Then, the one scramble? He gets caught from behind, rather easily.

So, a good passer? Don't know.
A good runner? Don't know.
A game manager? Don't know.

Just a lot we don't know, even after seeing him.

Not dogging him or Nixon.

Guess I just need to be patient.

People have to remember he came in with a 20-point lead. His job at that point wasn’t to force plays — it was to protect the ball and not cost the team the game. That’s why he looked passive and conservative, with mostly easy throws and hand-offs. Yeah, he almost got picked a couple of times, but that’s part of being a young, inexperienced QB. He’ll improve as the season goes on once he settles in and gets more reps.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Really he has two weeks to prove himself. If he hasn't improved going into the bye week, we need to change to O or the QB.

 

[sufandu]

I think this is the likely scenario but Rickie does have an arm.

Oh yeah. Going short won't be because he can't launch it. It'll just be to simplify things and get the ball out of his hands. I would love to be wrong. If he can make all the reads and push it down field, that would be great.

 

[grepal]

Don’t know what he’s capable of re if he can be a plug in and play, The little available film on him suggests he doesn’t have this kind of arm.

Maybe we will be surprised, maybe they will try to keep on keeping on this first game against Duke, and if it’s not successful, go to what I posted above. Never a dull moment in orange land! Guess we will find out

One thing to remember is that it took HCFB a while settle on Steve. That makes me think Collins is capable. For some, being "the man" brings out the best. Some succumb to the pressure. Our job is to encourage him.

 

[Ttk.gman2]

Really he has two weeks to prove himself. If he hasn't improved going into the bye week, we need to change to O or the QB.

Switch the offense to an RPO quick-read scheme if Rickie doesn’t play well or show improvement after Duke and the bye week.

 

[PAcuse]

To me that is the safe and easy play.

Throw in the occasional deep out just to keep the opposing D honest

Agreed, my only concern Collins has locked onto his deep threats and thrown some awful passes. He needs to clean that up.

 

[Dcuse]

Agree with most all of what Swish said above. I also imagine that Nixon will tweak the offense a little to Collins’ strengths. But Mark This Down……. The 1st offensive play of the game will be Collins airing out a missle with a chance of skyrocketing his confidence.

 

[Cuseregular]

How can people say he doesn’t have the arm? It was reported plenty of times that Rickie had the stronger arm compared to Steve Angeli. Y’all just throw stuff out there without really knowing—just saying things to say them.

Has the strength no doubt, talking about where we just don’t know, meaning the accuracy, quickly identifying where to throw the ball, hitting tight windows, etc.

Just not enough film and game reps to know with any certainty, one way or another. But we will find out by the end of the first quarter, here’s hoping he’s approaching what Angelis been able to do

 

[baggerbob]

Good point on the OL. Nothing will work if they don’t continue to gel.

If the OL continues to get better, and the front 6 on defense are starting to jell everyone else on the schedule will be in trouble. Nixon will find a way to score if the OL continues to grow.

 

[swish7]

If the OL continues to get better, and the front 6 on defense are starting to jell everyone else on the schedule will be in trouble. Nixon will find a way to score if the OL continues to grow.

It all hinges on the OL. If it were McNabb back there, I'd feel different.

 

[Surfan06001]

Multiple

 

[Sammy407]

I feel like I still don't know...

It doesn't feel like it can be the same as it was with Angeli.

Maybe it can? Maybe it will after some growing pains?

Point is, we've seen a little bit of Collins now, but I cannot tell what kind of player he is.

Worst comes to Worst, we still have Villari to run the wildcat right?

 

[Nick44]

I’ll keep this simple. Not sure I’ve ever met an offensive coach who has said that a little bit of PLAY ACTION is a bad thing for an offense.

We can differ about too many pass calls, too many run calls, too many bubble screens (lol)….but I have yet to find an offensive coach who would disagree that calling the right amount of play action can be extremely helpful to an offense.

3-5 play action attempts this week feels about right to me.