With the Right QB, Nixon's Pass Offense is Exceptional

[Scooch]

Disagree.

For starters, I'm not talking about what he did last year. Nor am I talking about what he will do next year. In fact, I have faith that he will find someone, Steve or a portal QB. Nor am I talking about which, if any, of our frosh will bloom and become stars in the future.

I am talking solely about THIS year.

5 QB's on scholarship and only one (apparently) is capable of being functional this year. When he gets hurt, the whole thing falls down. That is pretty much the definition of house of cards as it pertains to this year.

I agree. I can only guess that Fran and Nixon thought that Collins would progress over the summer and early fall to be a somewhat functional backup. Clearly that didn't happen.

Sometimes you can't have a viable contingency everywhere. The staff might have been well aware that an Angeli injury would be crippling.

 

[SU94]

Rickie was the big miss. No doubt. But our HC clearly is proactive and won't just sit around.

Kyle built us a foundation with mahogany and marble. The second floor was looking good until the OSHA issues. The odds of us whiffing on every other recruit are not zero but seem pretty low to me. Trust the process. We'll get a nice structure in the end.

I think this ^^^^ is a key point in all of this.
Fran is publicly defending and playing Rickie. As any reasonable HC would do.

But he won't be satisfied or make blind assumptions. He will seek "better." We will have a better backup to Angeli in 2026. Maybe that is Luke Carney. Maybe it is Belin. Maybe it is neither.

This "episode" (Angeli injury, struggles at QB) is part of the growth of the program. Remember, Fran's initial recruiting class are just sophomores and have received significant contributions from only Jamie Tremble, Yasin Willis, Braheem Long and Davien Kerr. Yes, portal guys count too, but the HS kids will be the foundational pieces in the construction of this program.

 

[tbonezone]

With the Right QB, ( blanks) Pass Offense is Exceptional ...​

 

[OttoinGrotto]

How often does someone not rated decently turn out to be good?

I rather get a Top 50 every year than get barely Top 100 kids. You are more likely to hit on the former.

I'm not disagreeing with that. You just make this point a lot.

 

[CbusCuse]

The QB room is not really a "house of cards." Look at what's happened at QB in the Fran Era...

In December 2023, Fran's starting QB room is Braden Davis, CDRW and Dan. Two don't play QB anymore; the other guy transfers. Fran adds Kyle (below market!) and re-recruits Jakhari.

In 2024, Fran signs Luke, his first HS QB. He gets creative, getting a lacrosse guy for football and adds Rich. He lines up Rickie with his SEC pedigree to replace Kyle. In 2025, Fran senses trouble. He audibles into a solution from Notre Dame but Steve gets hurt and we're toast.

Rickie was the big miss. No doubt. But our HC clearly is proactive and won't just sit around.

Kyle built us a foundation with mahogany and marble. The second floor was looking good until the OSHA issues. The odds of us whiffing on every other recruit are not zero but seem pretty low to me. Trust the process. We'll get a nice structure in the end.

I agree with this for the most part. We got a bit lucky that McCord was able to last the entire season in 2024, but bringing McCord in was enormous in itself so hard to complain considering what an improvement that was from where the QB group stood.

Missing on Rickie is what really has hurt, but at least Fran was able to recover and bring in Angeli to the situation. Unfortunately that only lasted so long. I just really don’t see why Rickie was the pick in the first place though. It sounds like he had dropped to 3rd string at LSU and just doesn’t seem like a great fit for Nixons offense considering what we had just witnessed with McCord. You would think we could get a better fit than him with the evidence of what we had just accomplished.

I dont have an issue with the 3 freshman we brought in for 2025. I still think Carney will be solid eventually. Belin has a shot and Filardi looked great for a third add. But I am getting a tad concerned considering Fran won’t play Carney or another freshman over what we have seen from Rickie.

I was initially so so on Zaid Lott for 2026 but he seems to be having himself a really nice season. And I really like that the 2026 add is bringing in someone with more prototypical size as the 2015 group was not.
Zaid Lott - MaxPreps

Not so sure about the Dixon get in 2027, although I think he got hurt very early. We have time to fix that if need be.

 

[Millhouse]

But, his run offense is absolutely pathetic. Run up the middle time after time ad nauseam. No creativity whatsoever.

When coaches have a good run game., they're tempted to use it. So it's not the worst thing in the world to not be good at running the ball because throwing the ball is better as long as your QB is ok.

Be decent at passing and do it all the time

 

[CbusCuse]

How often does someone not rated decently turn out to be good?

I rather get a Top 50 every year than get barely Top 100 kids. You are more likely to hit on the former.

We all would like to bring in top 50 QB’s. Easier said than done though. If we put together consecutive seasons with 2 prolific passers that would be easier. We seemed to be on our way until disaster struck.

Keep in mind if Carney ended up signing to a blue blood he likely would have gotten a reevaluation and massive bump. He seemed to be criminally under ranked. With his HS numbers and he did have some solid offers. An SU signing gets you no reevaluation or bump.

Carney offers:
Arizona
Arkansas
BYU
BC
Cal
GT
Louisville
Minn
USF

 

[GoSU96]

I agree. I can only guess that Fran and Nixon thought that Collins would progress over the summer and early fall to be a somewhat functional backup. Clearly that didn't happen.

Sometimes you can't have a viable contingency everywhere. The staff might have been well aware that an Angeli injury would be crippling.

It’s easy to go all in if you have no alternative. You see some of the throws he makes and you must think. ‘All he has to do is….” And then he gets on the field and makes one good play every 10.

 

[Scooch]

It’s easy to go all in if you have no alternative. You see some of the throws he makes and you must think. ‘All he has to do is….” And then he gets on the field and makes one good play every 10.

For sure. I’m no expert, but it seemed abundantly clear right from the jump that Collins’s weaknesses weren’t things that were solvable in season. I can’t remember a QB overcoming his issues within a game or 2. He has deep rooted problems that may never be fixable , let alone quickly.

 

[SU94]

When coaches have a good run game., they're tempted to use it. So it's not the worst thing in the world to not be good at running the ball because throwing the ball is better as long as your QB is ok.

Be decent at passing and do it all the time

Good to see you go back to your roots after that peculiar nepotism take. Play to your base.

 

[OttosShoes]

They ran jet sweeps last year w pena. I don’t understand why they aren’t doing it this year.

We’ve got great receivers, but for the most part they are big. I don’t really think we have the ~5’9-elusive-slot-type that can hook into gaps the way Pena did.

Tylik as mentioned by another poster is perfect for it but he’s seen limited play.

 

[SuFTW]

5 QB? Why would you ever need to go more than 3 deep on that? As we are prob going to loose the 3-5 deep already after this year.

He is just stating the number of QB’s on the roster.

 

[SanDiegoCuse]

We all would like to bring in top 50 QB’s. Easier said than done though. If we put together consecutive seasons with 2 prolific passers that would be easier. We seemed to be on our way until disaster struck.

Keep in mind if Carney ended up signing to a blue blood he likely would have gotten a reevaluation and massive bump. He seemed to be criminally under ranked. With his HS numbers and he did have some solid offers. An SU signing gets you no bump.

Carney offers:
Arizona
Arkansas
BYU
BC
Cal
GT
Louisville
Minn
USF

The articles made it quite clear that if he would have blown up earlier he’d have offers from most of the Texas schools but by then they all had verbal commits from targets.

 

[SuFTW]

The QB room is not really a "house of cards." Look at what's happened at QB in the Fran Era...

In December 2023, Fran's starting QB room is Braden Davis, CDRW and Dan. Two don't play QB anymore; the other guy transfers. Fran adds Kyle (below market!) and re-recruits Jakhari.

In 2024, Fran signs Luke, his first HS QB. He gets creative, getting a lacrosse guy for football and adds Rich. He lines up Rickie with his SEC pedigree to replace Kyle. In 2025, Fran senses trouble. He audibles into a solution from Notre Dame but Steve gets hurt and we're toast.

Rickie was the big miss. No doubt. But our HC clearly is proactive and won't just sit around.

Kyle built us a foundation with mahogany and marble. The second floor was looking good until the OSHA issues. The odds of us whiffing on every other recruit are not zero but seem pretty low to me. Trust the process. We'll get a nice structure in the end.

At one time Braden Davis and CDRW were QBs with SEC pedigrees…