The 2009 recruiting class brought in 2 highly touted Freshmen QBs, Ryan Mossakowski, and Morgan Newton. These signings actually placed UK as the #1 recruiting class for QBs. Due to a shoulder injury, Moss never played this year, but Newton began his UK Career in the road against Auburn back in October. As the season progressed, Newton came under great scrutiny with some fans already calling him a "bust". Last night, the National Championship Game (Alabama vs. Texas) showed that a "true freshman" is just not ready to come in to a Big Time program and lead a team against top talent in an important game.
When Colt McCoy went out hurt in the 1st quarter, Texas was forced to rely on true freshman QB Garrett Gilbert to lead them to victory over a stout SEC Alabama defense. For the game, Gilbert went 15/40 for 186 yards, 2 TDs and 4 INTs. For the season, Newton threw for 6 TDs and 4 INTs against defenses with the same type talent. The big difference is that Gilbert had a "Whole Season" to prepare for this game, while Newton was only a few weeks into the season and was a true freshman himself!
Bottomline, true Freshmen QBs are just not ready to assume the Big Stage! Oh, another example is Matt Barkley who supposedly has so much more talent at USC, yet only led his team to 8 regular season wins which is only 3 more wins than Morgan had for the 2009 season, and he was the opening day stater with 5 more starts. The real focus for fans should be on the fact that Morgan now has 8 career starts and is 5-3 during that time. Can anyone else tell me when a UK QB had that kind of record for their freshman year?
It's a great day to be a Kentucky Wildcat Fan!
Nice post Bill.
ReplyDeleteWe should all remember how Woodson looked his RSFreshman year and Soph year. We know what he became once the switch flipped but at that point he had already redshirted a year. As opposed to Newton who was playing high school football a year before he was starting the MCB. I would say that Woodson and our FR QB's were fairly comparable coming out of high school as Andre was respectably ranked. Moral of the story is it just takes a little time and patience. We were all saying the same thing when Woodson was fumbling and throwing INT's. In addition we now have more mobile passers as well. Fear not for we will soon stretch the field in a vertical fashion. Time & Patience. Obviously as UK football fans we should all possess these 2 things.
Sorry to ramble but couldnt get my thoughts together,
Mickey