Pretty good write up on Stidham's progression

[Buzz Killington]

I normally gloss through anything on SDS, but this was a pretty good article about how well Stidham has come along through the season.  Hopefully he can get even better for the balance of the season.

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/auburn-football/stidham-living-up-unrealistic-preseason-hype-2017/

It took a bit, but Jarrett Stidham is living up to that crazy preseason hype
CONNOR O'GARA | 2 HOURS AGO

It was crazy.

A week before being named Auburn’s starting quarterback back in mid-August, Jarrett Stidham had the same Heisman Trophy odds as Saquon Barkley. Jake Browning and Deondre Francois were the other signal-callers who were 15-to-1 to win college football’s most-coveted award. In addition to the hype he received to win individual awards, articles were written about him being the final piece to take down Alabama, about him and leading the Tigers to a national championship.

Never mind the fact that Stidham had three career starts — only one of which came against a top-90 defense — entering his first season in a completely new system. Auburn probably waited until mid-August to announce Stidham as the starter in attempt to curb some of the inevitable hype that would follow.

That didn’t work.

He was a blue-chip recruit who transferred from a high-powered offense at Baylor. Of course there was going to be hype at a program that was desperate for a game-changer at the quarterback position. Realistic expectations went out the window before he ever took a snap.

The question was how Stidham was going to handle those expectations. Would he be another Jeremy Johnson? Or would he be another Cam Newton?

So far, it looks more like the latter. That’s saying a lot considering how Stidham played in the beginning of the season.

But like Newton, whom Gus Malzahn coached as Auburn’s offensive coordinator in 2010, Stidham’s rushing ability was key to developing in the system. Unlike Newton, it didn’t come naturally to Stidham. He was the big-armed Texas gunslinger, not the dual-threat mobile playmaker.

Last Saturday, Stidham delivered the best game of his young career. He threw 3 touchdown passes in Auburn’s 40-17 blowout win against No. 1 Georgia. He also chipped in a rushing touchdown, which came on a zone read. Just as he had worked on with Malzahn and offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, Stidham fooled the Georgia defensive end and rolled out to the near-side pylon for 6.

Guess which one of Stidham’s 4 touchdowns was Malzahn’s favorite.

“I’m really proud of Jarrett,” Malzahn said after Saturday’s victory. “He had the running touchdown, and I feel that was big. When he runs it just enough, I think it changes everything.”



Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Stidham’s rushing touchdown perfectly illustrates his improved decision-making. Georgia was understandably keyed in on Kerryon Johnson, who picked apart the Dawgs’ defense for 167 yards on a career-high 32 carries. Teams will continue to sell out on Johnson when Auburn runs its option.

As Malzahn said, though, the more Stidham is confident in his ability to call his own number, the more deceptive the Tigers’ offense will become.

That’s been Malzahn’s main objective all season. It’s not that Stidham lacks athleticism. He’s not Newton, but he has the ability to use his legs to his advantage. It’s just been a matter of getting him to rely on them at the right time.

Against Clemson, Stidham wasn’t willing to do that. Did Auburn’s offensive line perform up to its standards in the first real test of the season? No. But neither did Stidham. He was indecisive. As a result, Clemson racked up its most sacks in 13 years. Considering that was a battle of now-top 6 teams, that’s shocking.

But when you go back and look at Stidham’s tape from that game, it’s not shocking. He didn’t understand the offense yet, at least not from an execution standpoint. Forget Heisman Trophy candidate. Stidham spent so much time on his back that night that he didn’t look like an average college quarterback.

On the very first play from scrimmage, Stidham looked at his first read, which wasn’t open. He then tucked the ball down and realized that the Clemson defensive line was unlike anything he had ever faced in a real game. This was not a pocket that suggested “roll out and run.”



That turned into the first of Clemson’s 11 sacks.


The offensive line took plenty of flak for the way it played in that game. That play, however, was not on the offensive line. That’s all Stidham. Had Stidham been comfortable in the system, he would’ve looked much calmer in the pocket. On the dozens of run-pass options/zone reads that Auburn ran that night, Stidham called his own number once. That’s it.

Go back and watch the film. Stidham only kept it when he thought he was running for his life.

That was the sign of a guy who couldn’t keep up with the speed of the game yet. You know, like someone with four career starts. It was unrealistic to think that Stidham was going to look like a seasoned veteran that early in the season against the defending national champs.

What was realistic was that Stidham could learn from that game. And obviously, he did.

The numbers reflected that.

Stidham in 2017First 2 gamesNext 8 (after Clemson)
Sacks taken1411
TD-INT2-112-2
Completion percentage56%70%
Yards per attempt5.510
I was curious if Malzahn saw a specific turning point in Stidham’s understanding of the offense, so I asked him about that on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday.

“Probably after the Clemson game, you saw him really start growing and progressing. The next week after that, he actually was very efficient with the ball,” Malzahn said. “You can just see the way he protects the football and you can see his decision-making and just how efficient he is throwing the football.

“I think each week, he’s gotten more and more comfortable.”

A lot of that had to do with getting on the same page with Lindsey, who is in his first year at Auburn. He saw what others saw in Stidham against Clemson — he was too afraid of turning the ball over. Trusting protection to hold and receivers to get open wasn’t easy.

“Probably after the Clemson game, you saw (Stidham) really start growing and progressing. The next week after that, he actually was very efficient with the ball. You can just see the way he protects the football and you can see his decision-making and just how efficient he is throwing the football. I think each week, he’s gotten more and more comfortable.”
Auburn coach Gus Malzahn
Stidham made headlines a month ago when he said that he couldn’t audible at the line of scrimmage. Malzahn defended himself by saying Stidham actually had more freedom to change protections and to make decisions on the run-pass options than “any quarterback he’s had.”

After the Georgia performance, nobody was talking about Stidham’s limitations.

“It’s just his command of the offense, the confidence, he’s doing a very good job,” Malzahn said on Wednesday. “Chip’s giving him a lot of flexibility, and he’s doing a good job with that.”

The question now is whether Stidham and the Auburn offense can shake up the SEC and College Football Playoff picture. And of course not all of that falls on the sophomore signal-caller. If Johnson continues to run like Le’Veon Bell in a college uniform and the Auburn defense stuffs the running game, Stidham won’t need to do a whole lot.

Nobody is expecting Stidham to run for as many yards as Newton did, nor is anybody expecting Stidham to play quite like Heisman Trophy favorite Baker Mayfield.

But if he can continue give Auburn the type of attack it had against Georgia, Stidham and the Tigers are every bit as dangerous as anyone heading into the Iron Bowl/SEC West final. Fitting it’ll be that Stidham’s last regular-season game of his first full season will come against Alabama. Once upon a time, he was billed as the guy who would help dethrone the mighty Tide.

That doesn’t seem so crazy anymore.

[War Eagle!!!]

I think the biggest difference with Stidham is play calling. They put in the little wrinkle on the read option to throw it to the slot, and that ate UGA up. I don't think Gus needs a running QB, but it helps to keep the defense honest. The option pass to throw underneath to the slot also keeps them honest.

[CCTAU]

I think the biggest difference with Stidham is play calling. They put in the little wrinkle on the read option to throw it to the slot, and that ate UGA up. I don't think Gus needs a running QB, but it helps to keep the defense honest. The option pass to throw underneath to the slot also keeps them honest.

This is true. But how many times in those first couple of games did you look at the screen and say, "If he had only kept the ball on that play"?.

Now he seems to be seeing that option a bit more. Even if it is not a true run option, the ability to fool the defense a few times creates hesitation on the defense. And that is all we need to make the rest click better.

I'm hoping he sees the open run a few more times against bama and causes those LBS to hesitate a hair. That will be all KJ and the line needs.

[jmar]

Agree I thought the play calling minus the two failed wrinkles was next to brilliant.
Not against trick plays out of the gate as an element of surprise but would rather them be a result of our staff identifying a defender getting too aggressive and/or out of position.

Being a greedy bastard I actually want more short stuff integrated into the play calling just to lessen the propensity to hurl it deep. Seriously we shouldn't expect any good defense to be vulnerable deep over 4 or 5 times per game. Not only that, we actually have the playmakers with escapability to turn some far safer throws into huge gainers. Excluding an occaisional wheel route the other stuff that succeeded are much like runs.
The flairs, screens and my new favorite out of the trips formation that drops a WR underneath to the inside should be a staple for this offense. Just want to see twice as many...mostly to preserve KJ.
***
Big bodied Craig-Meyers caught the first ball thrown for his only reception of the game.
Chandler Cox had one reception. What a weapon with a head of steam.
No tight end throws. Still a disappointment.

I really like Stidham.
It's said he can make all the throws. We obviously don't have back shoulder throws or sprint out passes in our offense but the guy is very patient, extremely accurate and has learned to throw it away when necessary. And yeah he can get away now and then which we will probably need him to do a few more times if we are to continue.

Note:
Next season we are down four offensive linemen, ALL starters including-Smith, Dunn, Golson and James.
Don't know about you guys but Horton, Harrell and Tega need a heap of polishing if they are going to become a force in this league.
   

[The Six]

I heard a couple of guys from SBNation talking about Malzahn recruiting pocket passers. It all goes back to Nick Marshall missing some throws in the NC game against FSU that Gus believes were the difference. So, he's gone after pocket passers without realizing the way we got to that game was having a QB who could run well and throw some. With Willis, Gus has gone back to looking for runners who can throw a little. Will he be around here long enough to see if the correction works?

[jmar]

I heard a couple of guys from SBNation talking about Malzahn recruiting pocket passers. It all goes back to Nick Marshall missing some throws in the NC game against FSU that Gus believes were the difference. So, he's gone after pocket passers without realizing the way we got to that game was having a QB who could run well and throw some. With Willis, Gus has gone back to looking for runners who can throw a little. Will he be around here long enough to see if the correction works?

Will Willis?

Stidham is good for at least one more season, possibly two and after that we might see Bo Nix (if AU bound) as a RS Freshman/ Soph.
Or maybe the WR/ athlete Gatewood that doesn't even play QB?????? Holy shit the project that could/will be.
Are there more choices?

[CCTAU]

Will Willis?

Stidham is good for at least one more season, possibly two and after that we might see Bo Nix (if AU bound) as a RS Freshman/ Soph.
Or maybe the WR/ athlete Gatewood that doesn't even play QB?????? Holy shit the project that could/will be.
Are there more choices?

Willis is a wild card. Right now he looks pretty good because he is a freshman. If he continues to grow in this system, he COULD be a very good QB. OR he could reach his limit and not be as good as we hope.
But he definitely has a head start on all of the other guys that will come in later.
Gatewood is the same as Willis. You have no idea how good he could be.

I guess Nix is more like Stidham.   I think we will be OK. But why do we even care? We can always just wait for someone else to groom a guy and pick him up from JUCO!

[dallaswareagle]

Willis is a wild card. Right now he looks pretty good because he is a freshman. If he continues to grow in this system, he COULD be a very good QB. OR he could reach his limit and not be as good as we hope.
But he definitely has a head start on all of the other guys that will come in later.
Gatewood is the same as Willis. You have no idea how good he could be.

I guess Nix is more like Stidham.   I think we will be OK. But why do we even care? We can always just wait for someone else to groom a guy and pick him up from JUCO!

I am hoping that if Gus is truly letting Chip take over the offense that we will let him coach/work with the QB's within his offensive scheme. 

[Saniflush]

We recruit our QB's 2 years after they have signed elsewhere. 

[jmar]

We recruit our QB's 2 years after they have signed elsewhere.

[Buzz Killington]

We recruit our QB's 2 years after they have signed elsewhere.

The Demo models usually carry a nice discount.

[wesfau2]

The Demo models usually carry a nice discount.

You let some other sucker take that depreciation hit!