What Do You See In MIke White

[usfgrad84]

This is for discussion only. Not trying to bash or praise the kid.

My question is what makes you think Mike White is the best QB for our future:

Statistically, his completion percentage, is tied with Gary Nova of Rutgers for last in the league for starters.

He has 3 TDs vs 8 INTs. The 8 INTs are out of 144 attempts. That is similar to a few of the other QBs in the conference, but the other guys have between 2 to 4 times more attempts.

Before we start with the "well he is only a freshman", there are at least 3 other freshman in the conference.

[USFbulls24]

The scheme doesn't do the kid any favors. When running the power run and only having a few possible pass catchers on the field most of the time the QB is forced to make the correct read on every play and if they don't it's going to end up bad. Yes, I know this can be said for every type of offense, but I think it is magnified in this scheme. I think he has the potential to be a good QB, but in my opinion, in the "Power Run" unless you're an Andrew Luck type of talent/QB you might as well forget about being amazing.

Edited December 1, 2013 by USFbulls24

[NCBull]

I agree that he looks average, and I'm not on the bandwagon with him being the best QB here ever. I also agree with 24 that the scheme isn't helping him much...it's a lot to learn in 4 months and the ridiculous pre-snap motion would probably even confuse Peyton Manning for a while. The receivers are also dropping some balls and probably running some incorrect routes. Last, there's a lot of pressure to deal with and maybe even some infighting in the locker room that might make it tough to take charge.

All those excuses said, I still don't see much that I would call special from White. He looks good at times and pretty awful at other times. I would agree that he's the best we have and (at least for one more game and through the spring) the short-term future of the program. I would also agree that he could develop into a serviceable or even solid QB with an established running game and a few dependable ball catchers. But he hasn't shown great field vision and his passes are inconsistent...one looks like it was shot out of a cannon with a perfect spiral, the next lacks zip or is overthrown 10 yards. And he needs to be a great passer because there doesn't seem to be much mobility (another potential weakness).

So overall for me I'm hopeful and he's only a true freshman...but the expectations some have (or perhaps had) are way too high right now. He needs time to develop on and off the field, and good coaching. Here's hoping.

[370Bull]

Meh...

[usfbullrider]

As far as a pocket passer he's pretty good.  I'd think the pro system and the playbook aren't meant to make rookies look good.  His arm strength and accuracy were above my expectations watching his HS tape.  His consistency isn't there yet but he generally makes good decisions for the majority of the game.  He will be really good with time in the system, however, if say a flowers or someone else can show they can run around and make the plays then he'll be replaced.

[JTrue]

He's the best we've got. That's about all I can say about him.

[BigShoop]

Leadership

Respect from his teammates

A good "looking" ball

The ability to read a defense

Fire

[mjadams]

I hope he isn't the best we have next year.

[FatDaddyBull]

We will have to see some development out of him next year. Or we will have a lot of games like we have had since he's taken over. Not blowouts, not pretty.

[Dogma]

I'm hopeful being that he's a true freshman.

 

Also, remember that he probably had extremely limited practice.  Normally teams practice their starting and back up QB's. 

3rd string QB often do very minimal work as is, as they are not planned to be on the field

White was essentially a FOURTH STRING QB. 

 

Obviously I don't know much of what's going on during training, but I'm guessing that at least for the preseason and first few games, he was given almost no real practice time.   This doesn't count film training and reading up on the plays, which is completely different than live scrimmages.  Even for the (what I'm guessing) EXTREMELY limited scrimmages, he was mostly with the 3rd string lines.

 

He was basically thrown into the fire after the quickest of boot camps.

This is very different than other freshmen QB's who were already announced as the 1st or 2nd string during the preseason/beginning of season.  They compete directly with one another and practice on both the 1st and 2nd string lines. This is why White's results this season cannot be compared to O'Korn (Houston's freshman QB.)

 

I thought White possessed good talent.  Hopefully (and I'm expecting) after an off-season's length of actual practice he can develop into a solid starter

Edited December 1, 2013 by dogma