CBSSports: Bo Nix QB pecking order

[aubiefifty 18,231]

CBSSports attempts to place Bo Nix in the QB pecking order

ByKeith Niebuhr

After being named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year in 2019, all eyes will be on Auburn quarterback Bo Nix this season.

Can he make a big jump from Year 1 to Year 2?

And entering the season, where does he rank nationally -- and among SEC signal callers?

In one piece this week, Ben Kercheval of CBSSports attempted to put quarterbacks into tiers. with an emphasis on passing numbers and experience. The two in the first tier most college football fans could guess - that being Clemson's Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State's Justin Fields. Tier II, which he described as "potential all-conference selections and a few fringe Heisman contenders," included 10 quarterbacks, notably Florida's Kyle Trask and Georgia's Jamie Newman.

Which tier did Kercheval put Nix into?

That would be Tier IV. While that may seem like somewhat of a slight for Nix, now a sophomore, Kercheval says the quarterbacks in this category are "Players to keep an eye on who are primed for breakout seasons."

Nix is listed No. 1 in Tier IV ... which would make him fifth (No. 5) among all SEC quarterbacks ranked using this system.

Writes Kercheval: "Nix was an enigma as a freshman. I don't think that was entirely his fault, but we there were plenty of all-or-nothing moments. Still, he was named the SEC's Freshman of the Year and I bet he takes a big step forward as a sophomore. That's why he's in this tier."

Two days later, Chip Patterson posted an article on quarterbacks using "maverick" and "bus driver" as a sorting tool.

"Bus drivers get you to where you need to go on time," Patterson said. "They are capable of leading a team to title contention and even winning a national championship ... with the right pieces around them. But when judged individually, as players are in the NFL Draft process, they are not rated against their peers the way their teams were in college.

"Mavericks, on the other hand, are elite. When they are judged against their peers, they are proven to be among the most talented quarterbacks in the entire country. To put an oversimplified line in the sand for this discussion: mavericks are first or second round NFL Draft talents while bus drivers often are Day 3 picks or go undrafted."

Here, five teams as listed as having a "maverick" at quarterback. They are:

• Clemson (11/5): Trevor Lawrence
• Ohio State (4-1): Justin Fields
• Georgia (7-1): Jamie Newman
• Texas (35-1): Sam Ehlinger
• USC (60-1): Kedon Slovis

In his next category, Patterson listed the quarterbacks "Looking for a Joe Burrow-like leap" ....

• Florida (15-1): Kyle Trask
• Auburn (25-1): Bo Nix
• Notre Dame (28-1): Ian Book
• Penn State (30-1): Sean Clifford
• Texas A&M (30-1): Kellen Mond
• Miami (60-1): D'Eriq King

[gr82be 14,907]

I'm good with the Bus Driver category and I think that is where Bo fits. 

From The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon...

[80Tiger 907]

Not getting the Kyle Trask thing. Just didn’t see it. I guess Newman at UGA is about potential. Kind of agree with Bo’s placement. Mond is what he is after 3 years in. 

[countoff 331]

Bo's success is highly dependent on the performance of the offensive line.   I believe (maybe) that the Patriots were able see through the poor line play to determine that JS was NFL quality.  But I think the Patriots-JS situation is the exception to the rule.  If the offense moves the ball, the QB gets the credit....if they don't...he gets the blame.  It's not fair but that's the way it is.

I have faith in Bo (the individual QB).  But I don't think he's good enough to overcome poor OL play.  So predicting his "level" is tough.  Is the OL gonna be mediocre to good?  Or are we going to see the same thing we have seen over the past few years?  I don't know.....So ..yes.. I think Tier IV is a correct assessment.

Now that I think about it....Didn't Ben Leard have a similar situation?  He had a great Senior year.  But his previous years were not so good.  Was that due to him?  Or the line in front of him?

 

[alexava 6,974]

We need the offensive line to make a Joe Burrow type leap. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

28 minutes ago, alexava said:

We need the offensive line to make a Joe Burrow type leap. 

From a pass blocking perspective? not at all. Run blocking, they could serve to be better, but there's a few things higher up on the totem pole to me. They performed well overall vs Alabama, LSU and I seem to remember pretty decently against Georgia (I could be wrong on that). 

 

I feel like they were middle of pack in run blocking last season, and we had like a 9th ranked ish passing game (not looking at stats just guessing). Again, just to me, the offense was flawed in so many different departments, I couldn't in good conscious just leave it at the OL's feet.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

I think Chad will improve everything on offense by a pretty solid bump, and with Auburn always having so many big time games, having Bo as a trendy heisman pick makes sense. I think Book will have a better year, but it probably won't mean much like always with ND. I really really like Miami's situation with D'eriq. It's very centralized around POTENTIAL, but they've kept some stud RBs recently, Jeff Thomas in a real passing game, Lashlee's much less, can be amazing, and their defense has had the pieces to be good for a minute. I like Miami alot naturally, but I'm hoping they figure out 10 wins and maybe a competitive game with Clemson in the ACC CG.

[countoff 331]

5 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I feel like they were middle of pack in run blocking last season, and we had like a 9th ranked ish passing game (not looking at stats just guessing). Again, just to me, the offense was flawed in so many different departments, I couldn't in good conscious just leave it at the OL's feet.

I don't believe I agree with you about this.  

One of Bo's best features is that he is elusive when he drops back to pass and he tends to extend plays with his feet.  The OL stats are aided by Bo avoiding sacks.  But often his passes were errant because he was constantly wary of the activity around him and he was on the run.

I think I accidentally changed the discussion from Bo's abilities to another one of my rants about poor OL play.  Sorry.

Bo is a very good QB and, if he had a better supporting cast, he would be considered a Tier I or Tier II QB.

[McLoofus 35,182]

6 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Again, just to me, the offense was flawed in so many different departments, I couldn't in good conscious just leave it at the OL's any single player or position group's feet.

With a small edit, I believe this is more or less the story of Auburn football since Nick Marshall left (and Will Muschamp arrived).

As for the OP, I think that's a fair way to gauge Nix. 

[lca408 380]

15 hours ago, countoff said:

Now that I think about it....Didn't Ben Leard have a similar situation?  He had a great Senior year.  But his previous years were not so good.  Was that due to him?  Or the line in front of him?

 

Ben showed flashes in 1999, notably against UGA. But he wasn’t bad before 2000. Like you said, it was probably just as much the pieces around him as he himself. His growth as a QB and the offense all came together in 2000 almost perfectly.

Campbell is another example, though in his case, it was more the offensive system/play calling that hobbled him prior to 2004. I think that JC at the end of 2002 was showing the ability that we fawned over in 2004, against both UGA and UAT. 2003 was bad all around but I don’t recall him being glaringly bad, just not quite at the comfortability he had the next year. I always think about JC when I see a highly touted QB that’s just putting up average numbers for a few seasons and I wonder if that player will breakout when the time comes. Like Mond. Eh maybe not.

[alexava 6,974]

9 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

From a pass blocking perspective? not at all. Run blocking, they could serve to be better, but there's a few things higher up on the totem pole to me. They performed well overall vs Alabama, LSU and I seem to remember pretty decently against Georgia (I could be wrong on that). 

 

I feel like they were middle of pack in run blocking last season, and we had like a 9th ranked ish passing game (not looking at stats just guessing). Again, just to me, the offense was flawed in so many different departments, I couldn't in good conscious just leave it at the OL's feet.

We could not rely on the running game at all. Pass blocking wasn’t much better. Two positions were settling us back from taking any serious steps forward on offense. 

[bigbird 60,939]

56 minutes ago, alexava said:

I couldn't in good conscious just leave it at the OL's feet

I sure can. Everything is dependent on their ability. 

[alexava 6,974]

Bird you wrongfully attributing this quote to me you feathery rascal. 

[bigbird 60,939]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

Bird you wrongfully attributing this quote to me you feathery rascal. 

I blame Golf

[alexava 6,974]

2 hours ago, bigbird said:

I blame Golf

Get him to fix it then 

[bigbird 60,939]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

Get him to fix it then 

You try and deal with that old man

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

18 hours ago, countoff said:

I don't believe I agree with you about this.  

One of Bo's best features is that he is elusive when he drops back to pass and he tends to extend plays with his feet.  The OL stats are aided by Bo avoiding sacks.  But often his passes were errant because he was constantly wary of the activity around him and he was on the run.

I think I accidentally changed the discussion from Bo's abilities to another one of my rants about poor OL play.  Sorry.

Bo is a very good QB and, if he had a better supporting cast, he would be considered a Tier I or Tier II QB.

That's fair, everything is opinionated. However, I think the fact that you have camps that have different reasons for his errant moments (and its fair to mention there were quite a few of those with entirely clean pockets) and you have camps that blame different positions (some downed Boobie instead of the run blocking, some downed both), goes to show that you can't blame one unit, or even just the players, for how bad Auburn's offense was 

My opinion will always be affected by how much time I spend discussing ball with non-Auburn fans. The disconnect between folks like that and folks on this forum makes me think the truth about Bo is probably somewhere in the middle

[Dual-Threat Rigby 9,046]

16 hours ago, McLoofus said:

With a small edit, I believe this is more or less the story of Auburn football since Nick Marshall left (and Will Muschamp arrived).

As for the OP, I think that's a fair way to gauge Nix. 

Yeah, I really think if we were being as close to objective as a human can be, this season featured some WR play that would be considered bad compared to our contemporaries. It featured routes that are bad period. It featured a QB who had some incredible lows, as you'd expect for a true freshman playing a top 5 hardest schedule. It was an offense built around a lead RB who was injury prone and couldn't do  most of what you'd like a lead SEC RB to do. Was part of that because of a really bad run blocking unit?

As you can see, this is all just a big cycle man. I think I might have internalized some anti-Bo slant bc I seem so far removed from majority thought when talking about him with my peers, but I'd never blame everything on him. That's just not what I got from watching the season 

[McLoofus 35,182]

5 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Yeah, I really think if we were being as close to objective as a human can be, this season featured some WR play that would be considered bad compared to our contemporaries. It featured routes that are bad period. It featured a QB who had some incredible lows, as you'd expect for a true freshman playing a top 5 hardest schedule. It was an offense built around a lead RB who was injury prone and couldn't do  most of what you'd like a lead SEC RB to do. Was part of that because of a really bad run blocking unit?

As you can see, this is all just a big cycle man. I think I might have internalized some anti-Bo slant bc I seem so far removed from majority thought when talking about him with my peers, but I'd never blame everything on him. That's just not what I got from watching the season 

And when that many players look confused or otherwise ill-prepared...

[API 95]

IMO, returning SEC qbs, rated by effectiveness:

1) Trask

2) BoNix

3) Mac Jones

4) Plumlee

5) Mond

All are dangerous and important to their respective teams. The light could come on for the Mond feller as he already has all the physical skills he needs.

[cole256 17,085]

Bo's play was much more than everything is the line's fault. We'll see if he's progressed or not, last year he was a little above average. This year we'll find out if the coddling hindered him or not. I also think this year will tell you if he has real super star potential or not. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, cole256 said:

Bo's play was much more than everything is the line's fault. We'll see if he's progressed or not, last year he was a little above average. This year we'll find out if the coddling hindered him or not. I also think this year will tell you if he has real super star potential or not. 

There were some truly awful moments the first half of the season, no doubt. Many moments that he should've been pulled for Gatewood. I thought he was playing pretty well by the end of the season. But I don't think he'd have much hype going into this season if he wasn't a 5* and if almost every team in the top half of the league wasn't breaking in a new QB.

[bigbird 60,939]

18 hours ago, cole256 said:

Bo's play was much more than everything is the line's fault. 

While true, a lot of his bad moments were exacerbated by the poor OL.

[DAG 34,754]

Call me a hater, but there is just something about Bo’s make up where I just don’t see a superstar in the making . I am not basing this on anything quantitative.  It’s more of my opinion which is flawed, but even if I had this all star line , I just don’t see crazy eye popping numbers from him. I definitely think he can be a quality QB for sure.

[cole256 17,085]

21 hours ago, McLoofus said:

There were some truly awful moments the first half of the season, no doubt. Many moments that he should've been pulled for Gatewood. I thought he was playing pretty well by the end of the season. But I don't think he'd have much hype going into this season if he wasn't a 5* and if almost every team in the top half of the league wasn't breaking in a new QB.

Absolutely. Timing is absolutely perfect for him. Every excuse has been made for him for bad stuff. When good stuff happens he got all the credit for that, you can't criticize him without a mob. His background made him get credit for high IQ, accuracy, benefit of doubt. He was already called a gym rat and hardest worker before he was done with spring stuff. Got rid of his competition didn't even play him.....Everything so he could be comfortable. We went all in for him. 

It might actually turn out because while he absolutely wasn't as good as many made him out to be he wasn't that bad either. Hopefully in the locker room they didn't make excuses for him