Agree 100%. And Pyne improved despite Rees's play calling

Agree 100%. And Pyne improved despite Rees's play calling
by Erasmus (2022-11-29 13:23:14)

In reply to: I think all will really appreciate Pyne's year more and more posted by ACross

Pyne is an accurate passer with a good arm--not a cannon, but good. And he is smart and athletic. Plus, as you say, he has grit and is a leader. He is highly respected by his teammates.

Pyne has more tools and upside than Stetson Bennett, GA's walk on QB.

Pyne will learn to go through progression and will drop ball off when under pressure.

The only limit to Pyne's upside is Rees. When Pyne started Cal game poorly and video showed Rees going viral, yelling at Pyne, that was last straw for me. Pyne is smart, quiet and hard working. Yelling at Pyne was the last thing Rees should have done.

I can't speak to Rees's potential for growth in future, but his play calling against Marshall, Stanford and Navy (in the second half) was the worst I have ever seen -- and I say that as a long-time watcher of college football who has no coaching experience.

Rees may understand how to develop a game plan, but he has no capacity to make adjustments during game and has no grasp of strategy, anticipating "mindset" and tendencies of defensive coordinators.

OC's go through a series of scripted plays at start of a game to strategize and prepare for calls later in the game. Rees has no grasp of tactical play calling. The "lollapalooza" tight end QB play with one full yard to go demonstrated that. Rees could have had "QB" flip ball back to Pyne and have him throw to Tyree coming out of backfield -- TD is my guess. My point re the tight end sneak: Rees learned play worked so he was going to keep calling it until it didn't.

"Improved?" from when to when?

I think he played to his full potential, and as ACross stated, deserves our respect in terms of commitment and leadership, but I don't think we have to overstate the quality of his performances (or his athleticism or "tools").

He played well in 3 of his 11 games:
- USC
- UNC
- BYU

2/3 of those performances in his first 4 games.

Navy was a push. Played outstanding in 1st half, atrocious in 2nd half.

He played poorly in 7 games:
- Marshall
- Cal
- Stanford
- UNLV
- Syracuse
- Clemson
- BC

He was 3-7-1 in that regard, and 1-4-1 on the back half of the season.

You are ignoring Rees play calling

Take Navy. Do you really believe Pyne could throw 4 TD passes in first half and have zero completions in second and blame difference on Pyne's performance?

The difference was Navy blitzed 10 in second half. Yes, Pyne continually held ball and got sacked. Pyne should have gotten rid of ball. But who was the guy who kept calling the 40/60 yd pass plays? Receivers were open in first and second half. Only difference was Rees play calling. He continued to call the same plays in 2nd half as first. First half Pyne had time. 2nd half he didn't. No team can defend 10-man blitz.

Can say the same against Marshall and Stanford. Your right to say Pyne zeroes in on target. He threw two pics against Marshall. But both happened because Rees called play to Mayer. Rees always called pass to Mayer on 3rd and short yardage. No creativity.

Against Stanford they were blitzing corners and went straight to Pyne. Rees even put wide receivers in motion toward Pyne (rather than have them pivot and go to sideline) leading corners to Pyne.

My point? Pyne has serious problems holding ball and going though progression. With time however he is reasonably accurate. With right OC much of Pyne's downside could have been limited. What did the defensive coordinators for Marshall, Stanford and Navy games did was "gamble" to take advantage of Pyne's weaknesses. And Rees failed to adjust. Instead, he compounded problem by calling plays that allowed defenses to exploit Pyne's weaknesses.

I could go on. The problem was the primary call made by Rees. Sure, experienced QB would have checked out or gotten rid of ball. But if Rees's call out of huddle had been a play where Pyne got rid of ball in one to two seconds in 2nd half against Navy -- for example, say a swing pass to Tyree, Navy's 10 man blitz would have exploded in their face and Tyree would have taken it to the house.