Badgers manhandle USF

I don't think the Badgers playing at RayJay, in front of so many Floridians hurts their cause in recruiting. It may even help a little bit.
Had friends who went and crowd was about 30% Wisconsin. They have played so many bowl games down there they have “brand equity “ in the state. It’s still a long shot, just ask BB who had a damn nice pipeline there and just got a couple of kids.
 
DVR'd the game and watched it this morning because I wasn't able to last night.

Lots of stuff to like. Taylor looks great. Watson has potential and had some moments. Nice to see Shaw back on the field and producing. Cephus looks ready to go - kind of amazing considering he's been away from the program for over a year. Defense was stout up front and it looks like they'll have a good chance to make teams one-dimensional. Now they'll need to show they can cover downfield.

Couple of not-so-good things. O-line looked leaky at times. Too much penetration at times on both passing and running downs. Some of them were clearly correctable assignment errors. Lots of guys with little experience. The line should get better as the season moves along. Seemed like there were some blown coverages at times. They'll need to tighten up some things in the secondary going forward. Lastly Coan is an OK game manager, but he needs to work on his downfield passes. His short game is OK, but just doesn't seem to have the feel for down the field throws. I don't think he hit one pass much longer than about 15 yards downfield. Better teams will compress the field on them if he can't get the ball downfield more.
 
If Mertz is really #3 on the depth chart, he's just another in a long line of teases
 
If Mertz is really #3 on the depth chart, he's just another in a long line of teases
No he's not... he's a true freshman that has big upside. The premise that a freshman QB is going to be a savior is poppycock led by the media and fans that expect every Badger QB to be Rodgers/Favre.
 
If Mertz is really #3 on the depth chart, he's just another in a long line of teases
Absolutely not. #1 star rankings while great for recruiting sites and fans can be subjective and not a measure of future success/failure. #2 guys like Tua and Lawerence while true freshman and 5 star kids have a much better supporting cast around them, oh and both of those kids did not start from day 1 either at Alabama and Clemson and were much more advanced than a Mertz.
 
Mertz needs this year of maturation. Where it goes next year? Hard to tell. It kind of depends on how it plays out this year, with Coan, and how he presses him in spring practice, and next fall. In all honesty, I believe that "if" Coan shows up a lot better than Mertz is spring ball next year, he'll be looking to leave the Badgers instead of sitting behind Coan. Never believe all the "team player" concept they talk about with a lot of key personnel. Mertz is looking at his days at Wisconsin as a stepping stone to the NFL, not just a few years enjoying college and football.

I noticed that Hornibrook may be relegated to the FSU's #3 QB. That might be a bit of a tell as to how good he really was.
 
Mertz needs this year of maturation. Where it goes next year? Hard to tell. It kind of depends on how it plays out this year, with Coan, and how he presses him in spring practice, and next fall. In all honesty, I believe that "if" Coan shows up a lot better than Mertz is spring ball next year, he'll be looking to leave the Badgers instead of sitting behind Coan. Never believe all the "team player" concept they talk about with a lot of key personnel. Mertz is looking at his days at Wisconsin as a stepping stone to the NFL, not just a few years enjoying college and football.

I noticed that Hornibrook may be relegated to the FSU's #3 QB. That might be a bit of a tell as to how good he really was.
As to Mertz in the transfer portal who know, right now I would peg it at 5%. Coan is what he is, a game manager and if he’s ahead to Mertz next year it’s more of an indication that he was a bit overrated. It’s not like he played in a high division in HS

As to Hornibrook he is just not a fit for the system they run in Tallahassee on multiple levels
 
As to Mertz in the transfer portal who know, right now I would peg it at 5%. Coan is what he is, a game manager and if he’s ahead to Mertz next year it’s more of an indication that he was a bit overrated. It’s not like he played in a high division in HS

As to Hornibrook he is just not a fit for the system they run in Tallahassee on multiple levels

Agree. If Coan plays well I think we can expect him to start next year as well, and I don't think Mertz will see that as a deal breaking negative unless Wolf gets the job after Coan is done. At that point I think you start looking at a transfer but until then I think Mertz moving on is not a scenario I'm real concerned about. There is no point in transferring until he "graduates" because then he just loses another year.

Hornibrook to FSU was a surprise for me. He was an unfortunate situation in terms of development. You knew he wasn't a good athlete, but you figured he would develop a faster release and better accuracy along with quicker recognition of defenses which would make up for his lack of athletic ability. The problem was that never really happened. It just didn't seem he got much better in those areas. I would have been surprised had he made any sort of splash at FSU. Great kid though. Hope he does well for himself.
 
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