These college football coaches had things to say about their quarterbacks from Week 7
College football gave us a handful of coachspeak gems from the week that was.
A pair of top-five teams lost on Saturday. While we knew at least one was going to lose, who saw Mack Brown‘s No. 5 North Carolina Tar Heels falling on the road to Mike Norvell’s struggling Florida State Seminoles? Once again, Nick Saban defeated another disciple, as his Alabama Crimson Tide continues to have Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs’ number.
When you’re talking about quarterbacks, it’s best to be as vague as possible
Dabo Swinney on the way Trevor Lawrence is playing heading into the middle of the season.
“He’s just having fun,” said Swinney. “He’s enjoying himself. I’ve never been around a guy more dialed into today. Literally today. And when I see him Monday, he’ll be locked into Monday. He’s just enjoying his journey. He’s so focused on his execution and details.”
Coachspeak Translator: Dabo Swinney is fully aware his star quarterback Trevor Lawrence is the runaway favorite to win the 2020 Heisman Trophy. His Clemson Tigers handed the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets their worst loss in over a century. While they continue to beat up on ACC cannon fodder, there is no doubt who the best player in college football is. Lawrence is having a blast.
Brian Kelly on Ian Book and Notre Dame’s offensive struggles at home vs. Louisville.
“Certainly, there are things that he can get better at but, look, he wins,” said Kelly. “I get asked the same question each and every week. He’s a winner. He wins football games. I said he hasn’t lost at home, and when it’s time to make plays, he made huge third-down conversions on this last drive.”
So when the game’s on the line, you can count on Ian Book to come up and make big plays for us. That’s a good feeling to have.”
Coachspeak Translator: Anytime a coach says, “he’s a winner”, it means the team is more talented than the quarterback. That’s not to say Ian Book is a glorified game-manager, but Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish offense scored 12 points at home vs. the Louisville Cardinals who are now 1-4 on the year. Kelly is aware Book is a good quarterback, not a championship-caliber one.
Jeremy Pruitt on Tennessee’s bad quarterback play of late and if a change is coming.
“That’s kind of all of us, right?” said Pruitt. “Just trying to figure out what’s the best thing. You know, if you look at it, that point right there (after the turnovers in the first half), I don’t know how many snaps we had played. But we were moving the ball well there. We went fast and didn’t get a guy blocked on the zone. So we had second-and-10. Then we had a check down, he dropped it.”
“Then we give up a sack, which we don’t need to give up a sack, and we need to throw the ball away, which knocked us out of field goal range. So we come right back and have some positive plays. And we knock the ball out of the quarterback’s hands. At that point in time, (Kentucky) hadn’t really stopped us. We had stopped ourselves.”
“So just kind of getting everybody settled back down. And then obviously the second half we had penalties and were behind the sticks most of the half.”
Coachspeak Translator: Jeremy Pruitt isn’t fully ready to admit that Jarrett Guarantano‘s consistently erratic play is about to have the Tennessee Volunteers at 2-3 on the season. Guarantano may be the seasoned veteran in the quarterback room, but he’s not giving his team a chance to win games against good teams. It doesn’t help that the offensive line has been so-so.
Nick Saban on getting the win after initially testing positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday.
“I think they were ready … to play this game whether I was there or not,” said Saban.
Coachspeak Translator: Nick Saban knows he has one of the most talented teams in the country, but what is more important is he trusts his deep coaching staff. Having an elite offensive coordinator in Steve Sarkisian puts the Alabama Crimson Tide in position to score on anybody. His top players came to play, and defensive coordinator Pete Golding did a phenomenal job as well.
Kirby Smart on Georgia’s sixth straight loss to Alabama, dating back to 2007.
“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board,” said Smart. “We’ve got a really good football team, and we control what’s in front of us by how we play.”
Coachspeak Translator: Kirby Smart is well aware his defensive backs were exposed vs. Devonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle on Saturday night, as was starting quarterback Stetson Bennett IV in the second half. He knows his team is talented, but needs to honestly assess what happened in Tuscaloosa in primetime if the Dawgs want to win the SEC East for the fourth year in a row.
So what is the big takeaway from this week’s installment of translation college football coachspeak? Calling a quarterback a winner is nothing more than a backhanded compliment. It’s one of those positions where you intrinsically know you have the guy are not. The more you have to convince yourself he’s the guy, the better the chance he’s not, especially if he’s labeled a winner.
A good quarterback can win games, but a great one can have fun effortlessly destroying someone.
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