Reality is we don't know who was the best option. Nothing against Clifford--his play was fine--but maybe we would have been better with Levis. I don't know nor do you nor does Franklin.
How is Levis a top 5 or 10 pick?
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But Franklin has the best knowledge, so he is the best to make that decision.
Jamarcus Russell 2.0.. Can throw the ball 70 yards through the gold post but cant hit a guy 10 yards away
He did and maybe he would have changed his mind when he got a new OC, but Levis left, so not much he could do.
Not in the case of Clifford vs Levis. Like I said before, Levis had 3 years to prove he was better than Clifford and didn’t. Period. Clifford also played better the past 2 years at PSU than Levis did at Kentucky; you can look it up. Saw Levis shows up at the combine and says he wants to be the greatest of all time. I hope he is a success in the NFL, but good luck with that Will.
Ummmm different system the last two years with Yurcich.
Better o line this year.
Great backfield this year.
The reality is we'll never know if it was the right or wrong decision. Period.
Playing with the talent at Penn State against the Big Ten (especially last year) is easier than with the talent at Kentucky in the SEC.
Let's not forget--we went 10-2 without beating anyone decent.
I hear you, just amazing after all that Levis is 1st round, top 10 and Clifford is no where. Clifford's arm must be really weak and not even close to NFL standards. I wonder if in 2020 at the height of the Clifford demise if Franklin said that's it, Levis is our guy and he has the job to lose, then what happens.
I don’t think the greatest of all time transfers to Kentucky of all places. That would have been like Burrow transferring to Vandy to get playing time.
Mel Kiper has him as the #1 quarterback. Again, I am not saying he should have supplanted Clifford and we were on our way to the playoff. My point is this has to be an incredibly weak QB class.
You're telling me of the 100 plus programs playing football plus some D2 and even D3 that Levis is top 5 let alone the highest draft pick? He could not get on the field at PSU. Could not outperform Clifford who we all know is not great and certainly not great at the time Levis could have replaced him. Is the guy going to start as a rookie? Does a team expect to win with him at the helm? I guess so but it is a joke to me. When you listen to him talk about his arm like it is the strongest ever. So what gives, is it some kind of super human strength that arrives at the location so much faster than any other ball thrown by any other QB in history? I mean give me a break with this guy and his arm strength. He sure as hell never helped PSU the way they are talking him up to these outlandish levels. What I see is another big QB, not any bigger than many others who had to transfer because he could not beat the guy in front of him. Then starts for a slightly above average program and has mediocre results. Then magically he becomes the end all be all of quarterbacks who is now the best in the country.
I would question that when you do the scouting of all the quarterbacks out there, aren't there a few guys from the South Dakotas of the world, Wyoming, San Diego St, Utah State, Central Michigan on and on and on and there are no other guys popping up to challenge Levis. None, he is the best and has the most elite arm talent we have seen? Yet again he can't beat out a guy with a weak arm in college. Incredible.
4 QBs could go in the top 7...almost certainly top 10. This class on paper is infinitely better than last year's for example but part of the issue is teams are desperate to find a great QB and Levis has the physical tools. Odds of him working out are less than 50/50 but if he does you might get another Josh Allen. That's often worth the risk
How many times do I have to post this…..when Levis at Penn State we ran a heavy RPO style offense. No way, no how, absolutely never was Levis going to successful as a RPO quarterback. Period.
Therefore it makes no sense to compare him to Clifford, to compare his playing time here vs at Kentucky, just based on the system used.
Add different skill levels of the team then to the talent this year as a whole, especially o line and running back, and you are comparing apples to cumquats.
I guess the point is if he was so great and had so much arm talent, why didn’t he go to a more elite program with the type of system that could showcase his abilities (like Georgia for example) instead of Kentucky, a place that had no QB’s and was an automatic starting spot?
You adjust the scheme to fit the QB--that's what good coaches do.
I'm not mad we stuck with Clifford but this weird obsession about saying he didn't fit a scheme yet we recruited him doesn't make sense.
No one knew what talent he had because he played so little, was in a system that he didn’t fit, and was used more like a fullback the few times he did get in. What top team, with other top recruits, would offer him and give him a reasonable shot at playing? Plus we don’t know who was interested, only that he went to Kentucky.
And I will assume he talked the a few head coaches and OCs to find a system in which he would excel. He decided KU would be best. I again assume he had other interested teams. Sure worked out great for him.
And I have a difficult time seeing him as a top ten pick, even a first round pick.
That has been a compliant of mine of Franklin for quite a while. Franklin had great success from the get go with the RPO, with perfect talent for it in McSorely, Barkley and team. He fell in love with the system and stuck with what worked…..until it didn’t.
And yes, it was strange he was recruited to play then, perhaps he was an athlete they assumed would grow into a TE. And nearly impossible to run a different scheme when hentered a game.
That's all fair--I hope adjustments are made with Allar next season but I guess we'll see.
Yes or why did he even go to PSU and he was an after thought recruit after we lost Fields. And if he so good as the projections say then you would think you could adjust the system to accomodate him or he could thrive in any system.
Here's the point. He has not shown anything anywhere to be this highly drafted. He had this arm when he was a freshman at PSU yet where were all the big offers? Why was he not coveted by every major program?? Then he goes to a system (Kentucky) that is supposedly so much different than PSU's and supposedly so much better for him yet, yet, yet he still is not that successful! Yet, here we are despite all that with him supposedly the best quarterback in the country.
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His throwing performance in the combine today is why he's a top 5-15 pick.
Whether or not it translates is the question but he was phenomenal
Of course so was Stetson Bennett and he's projected as a late round pick
Whether or not it translates is the question but he was phenomenal
Of course so was Stetson Bennett and he's projected as a late round pick
I agree with most of this except he played a lot here, not a little. He had plenty of opportunities to show what he could do and didn’t. Maybe he wasn’t a good system fit, but I would think a #1 draft pick at the QB position could at least look good in any system.
It’s funny, most PSU fans don’t see it and most Kentucky fans don’t see it….maybe we shouldn’t have watched him so much and then we would have seen the magic.
Would be interesting to talk to Levis about his recruiting and his decision to matriculate here. Was it a new OC? Was it friends or family? Girlfriend? Ya e the campus and White Out atmosphere? Who knows……
I watched a several of his games in fall 2021 and he looked great in a couple of them. Announcers loved his quick release. Last season he had a much weaker o line and the running backs weren’t good. He also missed a couple with injuries and played Injured. Perhaps his 2021 videos were good enough🤷🏼♀️
How many pass attempts did he have? Most every time he came in he was used a running back. Or in late game mop up when he just handed off.
I’m quite sure he had plenty of pass attempts in practice throughout his time here. How did Joe Burrow earn the #1 spot at LSU? It wasn’t from his play in games. How many pass attempts did Levis have in games at UK before being named the starter? He had his opportunities and he couldn’t beat out Clifford. I’ll bet if Burrow or Justin Fields would have transferred here, they would have beaten out Clifford without a single pass attempt in a game.
Still with a raging hard on for this kid, and all because when he gets drafted high it will expose the fact that Frankling made the wrong choice at QB.
Let’s do the math shall we?
QB’s over the last 2 years (averages):
QBA: 2964.5 yards, 22.5 TDs, 7.5 INTs, 142.45 RTG, 73.9 QBR (2022), 169 rushing yards for 3.5 TDs
QBB: 2616 yards, 21.5 TDs, 11.5 INTs, 150.1 RTG, 60.9 QBR (2022) 134.5 rushing yards for 6.5 TDs
Which would you take? There is very little that separates these 2 in terms of on-field production. Will Levis getting drafted high only exposes what we already know. Teams will reach for traits at QB and hope that they can develop them. It’s the same reason Richardson will be a Top 15 pick and he’s even worse than Levis.
Ask yourself why that was the case. They saw him everyday in practice for 3 years. They clearly didn’t trust him as far as they could throw him to be accurate enough to lead an offense. Kentucky did a good job of developing him but even with them many of his throws were simple, quick passes to compensate for his inconsistent downfield accuracy and inability to read a blitz.
I think many here are being overcritical of Levis thinking it's somehow supporting our program. Levis was better than this post indicates.
Not at all. That decision was for his team as it was constituted at that time. And that was three years ago, a long time in college football.
Not really. Levis is being drafted because he can throw the ball very hard and very far. The rest of his game still needs a lot of work in order to be successful at the next level. I wouldn’t start him on any NFL team for at least 2 years.
My take is a little different. When Levis was a true Freshman Clifford was in his second year in the program. Come 2019 Clifford was going to start. I am sure Levis got very little work in 2018 his red shirt year. So now come 2020 you have a returning starter that went 10-2 and he wasn't likely losing the job to someone with little game experience (6).
It wasn't about who had the most potential. It was about who will give us the best chance to win today. For better or worse that is Penn State. Penn State isn't benching Hurts for Tua. You can argue that they should, but it isn't what happens here.
At the end of the day Levis draft status has nothing to do with Penn State and whether they made the right choice.
This isn’t even close to a Hurts/Tua situation but I fully agree with your last sentence.
Don’t think he was equating the two, just using a well known example.
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