what if?

jeebus · Post by **jeebus** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 10:49 am

what if.... what do you guys think would have happened if the beloved Omar Jacobs would have stayed this year? it seems he had a good running back in barnes if he would be used as such, and a great reciever in partridge... maybe he would have also passed on myer's winning spirit that helped out team so much and done something incredible. wisky was closer then i thought it would be anyway...and we played hard against osu... im just curious what everyone else thinks. even if we hit bumps like the temple game maybe omar's experience would have lifted the team up since it seems everyone gave up after that. it was a good year for the mac...NIU CMICH and OU had good teams...maybe with jacobs we would have brought some respect to the mac with yet another quality team

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:16 am

Sorry...I moved this one by mistake....What do I think would have happened if Omar had stayed?

The Freak would have been really enthusiastic, Hammb would have criticized Gregg Brandon and falconboy would have picked us to lose just about every week....so I guess things would have been about the same...

FalconFanatic · Post by **FalconFanatic** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 5:20 pm

Undefeated season followed by a BCS bowl game

maquisard · Post by **maquisard** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 5:32 pm

strange, almost sockpuppet like...

Strong leadership was not Omar's forte. He had limited ability to motivate on gameday. However, there were a few games this year where I felt a few more accurate passes would have resulted in a win. Akron comes to mind.

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:00 pm

Wow! Undefeated? Don't think so. We weren't undefeated with him healthy the year before with better talent.

6-6. Or, what Flipper said.

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:12 pm

The deficiencies of the coaching staff would have been a little less clear to some of the optimists due to a singular talent covering them up to a degree. Maybe a 2-3 win difference.

I don't think any of us would really feel any different about the team or program than we do now. But it is interesting to think about. Welcome to the board, by the way.

jeebus · Post by **jeebus** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:35 pm

so i guess an even better question would have been IF omar stayed around, would his stock have improved as far as the draft goes? i would imagine this is the year for qbs in the draft as they werent a hot position to pick up last year.

and as far as the no loss season....highly doubtful. i know alot of ppl arent osu fans on here, but i just dont think anyone could/can really beat them. they're firing on all cylinders this year. now wisky's another tale altogether. i think a one loss season and ending in the top 25 would have been somewhat possible

Jacobs4Heisman · Post by **Jacobs4Heisman** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:58 pm

I think it's a huge reach to think this team would have won more than 7 games with Omar this year. Like someone else said, this team was far less talented than the one that struggled last year.

As far as his draft position, I seriously doubt he would have gone any higher after a presumed tough year this year. I'm pretty sure he's a heck of a lot closer to making a roster than he would have been with another year in our spread. His pocketbook's doing much better as well. I still think he made the right decision.

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 10:44 am

Omar was a very good QB when he had a healthy PJ Pope, a great set of WR's and an offensive line anchored by guys like Andrew Hart and Rob Warren.

Take away Pope (for most of the year), Hart, Magner, Hawk and CMac and he was a bit less effective.

I don't think he would have done as well with Partridge and Brantley to throw to. Not a knock on Corey by any stretch, but you need more than one quality WR to be an effective team throwing the football.

I think Omar became less effectgive when he became less likely to run. I know that sounds like crazy talk given the fact that he was hurt trying to run by two defenders in the open field, but he developed a tendency in 2005 to throw downfield into coverage when he had wide open space to run. He tucked and ran more in 2004 and that forced the defenses to account for him. When it became clear that he wasn't going to do that, they were able to drop more guys into coverage.

Looking ahead...I think AT is ready to step forward. The TD's he threw against Toledo were great....he looked off the D, showed some mobility and kept calm while he made his reads. He also threw some frozen ropes accurately. Neither Josh nor Omar could have done it any better.

It took him awhile, but I really think he showed some improvement against Miami, Akron and Toledo. Keep WR's Barnes and Partridge healthy and we should show marked improvement passing the football next year

I hope the coaches are ready to put that vertical (downfield) element back into the offense.

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:22 pm

Flipper wrote:Looking ahead...I think AT is ready to step forward. The TD's he threw against Toledo were great....he looked off the D, showed some mobility and kept calm while he made his reads. He also threw some frozen ropes accurately. Neither Josh nor Omar could have done it any better.

It took him awhile, but I really think he showed some improvement against Miami, Akron and Toledo. Keep WR's Barnes and Partridge healthy and we should show marked improvement passing the football next year

I hope the coaches are ready to put that vertical (downfield) element back into the offense.

I agree. I believe he is developing and will be ready to lead us next season.

jeebus · Post by **jeebus** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:14 pm

god i hope so. i remember when he came in saying he wanted to be just like harris and there was alot of excitement about it. but i'm NOT so sure he belongs in starting qb. we'll see what recruiting does, or how training goes in the off season i guess. now...im about to bring up a hotbutton issue here...one that i know alot of you dont wanna hear so skip ahead now to the part where i say happy new year...

if it was me id be looking alot harder at barnes. i know i know "doesnt have the arm" but i hope someone's been working with him on that since toledo because he did a nice job vs. wiskyand in week 2. whats so wrong with a running qb if gb would make a new playbook (gasp) that uses that strength well. or else a 2 qb system with different qbs at different strengths. ie, a thrower and a runner. i know i know u put in barnes and the defense thinks "watch the run" but that can be a good thing. i for one am just saying that its been an effective approach at other schools. we have some different weapons then we did in the harris omar years that i think we need to look at and not try to fit our current players into the puzzle piece openings from those teams...they just dont fit and dont make for a good picture when u trim em down and smash em in.

now...HAPPY NEW YEAR. if ull excuse me ive got some major boozen to do.

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:30 pm

If Wisconsin had that full time to scout Barnes and not just guess what he was going to do, we would have had less than 100 yards rushing.

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:17 pm

orangeandbrown wrote:
Flipper wrote:Looking ahead...I think AT is ready to step forward. The TD's he threw against Toledo were great....he looked off the D, showed some mobility and kept calm while he made his reads. He also threw some frozen ropes accurately. Neither Josh nor Omar could have done it any better.

It took him awhile, but I really think he showed some improvement against Miami, Akron and Toledo. Keep WR's Barnes and Partridge healthy and we should show marked improvement passing the football next year

I hope the coaches are ready to put that vertical (downfield) element back into the offense.
I agree. I believe he is developing and will be ready to lead us next season.

I do too. IF AT can step up his game, I think he can still be the QB we were hoping to see.

GO FOOTBALL

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:28 pm

I even went back and looked at his line from the UT game...much better than I remembered it.

21-35. 213 yards, 3 TDs no INT. The 6 yards/attempt is starting to edge up to where it needs to be.

jeebus · Post by **jeebus** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:38 pm

yea those numbers arent too bad...but maybe it was just the execution and playcalling that made me cringe.