Is Freddie are new QB?

[Globetrotter]

You people are sooooo blind. Freddie Barnes is the new COle Magner. Magner played WR, S, P and QB during his tiome here. Freddie will probably wind up doing something along those lines here also.

Say what you will about his passing (and he does not throw a good deep ball) he was still 12-18 with no INT's. It's not like he was horrid out there. He showed some real leadership abilites and the team seemed to be behind him 100%....we struggled with that a bit last year...I don't know that everyone was behind AT when Omar got hurt. And I don't mean that as a knock on AT.

This is a great point. Freddie played himself into a starters role last night. Probably not at QB. He will be a wideout, RB, backup QB and a guy we can lineup int he backfield.....direct snap to. And guess what, we still might pass. We can win games with Freddie at QB. I think we can win the MAC with AT at QB.

[BleedOrange]

I'm firmly in the camp of getting an extended look at Anthony Turner at QB, with Barnes in some kind of "slash" type role. That said, I think some folks are being too quick to write off Barnes ability to play QB.

There were a couple passes last night that when he let them go, I took a deep breath because there didn't appear to be ANYONE open. Both times he drilled completed passes nicely into tight coverage.

One or two his incompletions probably should have been caught. On one deeper ball he threw down the left sideline, the receiver (Charles I believe) got tangled up with the DB about the time the ball was released and couldn't finish his route. The pass sailed over everyone looking awful, but that one really wasn’t Freddie's fault.

That leaves maybe 2 or 3 bad passes. I don't think any of them came close to being picked. I realize virtually all the attempts were short passes. But for his first collegiate game, against one of the better Big 10 programs, with very little receiver experience, a new feature RB behind him, I think he did quite well.

People on here are defending the freshman punter (and probably rightly so) because of the formation our coaching staff is putting in place, are then willing to assume that the r-freshman Barnes can't throw deep because that same staff didn't put it in his first game plan, against a pretty darn good opponent. That seems a bit contradictory to me.

Admittedly, the deep passing game isn't there with Barnes at QB right now. And I agree we can't get by running QB draws and short out patterns all the time. After what we've seen the last several years, that's a big change for us (and we're probably a bit spoiled in this regard). But there are a lot of reasons behind that, it's just one game, and I just don't think it translates into "Freddie Barnes can't throw deep".

Barnes did look very so-so in the spring game. So did AT, with the same offense. Compare that to how AT looked in the 05 spring game with more experienced skill players around him. It's a night and day difference.

Also, quite frankly, if we judged the QB and deep passing ability of Josh Harris based on how he looked at the position as a Freshman, he too would have been permanently moved to RB. But he did all right for himself in the long run.

brewer, again, please, why don't you post more often?

[BGSUFootballFan]

Thats because Gregg Brandon is a excellent proven Offensive coach, who often plays very ballsy no matter who the opponent is. On the other hand he is never shown to be even a decent ST's coach! Really good at times, but mostly terrible at other times... so lets call it sporadic. Therefore the judgement that people are making that Barnes shouldnt be QB because he isnt a true QB, is more likely the possibility than the coaching staff sucks with punt formations, so then they must also suck with QB evaluation.

[TG1996]

Freddie did a very good job a couple times of checking down and completing to the third or fourth option. That was good to see, as well as the aforementioned completions into tight coverage. Unfortunately, the one that's going to stick in my mind is the 4th and 5 on the last real drive, he rolled out, had the receiver open moving with him and he hesitated a couple extra steps and ran his man OB. Maybe there was more coverage there than I saw, but it seemed like they had the first down if he'd have thrown a couple steps earlier.

Not Freddie's issue at all, but I was less than happy to see them come out after going down 21 and keep running the ball. It was almost like just coming out and taking a knee to kill the clock would have been too obvious.

[svillefalcon]

We know just from the gameplan (and the Spring game) that Freddie can not throw the ball downfield. I want to see if Turner can. We cant beat Miami or Toledo by only throwing ten yard outs and screen passes.

I will give you toledo, but im sick and tired of everyone saying how miami is so good because their not, they arent any better than we are.

[Metz]

We cant beat...Toledo by only throwing ten yard outs and screen passes.

Why? They beat us that way

[hammb]

Also, quite frankly, if we judged the QB and deep passing ability of Josh Harris based on how he looked at the position as a Freshman, he too would have been permanently moved to RB. But he did all right for himself in the long run.

As I was telling Freak last night after the game Josh didn't really develop into a good passer until his senior year. Before that time he was a sub 55% completion guy who also threw a few INTs. He was very sporadic, but his ability to run made up for that.

If Barnes has enough arm to at least keep the defense honest I would have no problems with him at QB, but I'm really not sure he does. He looked good last night, but as the season wears on, that running game will start to bottle up if you cannot at least complete one or two shots downfield to loosen things up. I'm not sure Barnes has the arm to even do that, unfortunately.

I will say that I enjoyed watching last night's offense a helluva lot more than what we've watched the past 2 seasons. Run the ball, and use that to set up the pass. Run the ball through a series of option and misdirection plays to keep the defense guessing. I think AT's mobility will allow us to use that same type of running game while also having a better passing threat. Freddie will be invaluable being on the field but not as a QB. A WR/RB/Wing back type roll fits his skillset nicely, and he does throw a better ball than Cole Magner if you want to try a trick play or two .

I will say that if Turner doesn't look improved over what we saw last year, then I wouldn't mind seeing more of Barnes he was impressive last night. Still I cannot help but remember how insistent Brandon has been about AT being his starter, despite how high he's been on Barnes. It is quite possible that Turner has improved greatly over the player we watched last year.

[jacojdm]

Still I cannot help but remember how insistent Brandon has been about AT being his starter, despite how high he's been on Barnes.

One must tread lightly when using AT's name and the phrase "how high he (is)" in the same sentence.

[BGSU Falconz]

I still say we haven't seen the tip of the iceberg as far as AT's talent. I saw him in a couple games at CJ, and he was nothing short of amazing.

So he played a few bad games in which he was thrown into the starting position. So he had a bad spring practice (who hasn't?)

If what I saw of him in HS were real, he's got the potential to be great.

[TG1996]

So he had a bad spring practice (who hasn't?)

I can honestly say I never had a bad spring practice while I was at BG.

I think if AT can bring his passing game around to the way it was touted coming in, with a running game like we saw last night, this team could kick some balls in the MAC. The benefit of having the schedule "weighted" toward the later months, they pretty much have a month and a half (or more) to get things clicking. Paraphrasing hammb from another thread, as disappointed (and even mad) as I was last night, I'm alot more excited for the MAC schedule than I was 24 hours ago. (And I was pretty excited then.)

[Flipper]

hese days yiou can't be too one dimensional. We were less effective offesnively even with Omar because teams were on to us. All you had to do to beat us was drop eightand wait for Omar to try and force one.

This year, if we don't keep te safeties and LB honest, we'll see eight in the box all night and we won't be screwed. I think we need to give AT a chance to run this offense. He was a square peg with last year's offense.

I'd love to see us work the middle of the field with Winovich and Odrobinak. You keep those safeties back a step covering the downfild passes and the LB's home to contain a scrambling QB and there's going to be a ton of room for the FB and the TE to play in between them.

[OptionQB]

Sorry if this has been said, but regardless it needs to be said again.

Freddie Barnes did not beat us against Wisconsin. An absolute refusal to teach defensive principles like wrapping and tackling and attention to detail on special teams is what did us in again. You can not play "cute" football against the Big Ten, regardless of the opponent, and expect to knock people down with shoulders and one arm tackles. The defensive commitment given to this game in the last two years as a staff is laughable at best.

I know I keep hearing about this magical spring game of two years ago, but let's face it, Anthony Turner would not have provided anything against Wisconsin that Freddie Barnes did not already do.

[BGSUFootballFan]

Yes, but the point is Turner seems to be a better thrower whereas Barnes is the better runner. So the best way for us to use BOTH players, would be Turner at QB and Barnes at HB/WR.

[OptionQB]

I happen to disagree. Barnes provided strong leadership throughout the game, when his players needed him. And Turner failed to do so on a certain summer night with an herbal remedy.

[DrDesert]

Sorry if this has been said, but regardless it needs to be said again.

Freddie Barnes did not beat us against Wisconsin. An absolute refusal to teach defensive principles like wrapping and tackling and attention to detail on special teams is what did us in again. You can not play "cute" football against the Big Ten, regardless of the opponent, and expect to knock people down with shoulders and one arm tackles. The defensive commitment given to this game in the last two years as a staff is laughable at best.

I know I keep hearing about this magical spring game of two years ago, but let's face it, Anthony Turner would not have provided anything against Wisconsin that Freddie Barnes did not already do.

WELL SAID!!!