I never figured that they would drop off after Gradkowski because I don't think he's a very good quarterback. Sure he has tremendous accuracy, but that is as much a product of all the screens and dump offs in their offense as it is of his talent. His arm strength is sub-par and he throws a terrible deep ball from what I've seen of him.1987alum wrote:Given that Toledo was missing their star QB and their #1 back, they played about as well as you could have hoped. As the announcers kept repeating - the Rockets didn't get outgained and controlled the clock. Do those two things and you'll win 99% of your games. A pick six and a blocked punt are momentum changers and that's what killed 'em.
After seeing that game, it seems clear to me that Toledo will not be suffering any big drop off after Gradkowski graduates.
Now before the rockette posters get all fiesty, I think he's a solid quarterback that definitely has "it". He's a good leader and competitor. He sure has kicked our azz a couple times. But he's not a super-duper QB. There are many many QBs who would put up similar numbers in that system. Cochran's numbers being what they were last night proved that to an extent. The 36-yd TD in the first quarter was thrown about 7 yards in the air to a wide open receiver who ran the rest of the way. I could've made that throw. Without watching a ton of UT football, I would bet that a lot of "Brad's" yardage, TD's, and certainly completion % have a lot to do with the same type of thing.
Basically what I'm saying is it doesn't take a superstar QB to run that system. It needs an accurate, semi-mobile, smart QB who can run the system and manage the game. Gradkowski has excelled at all of those facets, but there are a lot of players out there that could do pretty well with that offense. Jury is out on Cochran, as he looked very slow last night when attempting to scramble. I remember Brucie getting a lot of key first downs on scrambles against us last year. That doesn't seem to be a part of Cochran's arsenal.
Only once my friend 
