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I have never played QB and don’t pretend to be a QB expert.

Jay Cutler while giving an interview on Chicago radio Friday (9/10) was talking about Justin Fields, Bears 1st round pick. The question where in regards to should Fields play or sit and learn behind Andy Dalton his first year in the NFL. Jay stated a lot can be learned by the backup when not playing, BUT what Jay said was more important than playing time was that the Bears don’t fire the HC and bring in a new OC next year. His point was that consistency in the offensive system is very important for a young QB. Jay was speaking from first hand knowledge as he had 3 OCs in a 3 year period with the Bears.

This conversation got me thinking about Ken Seals. IN MY OPINION, Ken Seals has not played as well this year as he did last year. Did Vandy do SEALS a disservice by changing OC? And is it reasonable to expert the “sophomore regression” to be worst because of the change in OC? I think so. Like everything this year my new expectations for QB play this year is it needs to build for next year. Also having Seals run the QB read, which is not his strength, needs to stop. I do expect the OC to stop running that every 1st and 2nd down with Seals. It is a great play with Wright at QB. In the 1st Q vs CO St, it was like Mason running Webb up the middle every 1st and 2nd down.

I only post this so other fans may consider this viewpoint when evaluating the QB play this year.

Seals actually is in hus third OC: Mason's 1 and 2 with Lea.

Charleston, I was about to say "I think you are mistaken." But then I remembered Seals was an early enrollee in January, 2020. So when did Mason change OC's when he brought Todd Fitch in, before or after spring ball 2020? Had to be after if Seals is in his 3rd OC.

maybe charleston was referring to fitch, raih and lynch....?

David Raih is still the offensive coordinator by title. He's just not calling the plays on gameday. Joey Lynch is the QB's coach, and he's the guy on the sidelines who's in Seals ear after every series.

Maybe Raih is in charge of Philosophy and Strategy and Lynch is in charge of Tactics and Implementation.

Point is Seals and also Wright have had to deal with a lot of change, which is what Cutler said was so difficult. All this gets better hopefully with continuity.

In keeping with the "change can be bad" theme, consider this - in Mason's 7 years he had 4 DC's (counting himself) and 4 OC's. I am not going to try to count up the changes among the position coaches or teh special teams coach.

This should have been Seals job to lost.He proved last season that he could perform. When you say the job is wide open, you tell Seals that he did not get it done and the spot is open. Thast has him looking over to the side lines all the time .Tell him it is his to lose.

Dorewithaflare wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 1:33 pm This should have been Seals job to lost.He proved last season that he could perform. When you say the job is wide open, you tell Seals that he did not get it done and the spot is open. Thast has him looking over to the side lines all the time .Tell him it is his to lose.

....and then create opportunities for mike wright's athleticism to benefit the team in non-qb ways....and then cross fingers that our #1 qb backup doesn't suffer significant injury.

We certainly are not the only team with 2 capable QB's and some of what we see is also a rookie head coach learning how to deal with what we all hope will always be a problem - keeping at least 2 capable QB's out of the portal and helping the team. I think Lea is a quick learner and you won't hear as much about the QB competition, but will hear a lot about Wright contributing to the team. Vanderbilt has often had 0 QB's so this is not exactly a common problem for anyone at Vanderbilt or for us fans.

During the 2nd Quarter I told several people that I truly hoped they would leave Seals in and let him play through it. Turned out to be the right call. While open competition is fine in the off season, continuing it I fell does more harm than good.
We found something in the 3 step drop short passing game that we can build around. Setting up the run with the pass shows a little promise. We do have a couple of deep threats to keep defenses from just jumping on those short routes. If if not completed we got some interference calls as well.
Using Wright in some wildcat near the goal line might be cool.

My concern with Seals is that he seems to overshoot the receiver on deep balls. Allied to this, play caller seems to keep dialing them up. Seals looked sharp on the short and intermediate throws, but the deep ball remains elusive. The big-time catch that Pierce made was on an underthrown ball that the defender would have had a real chance at intercepting had he not been face-guarding Pierce. Although it's a small sample size, Wright had the same problem against ETSU.

Seals is a decent QB but not really a top SEC type. What bugged me was not the overthrown or underthrown deep ball.....it was the two missed short throws(with no pressure) to Cam both crucial 3rd down & short passes!

Corey pointed out in the broadcast that it is not always the QB that causes the miss. Receivers not running correct route obviously part of it. The other is that no matter how many time they connect in walkthroughs during the game defenders disrupt the route. Only game experience and a bit more time to let the route develop will help this. Not saying Seals is by any means where we need him to be but seems best option at this point to try to develop.

Nashmann wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:37 pm Seals is a decent QB but not really a top SEC type. What bugged me was not the overthrown or underthrown deep ball.....it was the two missed short throws(with no pressure) to Cam both crucial 3rd down & short passes!

I still think those were Cam's fault, not Seals's. According to Chaveus, he ran the wrong route, or was supposed to break it off and kept going. That isn't the QB's fault.

Ask me in December if I think Seals regressed as a sophomore.

Put Seals on a team that gives him four to five seconds and would be as strong as most SEC QBs This young shows leadership all the time.Listen to his interviews.