Michael Birdsong Is The New Starting QB For JMU
Well, this sort of makes my earlier post defending Thorpe a bit irrelevant, no? Mickey indicated that Thorpes’ failure to pitch the ball on 4th and one was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. That makes me think this was brewing under the surface for weeks or maybe even longer. It also makes me wonder why we stuck with an offense our QB couldn’t be trusted to run (or vice versa) for so long, but that’s probably something more suited to be discussed over a few beers than in a blog post. In any case, Birdsong has looked good and clearly has talent. If he’s the guy, then we’re behind him. Let’s go Ginger Giant!
What are the chances JT is willing to still contribute at WR or RB or TE…
Birdsong played in the same division as my school in high school. The kid tore us apart multiple times. Lets hope he can replicate that and win us some games.
@Chris, I’m hoping JT can evolve into some sort of secret weapon. He’s a sick athlete. Obviously, they can’t get too crazy since he’ll be the back-up QB, but it’d be nice to get him involved in other ways.
Yeah, as we discussed on Twitter yesterday..I’m thinking this has been simmering for some time.
Mickey gave Justin opportunity and the benefit of the doubt in VERY (too?) close games against Towson and W&M. But, we did win, so you can’t replace your experienced starter riding a 10 game CAA winning streak with the true freshman no one knows anything about…
…until…
In both the CAA teleconference and his luncheon, he was overselling how good the play call was on that 4th and 1 shotgun play. He went so far as to say that, in the booth they saw a 44 yard touchdown but JT didn’t toss it. The two prior interceptions can be chalked up to good defense, but not pitching a ball…that’s an unforced error, that’s the straw.
Mickey’s able to point out that Justin lost the job, it wasn’t taken away.
(I became increasingly uncomfortable with the way MM was throwing JT under the bus yesterday, but that’s a whole other topic)
Can’t help wondering if the 6th year was the penultimate straw. Had that not happened, he could have ridden this out. I’m sure Mickey didn’t want to shelf his (apparently) prized prospect for two years.
I still think the whole situation was summed up by the person that posted earlier (something to the effect of): “This is what happens when an actual QB plays QB rather than just a good athlete playing QB”.
I still really think that the mental capacity of a QB is totally overlooked most of the time. You can be a total slug with a so-so arm and still make it to the NFL if you understand the game (i.e. read coverages and check plays). Conversely, you can be a phenominal athlete with a cannon for an arm, but have a 5th grade reading level (JaMarcus Russell) and be a total dud. The point is, we spend way too much time talking about the athletic ability of QB’s and not enough time looking at their understanding of the game. I would argue that any team with a physically average QB who is good at reading coverages and checking plays (Tom Brady- 6th round) will have far more success than a phenominal athlete who doesn’t understand what is really going on (Michael Vick- 1st round).
Obviously Birdsong isn’t going to be checking any plays this season (but he can obviously read coverages), but Thorpe has had 5 years to figure it out, and apparently does not understand how to run the option (which sucks for an option QB).
WHOA WHOA WHOA. Watch the hard R’s in ginger. That is OUR word.
From TSN: “after No. 2 James Madison fell to Richmond … Kudos to Richmond quarterback Michael Strauss for passing for 271 yards and four touchdowns in his first career start ”
It hurts.
If you want to win in the modern age of football you gotta be able to throw the ball. Now maybe Mickey can trust the QB enough to put the ball in the air a little bit and let our athletes at WR makes plays in the open field. Not to mention opening up the gameplan will really help Mickey loosen up the D and run the ball effectively without 8-9 guys stacking the line.
I was at the UR game. I noticed that Birdsong is one heck of an athlete. He made some awesome runs. I’ll take him all day. Let’s not forget this guy can run and make plays also. I’ll argue he’s better at that than Thorpe. His size reminds me of Landers (I can only hope he’s the next coming). I was right in the middle of the UR section. Every single UR alumnis was singing his praise. They were not happy to see that he is a freshman. I’m pissed we lost, but I’m a lot more optimistic of our season now.
Thorpe = playoffs; Birdsong = deep playoff run.
I cannot help but think that all this was contrived by MM to hide the real problem. Our Defense is as soft as warm butter and it was the real reason that we lost to UR. He is getting exactly what he wants, everyone is focusing on the QB situation and not on the fact that we have not shown that we can stop a team with a good coach, a capable QB, and a good TE/possession receiver. MM likes to portray himself as not very media savvy, but it is foolish to think that he actually is. This year is going to come down to if we can fix our defensive problems NOT the QB situation, MM knows this and he is worried BIG TIME, he should be, it is going to be very difficult to win our last three games with this defense.