Sunday morning college football thoughts … Heading into the season, the thinking around the NFL season was that the 2023 draft could very well be the ‘year of the QB’ with so many good passers dotting the college football landscape. Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Bryce Young of Alabama, the two rated QBs this year, have generally held serve, although neither looks to be in the Luck-Lawrence ‘generational’ class; however, the one word that best describes the rest of the position so far this fall is ‘underwhelming.’ Last night, for example, Miami’s Tyler Van Dyke, who is generally considered to be one of 3-4 QB prospects after Stroud and Young, had his chance to shine with the Hurricanes playing on national TV against Texas A&M of the SEC, but he – well – underwhelmed, completing just 21 0f 41 passes in a 17-9 loss in which Miami had lots of first downs and total yards that they just couldn’t translate into points. And if there is a word to describe Van Dyke’s arm talent that word might be ‘lazy.’ Not that he doesn’t work or play hard, but he has a relatively long, slow release and while he throws a nice, catchable ball, his passes seemed to take a long time to get to the target. Van Dyke also didn’t show much in the way of athleticism. He does move around the pocket pretty well and can find secondary passing lanes, but doesn’t look comfortable throwing on the run. On the other hand, one could say that Spencer Rattler, now at South Carolina, was much ‘crisper’ throwing the ball when the Gamecocks’ hosted top-ranked Georgia yesterday. The ball came out of his hand cleanly and there seldom was much air under his throws which did look more like darts. But, like he did at Oklahoma last year, Rattler did throw a couple of untimely picks and when all was said just didn’t move the offense, although, of course they were going against the best defense in college football. It was also another less than inspiring week for Florida’s Anthony Richardson, who is looking more like a strong candidate to return to school next fall than a top pro prospect after throwing for just 112 yards and 2 picks in a narrow win over South Florida. Same for Mississippi State’s Will Rogers, who piles up the yards running Mike Leach’s ‘Air Raid’ offense, but struggles to get the ball downfield when asked to do more than just hit dump-offs.
