'15 CA QB Blake Barnett (Arizona State Transfer)

[rtrn2glory]

i loved tim tebow, but we all can agree he is far from elite in terms of throwing the ball. however, the dude knew how to make plays. not saying blake is a similar passer to tebow, just piggy packing off of we don't need to have a pure pocket passer to win championships

i see a lot of tim tebow in this kid athletically and i can only hope one day he'll compare to him as a leader and a winner.

 

[GoldenToTheGrave]

I'm with you on all of this. My only comment was on Perth stating Barnett is a better passer right now than Town, which I just don't think is true. Blake's upside as a passer and runner is enormous, way higher than Town's, but I think the reason Town is ranked higher right now is because he is a much more polished passer at this point. I don't think that is really that debatable.

Barnett knows this IMO, and is working hard to refine his technique, knowledge, etc. Yes, Barnett won the Elite 11 over him, but go back and read the 'reports' from the Elite 11 guys. They state plainly that Junior year film, Blake's upside, and his coach-ability led to his win. I think the SEC pundits weren't being homers when they said they thought Town was better - he probably did throw a little better. But he should right now, because that is the only edge he has on Blake, and Blake should be able to catch him in that, whereas Town could never catch Blake in athleticism and speed.

Barnett may not be the most polished of passers, but even at this point he's still pretty good. He looks like he has solid accuracy and has a big arm. Even his biggest flaw right now, his release, really isn't that bad.

 

[Ironman8]

Barnett may not be the most polished of passers, but even at this point he's still pretty good. He looks like he has solid accuracy and has a big arm. Even his biggest flaw right now, his release, really isn't that bad.

If you watch the full game tape, not just his highlights, you will see he still has to work on accuracy and decision making. Forces too many throws, and can be a little off at times. With coaching and repetition it should get better, but like I said, I think Town is more accurate and consistent as a passer right now.

And again, with that being said, I still take Barnett over Town for ND 100 times out of 100.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

FWIW, I'd take Barnett over Town every day and twice on Saturday. I don't get the Town love at all... great pocket passer prospect, but outside of Alabama name me the last great college team that had a purely pocket passer? The game demands mobility.

Rosen has better legs and I think is a better passer than Town, but he also reminds me of Clausen. Big ego per reports, plays on a stacked team, etc. These kinds of Cali players are often overhyped and don't reach their lofty ranking.

Rosen, Brady White, Barnett... best 3 QBs in Cali IMO. Around the country, there are a lot of awesome prospects too. For ND, I don't even know if I'd have Town in my top 10. Dead serious.

1st bolded part

Ken Dorsey Miami 2002
Craig Krenzel OSU 2003
Matt Leinart USC 2004
Matt Flynn LSU 2007
and
McCarron Bama 2012


2nd bolded part

Clausen was a beast at ND.

 

[IrishLax]

1st bolded part

Ken Dorsey Miami 2002
Craig Krenzel OSU 2003
Matt Leinart USC 2004
Matt Flynn LSU 2007
and
McCarron Bama 2012


2nd bolded part

Clausen was a beast at ND.

Yeah exactly, so outside of Bama NO ONE in the past 6 seasons has a had a great college team with a statue at QB.

Clausen was good, which I was never debating.... I was saying he didn't live up to the hype. Which is 100% true.

 

[PerthDomer]

Other thing to think about is Town and Rosen play on stacked teams. Barnett basically is his team and was playing his 1st year of varsity ball... so he kinda had to force stuff.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

Yeah exactly, so outside of Bama NO ONE in the past 6 seasons has a had a great college team with a statue at QB.

Clausen was good, which I was never debating.... I was saying he didn't live up to the hype. Which is 100% true.

Well who could win 4 Heisman trophies lol

Throw Clausen behind last year's OL and he breaks records.

 

[Ironman8]

Other thing to think about is Town and Rosen play on stacked teams. Barnett basically is his team and was playing his 1st year of varsity ball... so he kinda had to force stuff.

Definitely something worth noting. Good point.

 

[TheTurningPoint]

Next time you watch Barnetts highlights....Watch his Oline. Then watch Rosen/White/Towns highlights and watch the oline. There is a HUGE difference.

Blake needs to work on cleaning up his throwing motion. My guy close to the situation says its already being shored up and looks great. And the other glaring thing is Blake needs to take care of the ball. He had fumbles and INTs...I think you stick him on Rosens team, those go down by a large margin bc he isnt forced into trying to make every play. So if he gets those TOs down next year, I think Blake is going to be great shape when he steps onto campus.

 

[GoIrish41]

Yeah exactly, so outside of Bama NO ONE in the past 6 seasons has a had a great college team with a statue at QB.

Clausen was good, which I was never debating.... I was saying he didn't live up to the hype. Which is 100% true.

Were'nt that many great teams in last 6 years outside Bama and they won 3 championships with a statue QB -- half of those in your time period.

 

[DillonHall]

Next time you watch Barnetts highlights....Watch his Oline. Then watch Rosen/White/Towns highlights and watch the oline. There is a HUGE difference.

Blake needs to work on cleaning up his throwing motion. My guy close to the situation says its already being shored up and looks great. And the other glaring thing is Blake needs to take care of the ball. He had fumbles and INTs...I think you stick him on Rosens team, those go down by a large margin bc he isnt forced into trying to make every play. So if he gets those TOs down next year, I think Blake is going to be great shape when he steps onto campus.

Yep, I was flinching (figuratively) a lot while watching his tape. It looked like he was about to get hit after almost every throw.

 

[TheTurningPoint]

Yeah exactly, so outside of Bama NO ONE in the past 6 seasons has a had a great college team with a statue at QB.

Clausen was good, which I was never debating.... I was saying he didn't live up to the hype. Which is 100% true.

I got to disagree on the Clausen part. Kid did his job at ND, and did it well. No oline, no run game, no defense, not exactly setting the QB or team up for success. Take Clausen out of those games in 2009, ND is probably 4-8. If he had stayed his last year, he would have had every passing record in his name. Just remember the state of that team....We let Stanford score to take the lead so we could get the ball back. ND has come a long long way since 2009.

 

[West Coast Domer]

I just looked up Corona Santiago's stats and I didn't realize that the team wasn't the greatest. I had assumed they were really good because the other Corona high school is sooooooo stacked. They do play a hard schedule though. They lost to Max's Redfield team by 20. I will have To pay attention to his year more closely. A friend of mine his Dad is a teacher at the school so I will have to ask him about the team.

 

[BeauBenken]

Yeah exactly, so outside of Bama NO ONE in the past 6 seasons has a had a great college team with a statue at QB.

Clausen was good, which I was never debating.... I was saying he didn't live up to the hype. Which is 100% true.

The hype of him claiming he was going to win a bazillion national titles and Heismans?

 

[IrishLax]

Were'nt that many great teams in last 6 years outside Bama and they won 3 championships with a statue QB -- half of those in your time period.

..... sooooo .... exactly what I said?

Here's my point... look at the best teams from recent college football...
2013... 5 of top 6 teams had legitimate truly athletic QBs, and the 6th (MSU) had a guy with athleticism who did occasional zone reads.
2012... 6 of top 8 had athletic QBs that ran the ball, Alabama and Georgia had pocket passers.
2011... a bit of an enigma year. Only 1 of top 5 (Orgeon) had a mobile QB. Alabama and LSU had dominating defenses, and Oklahoma State and Arkansas had dynamic offenses.
2010... all top five teams had athletic QBs who use their legs regularly to make plays.

So basically, unless you're going to build a team like Alabama that has 5 talent at every position, you don't field a dominant team without a QB that can make plays with his legs. Outside of 2011, the VAST majority of great teams used athletic QBs. So while Town might be a better NFL prospect, I find it really hard to say he's a better fit for a spread team than a QB with some wheels. I don't even really think this is that debatable.

 

[IrishLax]

The hype of him claiming he was going to win a bazillion national titles and Heismans?

This. Rivals and some other places tabbed him as a "once in a generation" type prospect. Look at all the hype he had... multiple championships and Heismans and all that crap.

He was a VERY good if not truly great college QB, but a #1 prospect like Clausen isn't supposed to end his career as a 2nd round draft pick if he lived up to the hype. He was not as good as advertised.

 

[rtrn2glory]

This. Rivals and some other places tabbed him as a "once in a generation" type prospect. Look at all the hype he had... multiple championships and Heismans and all that crap.

He was a VERY good if not truly great college QB, but a #1 prospect like Clausen isn't supposed to end his career as a 2nd round draft pick if he lived up to the hype. He was not as good as advertised.

agreed.

Despite a great career and probably should have stayed for his Sr year i don't think he would be an effective NFL QB even if he did return. dude is waaaaaaay too immobile and his physical talents as a passer aren't good enough to over come these disadvantages.

either way very good QB for ND and good ambassador to the program

 

[gkIrish]

Clausen would have been a good NFL QB if he was drafted into a better situation. Panthers at the time could not have been a worse place to land. He is as talented or more talented than Andy Dalton.

 

[irishff1014]

Clausen would have been a good NFL QB if he was drafted into a better situation. Panthers at the time could not have been a worse place to land. He is as talented or more talented than Andy Dalton.

Plus he should have stayed.

 

[johnnycando]

Plus he should have stayed.

This.

 

[ThePiombino]

Plus he should have stayed.

New coach, new offense, coming off one of the best individual efforts at the QB position in school history? Disagree. Would have like for him to stay, but he did what was best for him at the time. Hindsight suggests otherwise, but you can't hold that against the guy.

 

[GoIrish41]

..... sooooo .... exactly what I said?

Here's my point... look at the best teams from recent college football...
2013... 5 of top 6 teams had legitimate truly athletic QBs, and the 6th (MSU) had a guy with athleticism who did occasional zone reads.
2012... 6 of top 8 had athletic QBs that ran the ball, Alabama and Georgia had pocket passers.
2011... a bit of an enigma year. Only 1 of top 5 (Orgeon) had a mobile QB. Alabama and LSU had dominating defenses, and Oklahoma State and Arkansas had dynamic offenses.
2010... all top five teams had athletic QBs who use their legs regularly to make plays.

So basically, unless you're going to build a team like Alabama that has 5 talent at every position, you don't field a dominant team without a QB that can make plays with his legs. Outside of 2011, the VAST majority of great teams used athletic QBs. So while Town might be a better NFL prospect, I find it really hard to say he's a better fit for a spread team than a QB with some wheels. I don't even really think this is that debatable.

I don't disagree with the premise of your argument. I love me some mobile QBs. I was just commenting (joking really) on how you contracted the criteria to make it impossible for anyone to argue your point about mobile quarterbacks. It went from "outside of Bama, name me the last great team that had a good pocket passer" (someone named a handful) and then you said, "in the past six years, name me a great team (other than Bama) that had an immobile QB". When I suggested that there may have only been a single "great" team in that time period" I was trying to say that you had eliminated so many candidates that you were going to be right no matter what. I just enjoyed the way you framed your argument, that's all. At the end of the day, I'd always, always, always take a mobile QB (as long as he could sling the ball, too) to one who isn't.

I'll say this. I was about a minute into Blake's film the first time I watched it and knew this kid was going to be special. I think he is going to make a huge splash at ND.

 

[zelezo vlk]

About statues/mobile QBs: I could see how one could argue Bama, but I'm of the opinion that AJ wasn't integral to the team's success. All the mobile QBs played a larger role in their team's success. Just my opinion.

 

[KPENN]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23throwback&src=hash">#throwback</a> to the place I love. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GoIrish&src=hash">#GoIrish</a> &#55356;&#57152; <a href="http://t.co/rpIizl2muV">pic.twitter.com/rpIizl2muV</a></p>— Blake Barnett (@BlakeBarnett_8) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlakeBarnett_8/statuses/434170636949127168">February 14, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[Cpnd1]

Bama offered

 

[WakeUpEchoes]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Thankful to announce that I've been offered by University of Alabama. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RollTide&src=hash">#RollTide</a></p>— Blake Barnett (@BlakeBarnett_8) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlakeBarnett_8/statuses/435211063097704448">February 17, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[notredomer23]

commence meltdown and overreaction

 

[STLDomer]

Fuck you Kiffin

Justin Hopkins (West Coast 247)

I'm not saying he's wavering, but Alabama is one of the only two schools he has ANY interest in.

 

[IrishLax]

Fuck you Kiffin

Justin Hopkins (West Coast 247)

Just like when he had "serious interest" in Michigan, amirite???

I'm so not concerned on any level about Blake right now.

 

[Redbar]

Just like when he had "serious interest" in Michigan, amirite???

I'm so not concerned on any level about Blake right now.

This. So this.