Auburn is #1

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by Cannon Shell

Cam Newton looked a whole lot more like JaMarcus Russell last night than I'm sure he would like to admit.

He and Mallett really looked shaky in the bowl games. I am not that impressed with the Mizzu QB either. Hard to believe Luck is staying in school.

I saw all but one of their games this year, and he is obviously extremely talented....but very frustrating. If his first or second read isn't open he tends to panic and roll out, even if there isn't any pressure. He often gets himself into trouble by rolling straight toward a DE who would have remained blocked if Gabbert had stayed in the pocket.

The fact that he lit up Iowa for 400+ isn't surprising at all because the Tigers shredded zone teams (like the Hawkeyes) pretty much all season. Against man-to-man defenses however they really struggled. I'm not sure how much of that was Gabbert's fault, and how much can be blamed on the fact that Mizzou basically had a bunch of pretty good possession receivers who were great at finding holes in zones, but pretty bad at getting separation from agressive bump-and-run man coverage.
On the whole, I think Gabbert is a big, strong-armed, hardworking kid who is also deceptively fast when he get in the open field. He probably could make a good pro if he gets the right coaching at the next level. He'll need to vastly improve his pocket presence to have any chance.