As much as I would love to see Potts throw for over 5,000 next year, I don’t think it will happen. Don’t get me wrong, I think he is very talented and capable of achieving this stat, but I believe next year will be the most balanced we will be in the Leach era in terms of running and passing the ball. The backfield is too talented to simply block for passes all the time. Personally, I think the offense is most fun to watch when the passing game is clicking on all cylinders, and if I had to choose between an extremely balanced attack or a ridiculously powerful passing attack I would choose the latter, because I have always loved passing plays in general. One more thing, something that concerns me about Potts and his ability to break the 5,000 yard mark is his release. Maybe I am the only one who has noticed, but his release is somewhat awkward and it is not very quick at all. Perhaps it won’t matter as much as I think it will, but Potts seems to wind up and push the ball which takes a lot longer than say a Graham Harrell release would.

If he had protected the ball a little bit better, we’d never have lost a game.

I’ve always felt that Cody Hodges was the worst of the Tech QBs; just never passed the smell test with me. But he does have some of the better numbers in YPA and int. Looking at the rushing numbers, that and my gut tells me that he was the beneficiary of having more help, from the ground game than the others. I’ve never been an advocate for running the ball more, but perhaps if we’re really interested in Potts continued development, we’d do him a big favor by handing the ball off ~ 33 of the time. Our run game should be strong enough next year, even with the linemen out, especially if Potts demonstrates that big-arm early in the season and keeps opposing safeties deep.

Then again we threw Harrell to the wolves in his first year and that worked out.

More of our offensive plays should be eff it we’re going deep.

He seems to have all the tools (arm strength, mobility, height), he just needs to work on accuracy. I expect Potts to be BJ Symons-like except more mobile (BJ had a leg injury of some sort if I remember correctly.)

I only see one problem with your analysis. I believe you have misinterpreted the TD/Attempt ratio for Cumbie. I believe that the lower numbers are better. Saying that Cumbie knew how to throw the ball into the endzone would be untrue, he was actually the worst at getting the ball into the endzone. It took Cumbie 20 attempts to gain one TD while Symmons would put it in after 13.

It should also probably be labeled as an Attempt/TD ratio. Cumbie’s TD/Attempt ratio would be .050 or 5%.

Leach has said it a million times, the last thing he looks for in a qb is arm strength. Quick release, accuracy and fast reads is what leach wants. Hopefully Potts can add his cannon in with those attributes. If so look for Symons’ type numbers.

On a side note. With those highlights of HJeffers the other day, Is he that good or is our future defense that horrible?

It would seen to me that you would need to include at least the two leading receiver stats for each of these first year groups. Some thing like 40 times, height, weight and drops per attempt. I just have a hard time making the comparison with out knowing something about what each QB had to work with. I really think this plays in to the yards per attempt number since a faster more physical WR will get further down the field.

I think Potts will get 5000 not so much due to his arm, but because of the improved running game.

Just in case you guys forgot, the BCS still sucks.

Was a great QB. Leach stole him from OU when he came to Tech. I honestly don’t understand why he didn’t get more than one year at the helm. The Air Raid offense is about spreading the field and creating space. While you don’t have to have a QB with a great arm to do that, a QB with a stronger arm certainly helps because you can stretch things vertically as well as horizontally. Symons gave Tech that capability. The other thing about 2003 was that, because the field was stretched more, Symons made a lot of plays with his feet when the play would start to break down (until he blew out his knee and started playing in a brace). Again, I think this is a product of creating more space by having a more vertical attack.

WIth Pott’s arm strength and Batch/Jeffers in the back field, the run is going to be more successful because the field will be spread more. The RB safety valve could be very effective as well. My biggest concern is red zone offense. If I recall correctly, that was one area Tech struggled with Symons at QB. Hopefully, with Batch and Jeffers, along with some overall improvements in run blocking on the line, we’ll have more than one option (the corner fade) when we’re standing on the goal line.

Potts has the strongest arm of any QB that he has coached at Tech. Anyone remember the late night ESPN televised game with the Aggies, where Symons was throwing frozen ropes. It was amazing watching Symons thow the deep outs and how Symons and Tech were marching down the field to score. This was the first game that I heard the crowd around me shout “1st down” in unison with the ref’s signal. If Potts has a stronger arm than Symons and if Batch and Jeffers are productive runners, our offense could dominate the teams we play. I really believe that it could happen. Tech’s offense in the hands of a “seasoned” 1st year QB has been very productive. I think the overall talent level of Tech on both offense and defense is better than when Symons played. Tech has a chance to be very competitive this year and win the big XII. Wreck’em Tech!