Jon Gruden thinks that referring to the GPOOE™ as merely the GPOOE™ is, well, an understatement.
Q: The spread is being run in high schools and colleges, is it possible it could be a base offense in the NFL one day?
A: “No question. The hard part is, you have to isolate the option. That’s why Tim Tebow is so interesting to me. He’s like Brandon Jacobs playing quarterback. He’s 250 pounds. He’s the strongest human being who’s ever played the position. Ever. He will kick the living [expletive] out of a defensive lineman. He’ll fight anybody. He is rare. Tebow is the kind of guy who could revolutionize the game. He’s the ‘wildcat’ who can throw. Most of the teams that have the wildcat back there, it’s Ronnie Brown, it’s Jerious Norwood, it’s whoever you want to say it is. This guy here is 250 pounds of concrete cyanide, man. And he can throw. He throws well enough at any level to play quarterback.”
Q: Most people are dismissing Tebow as a quarterback in the NFL.
A: “He can play quarterback in the NFL. When he was a high school senior, they played Armwood in the state championship game. I have tape. He has an 80-yard touchdown run that put them in the lead. When it flipped around, and Armwood had the ball, what position do you think Tebow was playing? He was playing nose guard — and he disrupted about 10 plays. This guy is totally different. He’s got Rich Gannon, Drew Brees, that kind of makeup as a team guy. What he said after the Ole Miss game, I said, ‘That’s my favorite football player I’ve ever seen in my whole life.’ I said, ‘I want Florida to win every game that kid plays from now on.’”
Of course, this is coming from someone who in the same interview says that he loves the way that Al Groh coaches, so we can’t totally dismiss the possibility that Gruden is brain damaged.
“…kick the living [expletive] out of a defensive lineman.”
In college? Okay. In the NFL? Hardly. He might win a few battles with a head of steam, but when he starts scrambling, I can only imagine what might happen. Pro Bowl defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth would respectfully disagree with this whole “kicking the living [expletive] out of” somebody business… unless it’s referring to your face and the bottom of his cleat.
Putting aside the fact that Tebow is “the strongest, meanest, most durable football player EVAH!”
If Tebow plays his style of game in the NFL, he’ll have a career the length of the average NFL RB (~3-4 years).
You remember the 07 Cocktail Party beating he got? There’s 16 weeks a season of that waiting for a running quarterback in the NFL.
Not to mention the bitch-slapping he’s gonna get from his linemen when he cries after a loss.
Chuckie: sustaining dain bramage is a well-known occupational hazard from working with Al Davis.
GPOOE: offense, defense, especial teams, calls signals like a Mohel calling Kvatter for ritual circumcisions in the PI, split the atom, etc. Is there anything in this galaxy, as we presently know it, that he cannot do better than everyone else?
Well if Jon Gruden said it, then it must be true. There’s a reason why you were fired, Jon.
That’s funny because both Tebow and Cyanide make me vomit.
That’s odd. When I saw Tebow’s post-Ole Miss speech, I said, “I want Florida to lose every game that kid plays from now on.” I guess Gruden and I don’t see eye to eye.
Tebow is a beast when he dictates the action. i.e. When he’s running a designed lead or if he’s sitting comfortably back in the shotgun with no chance of a pass rush getting there in time. When he has to REACT (which is primarily what QB’s in the NFL do), he is toast. Also, at some point he might want to learn to take a snap from center, unless he thinks the Run and Shoot is going to make a roaring comeback in the NFL.
As a college football fan, I’m just happy to see an NFL figure saying something other than “the spread is a gimmick offense than would never work in the pros because we’re all too sophisticated” and “Tebow is a terrible thrower and you college people need to calm down about him.” An NFL coach not dismissing an unconventional college offense and a college player who runs that offense is a good thing.
Also, Al Groh is a pretty good coach on gameday. He builds good lines and good defenses. His problems are two-fold:
1. He is a disagreeable personality who has pissed off most of the HS coaches in the Commonwealth; and
2. He kept his inept son as offensive coordinator for too long.
Groh probably won’t solve the first problem, but he did solve the second by hiring Greg Brandon.
I don’t see how good gameday coaches lose games like this. And get dominated on both sides of the ball doing it. Or lose to Duke (in what would be Duke’s only ACC win) by 28 points.
Or give up 26 points to Tech in the third quarter?
Or give up 26 points to Tech in the third quarter?
’07 Wyoming and ’08 Duke make Georgia Tech look like Southern Cal. And at least Georgia scored a bunch against the Jackets.
And how many of those offensive linemen from high school made it to the NFL or even college ball? Timmy was only that good because he was bigger than everyone back then…not so much in the big league.
There is nothing on this Earth that would make me happier than to see a NFL team go to the spread and put Tebow out there. All I want is to be in front of a big screen TV when he plays the Ravens or the Steelers. It has the makings of a Harry Carson meets Joe Theisman moment.
I think one thing being overlooked here is Jon Gruden’s track record with evaluating QBs coming out of college. Using this guy’s opinion to validate Tebow is about the same as using Lane Kiffin’s opinion to prove a point about recruiting rules, or something to that effect.
Groh followed that loss to Wyoming by setting an NCAA record for most wins by one or two points in a season. IIRC, UVA was 9-2 when they played Virginia Tech with the divisional title on the line. The Wyoming game aside, he did a good job in ’07. In ’08, UVA was 5-3 and one possession from beating Miami to take the lead in the division when they gave up a freak TD and lost their last four games.
Look, I acknowledged that Groh has two major shortcomings. You might want to acknowledge that he builds good defenses from relatively little and is pretty good at the end of a close game.
Michael, Groh’s got the kind of track record that lets those on both sides of the argument find ammo in support of their positions. Personally, I think he’s one of the great underachievers of the decade, particularly considering the success he had recruiting early in his tenure. He’s been named the ACC coach of the year twice, but he hasn’t won a division title (even Chan Gailey managed that) and he can’t get past Virginia Tech (one win in six tries). The only thing his teams do consistently is avoid being truly great or truly awful over the course of a season. Considering the academic concessions he won from the school when he was hired as well as the resources he’s had available, that’s disappointing.
I grant you that he’s a good defensive coach. As far as that “pretty good at the end of a close game” goes, though, my mind keeps wandering back to that debacle of a finish in that bowl game against Texas Tech.
Bottom line: he’s not a bad coach, he’s simply nothing special. If Gruden wants to pick somebody’s brain, I can think of any number of better candidates than Al Groh.
People.
Tebow will be used appropriatly at the next elevel, gruden is a blowhard so do not put stock into shat he says.
Tebow will never be the star he is now, but he will be a good assett to a team, will pay his dues and be okay.
You think Stafford is going to have fun getting his ass handed to him week in and week out in Detroit? i would hate to be in his shoes. Well he will be getting paid to get beat up.
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