A big talented kid with tons of potential, coming from a small school in a small town. A quiet demeanor and tendency to be serious and studious. A polite, well mannered kid, ….well liked. Raw project who should pay off in the future if coached up.
Sound familiar? I was describing Steve Edmond.
That description also fits Tyrone Swoopes.
Middle linebacker is the focal point of every defense. Quarterback is the focal point of every offense.
The parallels are only starting. (If you want to quit now, I won't blame you!)
As I watched the Manny Diaz-ster unfold, my temper would boil over at the sight of Steve Edmond standing still while the play ran by him, through him, and sometimes over him. At other times, Edmond would run to a spot on the field and stand there, oblivious to the fact that the game was everywhere he wasn't. As a former middle linebacker, I know enough about the position to know that standing in one spot for 7 seconds isn't what a linebacker should do. Getting plowed by a tight end while never taking a single step in any direction isn't how the position is played. Running to the right and standing alone in the opponent's backfield while the running back slants over the right tackle on the opposite side of the line isn't how the position should be played. The actual location of the ball should count for something....you know? So it went with Steve Edmond while Manny Diaz floated around inside his head. Steve never got to the point where playing under Diaz became instinct. It was all painting by numbers......one painfully slow number at a time. Edmond was caught in a tug-o-war between what his mind could assimilate and what his body needed to do on every play. There was a blockage. Too much too soon to play to potential.
In comes Greg Robinson and simplifies the defense. Now Edmond is able to play his body without his cluttered mind slowing things down. Night and day results. The Edmond I saw under Robinson was nothing like the lost lonesome statue I saw under Diaz. Edmond was unshackled from the Diaz chess board. It was as if Diaz was designing his defense without the human element included in his calculations. It's like hiring Stevie Ray Vaughan for your band, and then asking him to play Duke Ellington. It's like recruiting Michael Phelps to your school and then asking him to design swimming pools. It's like.....like.......like...... OK, I stop with the metaphors for a second or two! I promise!
I saw Tyrone standing in the backfield with the play unfolding around him, and I saw that same hesitation, that same indecisiveness, that same baffling set of left turns and unexplainable lapses that I once saw in Steve Edmond. The same big, raw, talented, quiet, unassuming, small town kid being asked to think in terms of Duke Ellington, um....errr..... Bill Walsh.
The ball is snapped. What's going on in Tyrone's head? Feet placement? Shoulder level? Elbow angle? Linebacker reads? Safety reads? First checkoff? Second checkoff? Third checkoff? Pocket integrity? Eyes telegraphing? Eyes misleading? Where's the safety valve? DUCK!!!!!!!!
All of this has to be pumped into the quick twitch muscle fibers as muscle memory. If a quarterback has to think through a set of protocols, then the game is over. It's a lot like playing middle linebacker. Once the ball is snapped, it's supposed to be instinct honed by endless repetitions that makes the tackle; not a carefully deciphered crime scene to solve. Playing middle linebacker is like trying to solve a crime while the gunfight is still in progress. The quarterback must be the gunslinger.
Watson designed an offense on the assumption that his details had been assimilated by Tyrone to the point of muscle memory; to the point where the machine would become functional. Clearly this did not happen. Add the horrible line blocking from linemen who are also being asked to cram for their exam, so to speak....and we have the mess we saw against the better teams of TCU, Arkansas, and Notre Dame.
Tyrone came from the most basic football circumstances. His freshman year was a waste. His sophomore year he was thrown into the fire. As the fire got hotter at the end of the season due to greater opponent skill levels, Tyrone began to melt right along side his equally overtaxed offensive line and receivers.
The off-season was supposed to cure that. Clearly it did not. Clearly Tyrone was thinking through all his chord charts while the band played around him. He was the guy wanting to rip the blues, while the conductor was calling out jazz tunes.
I think we might have had a case where Watson taught Tyrone to be the best quarterback he can be within Watson's system, then designed a game day offense to highlight the progress.....which was actually really bad for the team as a whole. Stubbornly trying to prove a point.
He was playing a Manny Diaz chess game with a board full of checkers. Just like Manny did.
I hope that Jerrod is allowed to line up and play checkers. The chess will have to wait.
Teaching a quarterback how to be a chess player is what eventually needs to happen if Jerrod is to play in the NFL (see Vince Young). But........ somehow Watson needs to find the sweet spot between being a teacher to being a businessman. One is wrapped around art and potential, while the other is wrapped around practicality and profit.
