By Zach Taylor
Last week in this space we looked at why I thought Malzahn shouldn’t be upset about his quarterbacks receiving outside coaching. The question revolved around whether Gus knew and sanctioned the training or was totally unaware of what QB John Franklin III was doing in his off time and what that could mean for the program.
Though the questions regarding his knowledge and stance on JF III’s workout were asked several times over the course of the week, they weren’t publicly addressed until a Tiger Trek event in Mobile, Alabama, where Malzahn responded to specific questions from the media.
Malzahn’s answers were baffling to some for a coach that had previously forbidden his QB’s to work with well-known professionals like George Whitfield and Ken Mastrole. “We’ve never had anyone work with our quarterbacks while they still had eligibility. We feel really good about how we go about it and the success we’ve had before. There won’t be anyone working with our quarterbacks until their eligibility is exhausted.” (Emphasis added.)
Many would agree that the evidence compiled over Malzahn’s career shows he is a gifted play caller with a hard-to-stop offense and able to tailor an offense to his players’ skill sets but with a surprising inability to develop a quarterback. For Malzahn to allow outside help with his QB’s would be a godsend for a program that last year expected Jeremy Johnson to be the next Cam Newton but instead got a one-read QB who was terrified to pull the ball from his running backs and frequently threw to the other team when frazzled.
It wasn’t that he went on record disallowing the training, but how he validated it.
“[Franklin] just went home and was out there playing catch and working out with Michael Vick. He’s not paying anybody or anything like that. We encourage our guys when they go home to get better and work, and he was just with a friend of his, Michael Vick, playing catch.”
He went on to say, “I don’t have a problem with it as long as we’re not hiring quarterback gurus and working specifically. But I’m all for [players working on their own during their time off]… Anytime they’re on their own, they can play catch and whatever they need to do,” Gus said. “I think the big deal with it is working with a quarterback coach and paying somebody, that’s the difference.”
That comment reminds me of a typical response from a candidate to another’s accusations during an election year: “Not only did I not do or believe in that, I did the very opposite. In fact, I was the very first. And, besides, it isn’t an important issue. Also, I was quoted wrong and taken out of context.” That’s a bit of hyperbole, but follow me here.
There is merit to Coach Malzahn’s comments. Auburn players have worked with outside sources before, just not quarterbacks. Apparently the differentiation, according to Malzahn, is whether or not they paid for the help. That’s plausible. But, to say that it’s okay as long as it’s free and then to say it’s just “playing catch” with Vick just doesn’t seem to jive for this author.
I cannot speculate on Vick and Franklin being friends, but the idea that Vick would decide to play catch and bring his personal trainer and QB coach to a park in Franklin’s home town of Fort Lauderdale seems like a stretch. If it was just a game of catch with Vick, then why was there so much analysis of JF III?
“For him to be able to take in the information that I’m giving him and being able to make those changes on the fly is something that’s very special from the quarterback position,” said Vick’s coach, Oliver Bozeman. (Emphasis added.) “The biggest thing with John was his hip placement and being more accurate on different throws.”
When voters are forced to view what a candidate’s opposition claims and the candidate’s response to those claims, they often conclude that the truth is somewhere in the middle. It seems that Gus didn’t have advance knowledge and couldn’t fault JF III for trying to get better, but he had to protect his image of total program control and his stance on outside help. The real answer is probably somewhere between the extremes. Be that as it may, I have to ask why now? Why Bozeman and Vick? And why JF III?
What are your thoughts?
The post Coach Malzahn’s Election Year Answers to JF III’s Outside Training appeared first on Track 'Em Tigers, Auburn's oldest and most read independent blog.
May 17, 2016 at 07:09PM
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