I really hate to bring up such a topic but I feel I have to. Maybe someone can post something here to help me make up my mind. The 8 dropped passes on Sunday were painfully familiar to Josh Booty's numerous catchable but dropped passes. The balls were suddenly caught as soon as Davey would come in. Everyone could see that Booty put balls in very catchable sposts for the receivers. Could there be a problem with Mauck in the locker room or do the receivers want a black QB? Is it just first game jitters? A smallish (by LSU standards) 6'3" 236 lb Va Tech DE Jim Davis victimized the LSU O-line for 3 sacks. How? LSU's tackles are 6'7" 310 and 6'5" 290. They were supposed to be athletic. Does anyone recall from which side Davis made his sacks? Was an LSU tight-end on him during the sacks?
I do not want to get into the white vs black QB thing, too conterversial. The fact is Mauck simply didnt throw them well enough, they were either too long or too short. To make matters worse, the few times he did throw them right, they were dropped. The tackle Jim Davis ran over was Rodney Reed, the RT. Andrew Whitworth the LT had a fairly decent game, specially given the fact this was his first collegiate start. Reed was so disappointing that I hope coach Saban reconsiders his decision to move Nate Livings to the DL. As it is, Mauck is not as good a passer as Davey, if the OL does not protect him, we are in for a rout this season.
from what I have seen the players seem to really like Matt. I think they were simply spoiled last year by Ro's perfect passes.
To me it looked like Matt was suffering from tunnel-vision the entire game. He had open guys, but focused just one receiver. Hopefully, the VT game was enough of a baptism to help him get his head on straight.
OK guys, Let's remember something here. This is college football, not high school. When the football hits you, you better damn well catch it. If not, it is the receivers fault and no one elses. Now, there is definitely such thing as a more catchable ball, but you have to make plays when the ball is thrown your way, and the LSU receivers just didn't get it done. Way to much of the blame seems to be being placed on Mauck. He didn't get the help from his receivers or his o-line. He took more hits in this game than he would have taken in a 12 round boxing match. I'm not saying he was perfect, or even had a good game, but even Ro would have struggled with that poor of protection, and that many drops. If those 8 balls were caught, then Mauck would have looked like a Hero with 23 of 35 for who knows how many yards, and the Tigers would have at least kept it close.
No doubt Mauck is not the natural passer that Rohan was but to indicate that the passes that Rohan threw were perfect is just selective memory. Do you not remember the Ole Miss or Arkansas games. Do you remember the terrible half vs Auburn when Rohan started with about the same amount of experience as Mauck. If you go back and watch a few tapes of last season you will see Josh Reed get wide open time and again and when the pass was thrown, made adjustments to the ball. There may be something to the notion tha Ro threw a ball easier to catch but he had a few dropped as well. I thenk it will take a little time to gain some consistancy. We should be hitting on all cylinders by the time we play MS ST.l
The biggest difference I see between Davey and Mauch is how relaxed and confident in the pocket Davey was, and the touch Davey would put on his passes. In Mauch's defense, I don't know of another QB who was as fearless & poised in the pocket as Davey was last year. With experience, Mauch should gain confidence in the pocket, and his passes will improve as well. Mauch had some drops, but he also threw some very poor balls. During the summer Mauch worked with Myers and Clayton on pass patterns, so I don't think there's any possibility the receivers don't want to play for Mauch, or vice-versa. Mauch is liked by his teammates, and Mauch is as responsible as anyone for LSU becoming SEC champions. At the same time, Saban says Marcus Randall will see playing time this week, and that can only bode well for the team - to see how well Randall can run the offense, how well he can get the plays off on time, and how poised he is in the pocket.
