08-30-2016, 07:58 AM
(08-30-2016, 07:50 AM)DC 86 link Wrote:CT, your examples of Goff/Hackenberg are good ones in reminding us that it's impossible to confidently project Browning/Rosen's and other freshmens' career trajectories. But one overriding element in Hackenberg's decline was Bill O'Brien's departure after his freshman year and the installation of a new offensive system. The hype around Hackenberg wasn't only based on his high school accomplishments and his measurables, but also on a genuinely productive freshman year. Maybe O'Brien's system masked his flaws and Franklin's system exposed them, but the coaching change was clearly the trigger for his declining performance.
People make this case, but it reads like post hoc ergo propter hoc to me. In some ways Hackenberg's decline is overdetermined (shitty OL, shitty receivers, shitty scheme/coach) which sounds to me like a lot of excuse-making, it's not like Goff had great versions of those things. The book on him isn't totally written, of course, supposedly he looked good for the Jets in preseason, though we all know how much that means.