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Jason Cole on Houck and Linehan

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DrAstroZoom

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An interesting read, if not terribly informative. More of a human interest story.

From the Miami Herald

One interesting tidbit though, about the QB competition:

Linehan's most difficult task will be to work through a quarterback competition between Gus Frerotte and A.J. Feeley. Frerotte goes into the situation with a slight lead because he played for Linehan the past two years in Minnesota. However, Linehan is represented by the same agent (David Dunn) as Feeley, making the politics of the competition a potential trap for Linehan.
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Interesting, I don't know why I but I never thought that coaches had agents. I guess because you never hear about it.
 
Good read and a better coaching situation than last year, and people wonder why our players on O didn't perform that well?
 
Cole is chasing snipes in a weed garden here. The quarterback competition has already been settled. They went out and got Frerotte to temporarily replace AJ Feeley, not to compete with him. The "competition" has just been staged to get the players to back Frerotte. Whereas an outright replacement of AJ Feeley with someone with a mediocre QB record like Frerotte would have caused minor upheaval in the locker room, a "competition" allows the players to pick the guy they want in an atmosphere of fairness.

I would be willing to bet a lot that Linehan and Saban brought Frerotte down here under the auspices that all he has to do is play and practice like he's been playing and practicing for Linehan in Minnesota, and he would naturally win the QB "competition" because they know what they are going to see from Feeley.

And so far, they've been dead on. What have we seen from Feeley? Errant passes all over the field as he tries to learn a new offense and overcome his tendencies not to practice well and not to do well in high pressure quarterback competitions. We've also seen the plan work in that privately Chris Chambers and Randy McMichael are both confessing that they think Frerotte should be the QB when the season starts.

Feeley is not ready to assume control of the team. He succeeded in Philadelphia when he had time and consistency, the ability to settle down with no pressure, learn a consistent playbook, and get comfortable with his team in a situation where the guy in front of him is definitely "the" guy. In other words, Feeley needs clipboard-holding time to be effective.

Meanwhile, Frerotte is QB battle-tested...use to facing QB competition whereever he goes, and also moderately use to coming out on top (certainly made Heath Shuler his b!tch).
 
ckparrothead said:
Meanwhile, Frerotte is QB battle-tested...use to facing QB competition whereever he goes, and also moderately use to coming out on top (certainly made Heath Shuler his b!tch).
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Yea that was awesome.
 
ckparrothead said:
Cole is chasing snipes in a weed garden here. The quarterback competition has already been settled. They went out and got Frerotte to temporarily replace AJ Feeley, not to compete with him. The "competition" has just been staged to get the players to back Frerotte. Whereas an outright replacement of AJ Feeley with someone with a mediocre QB record like Frerotte would have caused minor upheaval in the locker room, a "competition" allows the players to pick the guy they want in an atmosphere of fairness.

I would be willing to bet a lot that Linehan and Saban brought Frerotte down here under the auspices that all he has to do is play and practice like he's been playing and practicing for Linehan in Minnesota, and he would naturally win the QB "competition" because they know what they are going to see from Feeley.

And so far, they've been dead on. What have we seen from Feeley? Errant passes all over the field as he tries to learn a new offense and overcome his tendencies not to practice well and not to do well in high pressure quarterback competitions. We've also seen the plan work in that privately Chris Chambers and Randy McMichael are both confessing that they think Frerotte should be the QB when the season starts.

Feeley is not ready to assume control of the team. He succeeded in Philadelphia when he had time and consistency, the ability to settle down with no pressure, learn a consistent playbook, and get comfortable with his team in a situation where the guy in front of him is definitely "the" guy. In other words, Feeley needs clipboard-holding time to be effective.

Meanwhile, Frerotte is QB battle-tested...use to facing QB competition whereever he goes, and also moderately use to coming out on top (certainly made Heath Shuler his b!tch).
Click to expand...
sorry but i have to disagree... ferotte was brought here to help feeley get the system down.... not to replace him temporarily... ande as far as gus bein the better practice QB big whoop practice is practice, and feeley certaninly showed he can handle the pressue sorry but you got tunnel vision
 
ckparrothead said:
Cole is chasing snipes in a weed garden here. The quarterback competition has already been settled. They went out and got Frerotte to temporarily replace AJ Feeley, not to compete with him. The "competition" has just been staged to get the players to back Frerotte. Whereas an outright replacement of AJ Feeley with someone with a mediocre QB record like Frerotte would have caused minor upheaval in the locker room, a "competition" allows the players to pick the guy they want in an atmosphere of fairness.

I would be willing to bet a lot that Linehan and Saban brought Frerotte down here under the auspices that all he has to do is play and practice like he's been playing and practicing for Linehan in Minnesota, and he would naturally win the QB "competition" because they know what they are going to see from Feeley.

And so far, they've been dead on. What have we seen from Feeley? Errant passes all over the field as he tries to learn a new offense and overcome his tendencies not to practice well and not to do well in high pressure quarterback competitions. We've also seen the plan work in that privately Chris Chambers and Randy McMichael are both confessing that they think Frerotte should be the QB when the season starts.

Feeley is not ready to assume control of the team. He succeeded in Philadelphia when he had time and consistency, the ability to settle down with no pressure, learn a consistent playbook, and get comfortable with his team in a situation where the guy in front of him is definitely "the" guy. In other words, Feeley needs clipboard-holding time to be effective.

Meanwhile, Frerotte is QB battle-tested...use to facing QB competition whereever he goes, and also moderately use to coming out on top (certainly made Heath Shuler his b!tch).
Click to expand...

I like the analysis of the competition, but I don't know that I agree with your assessment of what went down with Frerotte. I think that what you're describing is the worst case scenario and that Feeley absolutely has the opportunity to surprise. If he does, Frerotte rides the bench.
 
ckparrothead said:
Cole is chasing snipes in a weed garden here. The quarterback competition has already been settled. They went out and got Frerotte to temporarily replace AJ Feeley, not to compete with him. The "competition" has just been staged to get the players to back Frerotte. Whereas an outright replacement of AJ Feeley with someone with a mediocre QB record like Frerotte would have caused minor upheaval in the locker room, a "competition" allows the players to pick the guy they want in an atmosphere of fairness.

I would be willing to bet a lot that Linehan and Saban brought Frerotte down here under the auspices that all he has to do is play and practice like he's been playing and practicing for Linehan in Minnesota, and he would naturally win the QB "competition" because they know what they are going to see from Feeley.

And so far, they've been dead on. What have we seen from Feeley? Errant passes all over the field as he tries to learn a new offense and overcome his tendencies not to practice well and not to do well in high pressure quarterback competitions. We've also seen the plan work in that privately Chris Chambers and Randy McMichael are both confessing that they think Frerotte should be the QB when the season starts.

Feeley is not ready to assume control of the team. He succeeded in Philadelphia when he had time and consistency, the ability to settle down with no pressure, learn a consistent playbook, and get comfortable with his team in a situation where the guy in front of him is definitely "the" guy. In other words, Feeley needs clipboard-holding time to be effective.

Meanwhile, Frerotte is QB battle-tested...use to facing QB competition whereever he goes, and also moderately use to coming out on top (certainly made Heath Shuler his b!tch).
Click to expand...

well imo i think feeley should start the preseason so he can get use to the new play book and if he plays better in games that would show the coachs that he can play better in a game


THANKS NUB 4 THE AVATAR :D
 
Nothing really to say, just testing out my new Avatar.

Houck is awesome. Linehan seems really cool. Talked to him for a good while at the Banquet. Slick guy.
 
BIGRED11 said:
sorry but i have to disagree... ferotte was brought here to help feeley get the system down.... not to replace him temporarily... ande as far as gus bein the better practice QB big whoop practice is practice, and feeley certaninly showed he can handle the pressue sorry but you got tunnel vision
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Which one of his INTS showed he could handle the pressure, there are alot to choose from choose wisely.
 
I find it strange that they signed ferrote to a contract with escalators if he got substantial playing time. Given what you are saying that he was brought in to be the #1 QB, you would think they would have immediatly given him the big contract. If i remember correctly they initially wanted to sign him low, but he balked at that, and thats why they put the escalators in his contract to give him a chance should he succeed. Saban is not dumb. He watches, and plays the best person. In saban i trust.
 
Possible, but I disagree. I think if Feeley was never the answer (per your reasoning) then we would have drafted a QB and let Feeley go. I don't think Saban is trying to pull a fast one (Wanny's more likely to have), he sees that Feeley hasn't shown enough either way; but also that Feeley wasn't given a reasonable chance.
 
I find it strange that they signed ferrote to a contract with escalators if he got substantial playing time. Given what you are saying that he was brought in to be the #1 QB, you would think they would have immediatly given him the big contract. If i remember correctly they initially wanted to sign him low, but he balked at that, and thats why they put the escalators in his contract to give him a chance should he succeed. Saban is not dumb. He watches, and plays the best person. In saban i trust.
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This is a league of visible signals. Signing him to a large contract would have been a visible signal to the rest of the team that he is more AJ's replacement, than AJ's competition. The air of fair competition was important to maintain for locker room morale, so they maintained it and gave into Frerotte's demands by making his contract heavily incented.

I think some people here are underestimating the faith that Saban is showing in his new highly-paid assistant coaches. Think of what he's done with Houck. They are paying Houck through the nose to make chicken salad out of chicken ****, so did they spend anything significant on OL this offseason? Nope. They gave him Stockar McDougle and Anthony Alabi. The same is happening with Linehan. If you had to go out there and choose the quarterback to run your system, who would it be? His answer was Gus Frerotte. So, it's as simple as that. They went out and got Frerotte, and Saban made the decision to do it in a way that was non-threatening to locker room morale.

On the one hand they can honestly say that Frerotte "won the competition" because he outplayed Feeley. On the other, it's pretty much what they 99% suspected would have happened all along. Feeley could complain that he was given a stacked deck, because the man more likely to be ready to lead the team this season is the man who already knew the offense. That's fine. He's right. But AJ can learn the offense then steal the reins right back from Frerotte because Frerotte is 34 years of age.
 
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