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Brendan Sullivan enters the transfer portal

The key, not surprisingly, will be QB, and on a related note, NIL. The coaching staff is in good hands and will put out tough defenses and innovative offenses even with low-ranked recruits.

Looks like Gronk isn't available, and I don't know WHAT'S left in the portal. I find these statements of "Lausch beat out Sullivan" puzzling, since it would have had to happen in a dozen spring practices. Sullivan beat him out last year, and even in the bowl, they turned to Hilinski when Bryant went down. Lausch gave no indication of anything special last year. I think he averaged 1 ypc after his long run v UTEP.

I mean, I expected us to go 1-11 last year, so I know next to nothing (soon to be the most quote post on this board), but if these are our QBs, I am very concerned. It's not even enough to run practices.
Some people REALLY don't like Sullivan, so they say stupid things like "being beaten out by Lausch" to justify their biases.
 
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The key, not surprisingly, will be QB, and on a related note, NIL. The coaching staff is in good hands and will put out tough defenses and innovative offenses even with low-ranked recruits.

Looks like Gronk isn't available, and I don't know WHAT'S left in the portal. I find these statements of "Lausch beat out Sullivan" puzzling, since it would have had to happen in a dozen spring practices. Sullivan beat him out last year, and even in the bowl, they turned to Hilinski when Bryant went down. Lausch gave no indication of anything special last year. I think he averaged 1 ypc after his long run v UTEP.

I mean, I expected us to go 1-11 last year, so I know next to nothing (soon to be the most quote post on this board), but if these are our QBs, I am very concerned. It's not even enough to run practices.
To quote another person.. “It’s all on The Rock”.
 
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Hilinski had an even bigger (numbers) game the following week against Duke, albeit with lower QBR. Like top 10 all time game for NU. A Schwab/Kerrigan type game.

And then....
Well, he had to throw it 60 times according to the box score because we were down 21–0 right out of the gate, so the raw numbers in yardage are big. I don’t think anyone would consider that in the top 10 or even top 50 QB games for NU all time.
 
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Well, he had to throw it 60 times according to the box score because we were down 21–0 right out of the gate, so the raw numbers in yardage are big. I don’t think anyone would consider that in the top 10 or even top 50 QB games for NU all time.
Then I don’t want to hear about Kafka in the Outback Bowl.
 
It all went downhill after that Hull fumble crossing the goal line. 🤦‍♂️
Reviewing the box score, I didn’t recall that we got to within one touchdown twice after going down 21–0, because it sure never really felt that close. Probably because our defense, offense and special teams were all so horribly inconsistent that we couldn’t really expect, an orchestrated cardiac cats comeback.
 
Reviewing the box score, I didn’t recall that we got to within one touchdown twice after going down 21–0, because it sure never really felt that close. Probably because our defense, offense and special teams were all so horribly inconsistent that we couldn’t really expect, an orchestrated cardiac cats comeback.
The JON defense had all of us sickened..
 
Some people REALLY don't like Sullivan, so they say stupid things like "being beaten out by Lausch" to justify their biases.
Yes, Sullivan was told he was clearly the #1 QB coming out of spring ball and he was also told Gronowski was staying at SDSU. So, naturally he decided to transfer.

You really should listen to people who know some things.
 
The key, not surprisingly, will be QB, and on a related note, NIL. The coaching staff is in good hands and will put out tough defenses and innovative offenses even with low-ranked recruits.

Looks like Gronk isn't available, and I don't know WHAT'S left in the portal. I find these statements of "Lausch beat out Sullivan" puzzling, since it would have had to happen in a dozen spring practices. Sullivan beat him out last year, and even in the bowl, they turned to Hilinski when Bryant went down. Lausch gave no indication of anything special last year. I think he averaged 1 ypc after his long run v UTEP.

I mean, I expected us to go 1-11 last year, so I know next to nothing (soon to be the most quote post on this board), but if these are our QBs, I am very concerned. It's not even enough to run practices.
With what left last year and through the portal after last season we have about 30 places to fill and hard to see us getting anywhere close and the guys brought in so far have basically nothing as far as P5 offers. I just don't see much encouraging
 
Some people REALLY don't like Sullivan, so they say stupid things like "being beaten out by Lausch" to justify their biases.
says a guy who didn’t go to the open practice. I suspect you are going to be the first guy on here reminding us that Lausch played a sub par game.

Here’s something to chew on, none of the QB’s looked like Mahomes in the Spring game. If you put them out there in numberless jerseys most people would not have picked out Sully as the starter. I have no bias against Sully at all and had hoped he seized the job. It was clear that he didn’t. Maybe he’ll go to Iowa and play behind their OL and justify your love.
 
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says a guy who didn’t go to the open practice. I suspect you are going to be the first guy on here reminding us that Lausch played a sub par game.

Here’s something to chew on, none of the QB’s looked like Mahomes in the Spring game. If you put them out there in numberless jerseys most people would not have picked out Sully as the starter. I have no bias against Sully at all and had hoped he seized the job. It was clear that he didn’t. Maybe he’ll go to Iowa and play behind their OL and justify your love.
I saw both players throw during the season, in person. Sully has a larger body of work than the spring game to judge him on.

 
I saw both players throw during the season, in person. Sully has a larger body of work than the spring game to judge him on.
Then why didn’t he win the job outright? Is Lujan incompetent? Braun? As fans of the program, it would’ve been comforting if Sully had seized the starting QB job. He didn’t, and now he’s gone. I hope Lujan knows what the hell he’s doing, I think he does.
 
I saw both players throw during the season, in person. Sully has a larger body of work than the spring game to judge him on.

Yeah I don't see how a presumed starter, who I think had surgery, would lose his job in a dozen spring practices, but consider that Lujan's offense is new to them and Sullivan might simply lack a particular skill (e.g. quick release). So a) I trust the coaches and b) I think we are in deep 💩 without a transfer.

I haven't watched SDSU play but I hear it is rather speedy. Sullivan has some good skills but decisiveness wasn't one of them.

Another unusual thing that might have affected people's decision - it's going to be really windy for 8+ home games over the next two years. Perhaps Sullivan's passes weren't cutting through. Heck, CJ Stroud couldn't pass through our wind 2 years ago.
 
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Yeah I don't see how a presumed starter, who I think had surgery, would lose his job in a dozen spring practices, but consider that Lujan's offense is new to them and Sullivan might simply lack a particular skill (e.g. quick release). So a) I trust the coaches and b) I think we are in deep 💩 without a transfer.

I haven't watched SDSU play but I hear it is rather speedy. Sullivan has some good skills but decisiveness wasn't one of them.

Another unusual thing that might have affected people's decision - it's going to be really windy for 8+ home games over the next two years. Perhaps Sullivan's passes weren't cutting through. Heck, CJ Stroud couldn't pass through our wind 2 years ago.
"But decisiveness wasn't one of them". This is why he was never going to be a quality B1G starter in my opinion. If Ramsey and Bryant aren't enough proof that this is maybe the most critical aspect of a QB then I don't know what is. Give me a guy with an average(but good enough) arm and just enough wiggle but great decision making and decisiveness every time.
 
I'm not sure why it's so shocking to people that the "presumed starter" coming out of last year might not be that guy following a change in OC and therefore offensive philosophy. See: Tony Stauss and the introduction of the spread offense circa 2002.
 
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"But decisiveness wasn't one of them". This is why he was never going to be a quality B1G starter in my opinion. If Ramsey and Bryant aren't enough proof that this is maybe the most critical aspect of a QB then I don't know what is. Give me a guy with an average(but good enough) arm and just enough wiggle but great decision making and decisiveness every time.
That's the knock on Justin Fields, right? I don't follow the NFL, but he was great at extending plays at OSU when he had a great supporting cast. But in the NFL with a weak team? Different story.

Nevertheless, other than these "practices" Where everyone from The Reef (tm) says Sullivan got beat out, there was never any prior evidence that the other guys were better.

Anyway, good luck to the guy. He's graduating and he had to play under some very tough circumstances. Always a Wildcat.
 
I hope Lausch won the job. He wasn’t allowed to be a quarterback last season, but also he didn’t make any plays after the opposition learned to look for #12 a few times a game.

Whatever happens, we’ve got at least a year or two where we can still blame Bajakian (and, errr, his former boss) for the abysmal QB1 situation.

Always a Wildcat.
 
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That's the knock on Justin Fields, right? I don't follow the NFL, but he was great at extending plays at OSU when he had a great supporting cast. But in the NFL with a weak team? Different story.

Nevertheless, other than these "practices" Where everyone from The Reef (tm) says Sullivan got beat out, there was never any prior evidence that the other guys were better.

Anyway, good luck to the guy. He's graduating and he had to play under some very tough circumstances. Always a Wildcat.
Lausch is still very young. It's a developmental program. He was always a developmental prospect. In HS he was just the best athlete on the field in every game so he was able to dominate. He needs to be developed at this level. Maybe he is just getting better? Maybe Lujan sees something in him that Bajakian didn't? Could be a combination of many things. I know for a fact he is a fierce competitor.

Having said that, I would still be shocked if they don't bring in a transfer to compete for the starting job. But it doesn't surprise me at all that Lausch would beat out Sullivan in the spring. He's a much better athlete and maybe he's getting the decision making part of it. Lujan is no dummy, there's a reason Sullivan was told the job currently is not his.
 
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Maybe Lujan sees something in him that Bajakian didn't?
You are straining my credulity /s

See: Tony Stauss and the introduction of the spread offense circa 2002.
There are some key differences

*Spread started y2k. We can argue whether that is "circa" 2002. Lujan's offense - to everyone - was a few weeks old by spring ball.
* Stauss had really not played much. Sullivan played in 13 games and had around 200 passes
* correcting for era, I believe we can agree that Baz had a higher ceiling than Lausch or Hilinski. Gray is. TBD.

But, hey, Braun pulled a rabbit out of his ass last year, so I trust him. Also, Sullivan had the opportunity to try to win back the job in summer camp and chose to start over. Good luck, Brendan.
 
Lausch is still very young. It's a developmental program. He was always a developmental prospect. In HS he was just the best athlete on the field in every game so he was able to dominate. He needs to be developed at this level. Maybe he is just getting better? Maybe Lujan sees something in him that Bajakian didn't? Could be a combination of many things. I know for a fact he is a fierce competitor.

Having said that, I would still be shocked if they don't bring in a transfer to compete for the starting job. But it doesn't surprise me at all that Lausch would beat out Sullivan in the spring. He's a much better athlete and maybe he's getting the decision making part of it. Lujan is no dummy, there's a reason Sullivan was told the job currently is not his.

Sullivan left both because he got beaten out and because NU intends to bring in another veteran QB via the portal.
 
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I don't know if this is the place for this comment but I can definitely see where Lausch could beat out Sullivan with a new OC from SDSU. Isn't that offense more about options, running and short and intermediate passing? Sullivan was slow in my book and never saw a tackler he could avoid. If you believe the press Lausch is a better runner although I never saw anything in a game that evidenced that he was exceptional. Passing wise I suspect Lujan isn't counting on an accurate long passer particularly since a whole lot of NU's games will be played at a wind tunnel.
 
I don’t get all of this Sully love. Was anyone really comfortable going into the season with him as the starter? He hasn’t won the job in his 3 years despite multiple opportunities. There is no such thing as a “presumed starter”. He is either the starter or he isn’t. Braun didn’t guarantee him the job, he elected to leave. He looked great in one way and looked awful in another. You don’t get guarantees with that. Just because you are in the program longer than anyone else at the position doesn’t mean you ascend to the throne. Just because you are a good kid doesn’t put you on the field!
 
I don’t get all of this Sully love. Was anyone really comfortable going into the season with him as the starter? He hasn’t won the job in his 3 years despite multiple opportunities. There is no such thing as a “presumed starter”. He is either the starter or he isn’t. Braun didn’t guarantee him the job, he elected to leave. He looked great in one way and looked awful in another. You don’t get guarantees with that. Just because you are in the program longer than anyone else at the position doesn’t mean you ascend to the throne. Just because you are a good kid doesn’t put you on the field!
Fans love what they think they know as opposed to the complete unknown. We've seen some flashes from Sullivan, but it was basically that one Maryland game where he shined, definitely not enough of a sample for us to be attached to him as a must have starter.

Goes back to the old saying: "The backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town."

I don't see why this is all a big deal, Braun/Lujan didn't give him the starter guarantee for whatever football reasons they have, so he's moving on...; not a big surprise.
 
Whatever happens, we’ve got at least a year or two where we can still blame Bajakian (and, errr, his former boss) for the abysmal QB1 situation.

Not with the transfer portal the way it is.
We'll be hard-pressed to find somebody as good as Ben Bryant, though.
 
Fans love what they think they know as opposed to the complete unknown. We've seen some flashes from Sullivan, but it was basically that one Maryland game where he shined, definitely not enough of a sample for us to be attached to him as a must have starter.

Goes back to the old saying: "The backup quarterback is the most popular guy in town."

I don't see why this is all a big deal, Braun/Lujan didn't give him the starter guarantee for whatever football reasons they have, so he's moving on...; not a big surprise.
I think it's more of a case of "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

I think Lujan was fully expecting his QB to follow him to NU and treated Sully accordingly. So Sully left and then the QB didn't come, so we're in a mess now.
 
Love how people “know” what happened.
After last year, I trust the coaches know what they’re doing. Look forward to his this plays out.
Agree - but I apply it to both sides. So many ‘in the know’

But this is one those we can truly judge by season. Won’t be any of that injury ruined such marvelous plans. Simply results.
 
I think it's more of a case of "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

I think Lujan was fully expecting his QB to follow him to NU and treated Sully accordingly. So Sully left and then the QB didn't come, so we're in a mess now.
Or simply that Lujan felt Sullivan would struggle to run his offensive scheme. I don’t think they were counting on Gronowski and slighted Sullivan because of it. They all know until the player commits, nothing is final.
 
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