Finding college football's next Mitch Trubisky: 10 breakout candidates

[Katatonic]

3. Clayton Thorson, Northwestern

Thorson was certainly a unique catch for Northwestern, as the former four-star quarterback opted to stay in the state of Illinois and, after a redshirt season, became the face of the Wildcat program.

The two-year starter has a prototypical body type and, with some fundamental development, looks the part of an NFL quarterback-in-waiting. Thorson mentally and physically fits the bill, and is the most obvious candidate to achieve national prominence. The Wildcats have the talent around him to potentially make waves in the Big Ten this season — if Thorson can engineer an upset or two, he may finally stick on national radars.


http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...carolina-nfl-draft/1oh717kk279zq1wnkgrw3e47el

 

[GlideCat]

25 Quarterbacks to Watch by Pat Forde:

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/college-footballs-25-intriguing-quarterbacks-2017-071043792.html

CT is #24.

 

[Deeringfish]

3. Clayton Thorson, Northwestern

Thorson was certainly a unique catch for Northwestern, as the former four-star quarterback opted to stay in the state of Illinois and, after a redshirt season, became the face of the Wildcat program.

The two-year starter has a prototypical body type and, with some fundamental development, looks the part of an NFL quarterback-in-waiting. Thorson mentally and physically fits the bill, and is the most obvious candidate to achieve national prominence. The Wildcats have the talent around him to potentially make waves in the Big Ten this season — if Thorson can engineer an upset or two, he may finally stick on national radars.


http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...carolina-nfl-draft/1oh717kk279zq1wnkgrw3e47el

Nice for Thorson and NU to get this kind of mention but he is hardly a "Unique catch for Northwestern" as he is in many ways a carbon copy of Trevor Simeon. (Local guy, 4 star, NFL body type, mobile guy able to run the spread, long playing career.)
Nobody knows NU or pays attention.

 

[corbi296]

Nice for Thorson and NU to get this kind of mention but he is hardly a "Unique catch for Northwestern" as he is in many ways a carbon copy of Trevor Simeon. (Local guy, 4 star, NFL body type, mobile guy able to run the spread, long playing career.)
Nobody knows NU or pays attention.

Trevor wasn't a local, 4 star guy.

 

[NJCat]

Trevor wasn't a local, 4 star guy.

He was local to Glades though.....

 

[Deeringfish]

Trevor wasn't a local, 4 star guy.

I thought he was.

 

[Windy City Cat Fan]

Hopefully he does better than Trubisky's 8-5 record last year.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

I thought he was.

He's from Florida.

 

[corbi296]

I thought he was.

From Orlando and a three star recruit. Similar to Thorson in other ways although Thorson is also much faster that Trevor.

 

[Deeringfish]

He's from Florida.

4 star though, right?

 

[NJCat]

4 star though, right?

No. Solid 3*.

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2010/trevor-siemian-42913

 

[Windy City Cat Fan]

You might be thinking of Evan Watkins - he was local and more highly regarded, although I don't think 4 stars. Seimian was definitely 3 stars

 

[NJCat]

You might be thinking of Evan Watkins - he was local and more highly regarded, although I don't think 4 stars. Seimian was definitely 3 stars

NU has had a total of 11 4* recruits, according to 247 which has an easy "All Time Recruits" functionality:
Ifeadi
Baz
Tom Derricks
Parrker
JJTBC
CT
Earnest Brown
Devin O'Rourke
Garrett Dickerson
Matty Alviti
Loren Howard

Correlation of Stars to on-field performance is probably r^2=0.700 at best.

 

[its_the_sauce]

I'll settle for Trubisky to be the NFL's next breakout candidate.

 

[Deeringfish]

NU has had a total of 11 4* recruits, according to 247 which has an easy "All Time Recruits" functionality:
Ifeadi
Baz
Tom Derricks
Parrker
JJTBC
CT
Earnest Brown
Devin O'Rourke
Garrett Dickerson
Matty Alviti
Loren Howard

Correlation of Stars to on-field performance is probably r^2=0.700 at best.

I forgot that Alviti was sandwiched in between TS and CT, I knew there was another 4 star QB before Thorson.

 

[willycat]

NU has had a total of 11 4* recruits, according to 247 which has an easy "All Time Recruits" functionality:
Ifeadi
Baz
Tom Derricks
Parrker
JJTBC
CT
Earnest Brown
Devin O'Rourke
Garrett Dickerson
Matty Alviti
Loren Howard

Correlation of Stars to on-field performance is probably r^2=0.700 at best.

How many 4*'s has OSU, Michigan, MSU, Pen.St., UNL, Wisconsin, Io-a, ND, Stanford, USC, Texas, Oklahoma, etc., etc., etc gotten in that same time frame. How many 5*'s have they had? How many has NU had?

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

How many 4*'s has OSU, Michigan, MSU, Pen.St., UNL, Wisconsin, Io-a, ND, Stanford, USC, Texas, Oklahoma, etc., etc., etc gotten in that same time frame. How many 5*'s have they had? How many has NU had?

I think we all know the answer to this. What is your point?

 

[phatcat]

I want to know how a guy that had 3200 yards passing, standing in a backfield that should have 2000 yards rushing this year, is a "breakout" candidate. What will consitute a breakout? 4k yards? 35 TDs?

 

[ricko654321]

I want to know how a guy that had 3200 yards passing, standing in a backfield that should have 2000 yards rushing this year, is a "breakout" candidate. What will consitute a breakout? 4k yards? 35 TDs?

I'm not sure 35 TDs is realistic when you are playing against B1G defenses and have a JJ type threat next to you in the red zone, but I think 4K yards is a decent goal over 13 (+?) games. If we are talking about someone who could break out to be a first round draft pick, he'd have to step up his game quite a bit from his respectable but not at all special play last year.

More importantly from our perspective as NU fans, him having a breakout year would mean him leading us to a division title and maybe more. Which is an achievable goal I would hope.

 

[NJCat]

I'm not sure 35 TDs is realistic when you are playing against B1G defenses and have a JJ type threat next to you in the red zone, but I think 4K yards is a decent goal over 13 (+?) games.

I think he was being facetious.....

Any way, given the depth of the 2018 QB draft class, I hope CT continues to improve and decides to return to NU for a 5th year in 2018. He may not even be drafted this spring.

 

[ricko654321]

I think he was being facetious.....

Any way, given the depth of the 2018 QB draft class, I hope CT continues to improve and decides to return to NU for a 5th year in 2018. He may not even be drafted this spring.

Oh I know he was being facetious. And I was responding tongue in cheek, saying that I think 4000 yards should be an achievable goal, or at least Clayton should be able to improve upon his performance from his sophomore year.

If 3200 Yds and 22 TDs / 9 Int in 13 games (246 ypg, 1.7 TDs pg, 0.7 Int pg), along with 59% completion %, 6.7 YPA, and 126 QB rating (by the very generous college metric) are the best we can hope to achieve, then I think our goals are far too low.

That's respectable and even decent, particularly relative to the trash QBs in most of our conference, but it's not good and it's certainly not great. If he wants a 1st round draft pick he needs to be great, or at least clearly demonstrate that potential.

 

[GOUNUII]

Oh I know he was being facetious. And I was responding tongue in cheek, saying that I think 4000 yards should be an achievable goal, or at least Clayton should be able to improve upon his performance from his sophomore year.

If 3200 Yds and 22 TDs / 9 Int in 13 games (246 ypg, 1.7 TDs pg, 0.7 Int pg), along with 59% completion %, 6.7 YPA, and 126 QB rating (by the very generous college metric) are the best we can hope to achieve, then I think our goals are far too low.

That's respectable and even decent, particularly relative to the trash QBs in most of our conference, but it's not good and it's certainly not great. If he wants a 1st round draft pick he needs to be great, or at least clearly demonstrate that potential.

If he wants to be a high draft choice, he needs to show he consistently makes good decisions, Is a leader, can make all the throws at the next level with good fundamentals and can make plays under pressure. He already has the physical tools, and his interviews will be among the best. The teams will look at his stats. But they'll make decisions based on the mental and physical qualities they see on film and in person. If there is a significant disparity between the talent they see and the season stat line, they'll find out why....knowing that most of the typical explanations have nothing to do with his draft value.



GOUNUII

 

[ricko654321]

If he wants to be a high draft choice, he needs to show he consistently makes good decisions, Is a leader, can make all the throws at the next level with good fundamentals and can make plays under pressure. He already has the physical tools, and his interviews will be among the best. The teams will look at his stats. But they'll make decisions based on the mental and physical qualities they see on film and in person. If there is a significant disparity between the talent they see and the season stat line, they'll find out why....knowing that most of the typical explanations have nothing to do with his draft value.



GOUNUII

Yeah agreed with all that. From the "eye test" perspective for me, the biggest thing he needs to progress on is making quicker (and yes better / more consistent) decisions. I agree with Fitz that not all of the 39 sacks last year were on the OL... he got a bit better at getting rid of the ball as the season progressed, and had some shining moments against pressure @MSU and @Iowa, but not consistently good.

 

[Overly_Invested_Cat]

I've been re-watching the B1G games from last year and based on what I've been seeing (again), I don't think CT is anywhere close to being ready for the next level. He has the the raw assets of size and arm strength (especially throwing to the sideline), but the only time I've seen him dominate a game was in the 1st quarter of the Indiana game. There have been moments of brilliance, but no complete performances.

I think he needs to speed up his reads, improve his pocket awareness, show better throwing accuracy (particularly on the long ball), and develop an ability to improvise. He seems very comfortable when he's working within the play and is a prudent game manager (he doesn't make dumb mistakes, throwing the ball away) when a play blows up. What he doesn't seem able to do is extend a play and consistently allow his receivers to find an opening.

Does he have the potential to be a pro? Yes. Will he be ready without significant growth in the coming year? I don't think so.