Ja’Quinden Jackson

[MDUte]

From what I’ve read/learned about JQJ, he’s often compared to Kyler Murray coming out of high school in the greater Dallas Texas area. Sounds like his weakness as a QB is accuracy/mechanics. So here’s my question. If you’ve got a guy who is the 2nd coming of Kyler Murray or Lamar Jackson but everyone thinks you should probably move him to the defensive side of the ball at LB because he doesn’t demonstrate elite passing skills, then why not send this kid to one of the premier private QB coaching firms like 3DQB? Alex Smith has gone there along with many other NFL greats (Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Matt Ryan). I’m sure I’ll get blown up for saying this…but it made a huge difference for Zack Wilson who is now on everyone’s draft board as a 1st round pick. JQJ is 100 times the athlete as Wilson. If he had that type of help and focus on his craft, think of what he’d be?

[Charlie]

I don’t think Utah or any booster can send him, that would be on him and his family. Either way, all of our QBs can already do what Wilson has with his schedule. If the Y had their original schedule for 2020 this discussion would not take place.

[Johnny]

No one. Not even the player knows how stuff will play out. Just like a country singer in Nashville. Come on, now.

[Utesbyfive]

Huntley wasn’t that great a passer when he arrived on campus. By his senior year, with Ludwig tailoring plays to his strengths, and the years of Utah training under his belt, PFF declared him one of the most efficient passers in the country. He just played for the Ravens last Sunday. JQJ has the opportunity to really better himself here. I hope he does.

[Hellhound152]

This is one of the greatest false narrative on this board.  Huntley was a pure passer in high school with the best pocket presence I had witnessed from a high school qb, especially one that athletic.  He always threw at the top of his drop and was going through progressions with his eyes dowfield.  His entire highlight package included very few runs and usually they were when plays broke down not designed.  Go back and watch the 2016 spring game.  He was climbing the pocket and making reads better than anyone in the game.  The Iphone guy tampered with him trying to turn him into an athlete who could throw and Ludwig allowed him to go back to his highschool skill set and we saw the results.

[Utesbyfive]

If you will point me to video of the 2016 spring game, I will gladly watch.

[Hellhound152]

Looks like they pulled the complete game off Youtube.  Here is the highlight package.  Huntley was 17 for 26 for 233 yards and a touchdown.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfY6R38O4mM

This one shows more Huntley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RhW9WfvHr0

[Utah5410]

This one is simple to me. The kid wants to play QB and is a freshman. Utah/Whitt, will give him every opportunity in spring and fall. If he’s beat out. Then they will use him in wildcat/goal line situations. The following year is still beat out, UT moves him to another position. The difference is Utah actually has a long history of doing this that propels guy into the league. I’m sure Jackson wants to play in the league in some capacity WB or not. Anyone who does any research can see this. like ONLYU said, it looks really bad to continually transfer places. He’s only a freshman and could be turned into a safety or linebacker or whatever. If it is safety, it would
Prob go to the league look at our history with safeties. Hubert and Davis will both be next as long as they continue to develop. This one is a no brainer for me.

[MDUte]

I totally understand and agree that Jackson can be moved to LB/Safety and ball out for us and head to the NFL. But I’m thinking much bigger and more selfishly than this. Jackson is a talent we might not ever see again in a Ute uniform (hopefully that’s not the case). But he’s a special talent that, if properly developed, could give us an elite offense to go along with our elite defense. The upside I’m seeing with Jackson is the piece of the puzzle that takes us to the next step of either the Rose Bowl or CFP. You can all call me crazy and that’s fine. But that’s the potential many analysts have seen in Jackson coming out of high school. I believe in our coaching staff completely. But make no mistake, this is not a Chase Hansen situation of just move him over to the defense IMO. Just being honest with ourselves, we aren’t exactly known for being QBU. And I’m just hoping we can tap into and develop this kid’s potential as an elite QB and lead us to new heights we’ve never seen before.

[MDUte]

@OnlyU, am I wrong here? If you say I’m crazy, I’ll drop the pipe dream. Maybe I’ve drunk too much of the Ja’Quinden koolaid I was finding online…

[Waybackutefan]

I can’t for the life of me understand why he would come here to play defense. It’s not like he didn’t have that opportunity at Texas and lets face it, it’s not like Texas doesn’t send players to the NFL. 

[Onlyu]

He’s coming here to play QB…So is Costelli and so did Rising. Brewer is well above just serviceable IMO. He’s very accurate, smart and can play so who knows how it shapes up. Gonna be fun to watch because there are many ways it could play out to spread them out a little and cover the field for the next 5 years..

I do think that Jackson gets at least two years to show that he can play QB before he’s even considered for another position and I think he can absolutely play there in college…not sure about the NFL yet but if Tyler can develop into an NFL guy so can he. Same can be said for Rising and Costelli by the way. It’s a great problem to have.

[MDUte]

From what I’ve seen, Rising and Costelli are really good QBs that can also make plays with their legs. But Jackson is on a whole other level. In basketball terms, Jackson is like getting Andre Miller, who once Majerus finally gave Andre the keys to the kingdom he led us to the Final Four and a few min shy of a national title. Jackson is this special of a talent. He wasn’t just a 4* kid he rated around .97…almost 5*. This is a once in a generation type of talent that just joined our program. And I for one hope we put all of our eggs in his basket for the future. His upside is so much higher than any of the others that if the QB competition is close next Fall, we should make him QB1 IMO.

[UteHorn21]

I live in DFW, Allen (Kyler Murray’s school) is about 40 miles to my north and Duncanville (JQJ’s school) is about 25 miles to my south. This is the first I’ve ever heard of JQJ compared to Murray.

#1 outside of the complete opposite ends of the spectrum in physical stature, Murray was an absolute stud throwing the football. A lot of people don’t realize Murray was drafted into the MLB so I’m not sure where you’re getting he wasn’t accurate?

#2 Kyler is barely 5-10 might be 185 soaking wet and is extremely lightning fast. JQJ is 6-3 230+ pounds and runs a 4.6. His scrambling ability is one of physicality and power, not speed and agility like Murray or Jackson.

#3 He would’ve been a perfect safety in the 90’s (big and physical) however in today’s pass happy spread football I struggle to see how 230lbs running a 4.6 translates to playing safety. Linebacker would be the spot.

[MDUte]

@UteHorn, appreciate your comments. Just to clarify, I wasn’t talking about Murray having an accuracy/mechanics weakness. JQJ is the one who has been given this criticism.

I realize JQJ and Murray are two very different styles of players due to their physical traits…the comparison I heard Mike Roach (24/7 Sports Texas Longhorns Analyst interviewed on Bill Riley Show by Steve Bartle) make between the two had to do with how both dominated high school football in the Dallas area. As Roach put it, “both were mythical figures in the state of Texas high school football, JQJ probably being second only to Kyler Murray.”

When it comes to physical size, that’s why I included Lamar Jackson as a comparison to JQJ, both being 6-2 with more size and strength….even though JQJ still has close to 20 more lbs on him than LJ. But even there, when you watch JQJ’s highlights he flat out trucks guys in the open field, whereas like you said LJ is still more like Murray in regards to his agility and speed. 

 

[MDUte]

For some reason my post duplicated and I can’t seem to figure out how to delete this….my bad