Vandenberg Time: Is He Ready? (& 2009 OSU highlights)

[burky247]

The entire article is based around one game Jon...

Try taking a look at the NW and Minnesota games

And hs records don't matter once you get to college, everyone at the d1 level was good in hs.

Physical tools is a good measurement, but hs stats don't mean anything in college. Nobody cares.

I've watched all three games several times. Personally, I throw out the NW game just because he got thrown into the situation after Stanzi's injury. Others may argue with that logic and that's fine. I just don't take much out of the game considering he hadn't received first team reps in practice the week before.

So starting with the OSU game, I truly think OSU's defense could have made things much harder on Vandy if they had wanted to. Rather than smelling the blood in the water and blitzing the bejesus out a frosh making his first start, they seemed to lie back on defense and wait for him to make a mistake. When it became apparent that Vandy had some game, that is when OSU started becoming more aggressive and that's when the young QB started to falter a bit. What was great though was that he seemed to have inherited Stanzi's ability to shrug off some mistakes and continue battling and making plays. So while I think that some people may take too much out of the OSU game with regard to James' ability, I think it is reasonable to see his potential.

It's hard to take too much out of the Minny game just because the coaching staff seemed to want to simply coast to the victory. While I saw a lot of mechanical and fundamental errors in Vandy's game that day, he didn't get the chance to bounce back like he did against OSU because the staff took the air out of the ball. They were content to rely on our defense after we got the early lead and knew the only way we were going to lose that game was if we started turning the ball over. Smart strategy of course, but it kind of handicaps your ability to assess the game. But there are a bunch of people much smarter than me that have that capability.

 

[tm3308]

I've watched all three games several times. Personally, I throw out the NW game just because he got thrown into the situation after Stanzi's injury. Others may argue with that logic and that's fine. I just don't take much out of the game considering he hadn't received first team reps in practice the week before.

So starting with the OSU game, I truly think OSU's defense could have made things much harder on Vandy if they had wanted to. Rather than smelling the blood in the water and blitzing the bejesus out a frosh making his first start, they seemed to lie back on defense and wait for him to make a mistake. When it became apparent that Vandy had some game, that is when OSU started becoming more aggressive and that's when the young QB started to falter a bit. What was great though was that he seemed to have inherited Stanzi's ability to shrug off some mistakes and continue battling and making plays. So while I think that some people may take too much out of the OSU game with regard to James' ability, I think it is reasonable to see his potential.

It's hard to take too much out of the Minny game just because the coaching staff seemed to want to simply coast to the victory. While I saw a lot of mechanical and fundamental errors in Vandy's game that day, he didn't get the chance to bounce back like he did against OSU because the staff took the air out of the ball. They were content to rely on our defense after we got the early lead and knew the only way we were going to lose that game was if we started turning the ball over. Smart strategy of course, but it kind of handicaps your ability to assess the game. But there are a bunch of people much smarter than me that have that capability.

This. Yes, we could see the potential for JVB, but OSU did make things pretty easy for him for much of the game, sitting back in a zone. Once they realized that they might lose, they dialed it up, and JVB struggled just like he did against NW and Minnesota.

It's true that we took the air out against Minnesota, but his blitz recognition still was not very good (and our blitz pickup was terrible that day). That's my biggest concern going forward: has he improved his blitz recognition skills enough to be successful when teams try to blitz frequently?

 

[JonDMiller]

Agreed that OSU didnt do a lot early on. I was surprised by that, and it was a lack of respect (which he had not earned) thinking they could run their base and be fine.

That said, JVB has taken more than a thousand practice reps since then, made thousands of throws...and thousands of mental reps and hundreds of hours of film study. I think he is capable of stepping in and performing at a good level, and a very good OL and bell cow running back are going to help him a great, great deal. You will still have to sell out to stop the run against Iowa, and that makes their play action game so effective.

 

[hawkfan2679]

It's true that we took the air out against Minnesota, but his blitz recognition still was not very good (and our blitz pickup was terrible that day).

Big +1 to the bolded above. I remember I did a breakdown of JVB's performance on either this site or the Scout site...in watching the game there were a couple blitzes that Minny disguised really well, but we made the disguise look even better because we weren't fundamentally sound on the OL and their blitzers came completely clean.

 

[JHHawk]

Minny kept sending that cornerback on the blitzes and we did not pick them up,nor did Vandy....I think that is solvable.

I have liked the fighting spirit in Vandy since Angerer told of the story where Vandy fought with Mitch King as a true frosh in practice,and also would fight with Angerer,MMA style....or try to...I think the kid is feisty and his teammates will follow him thru the fire.
I also think he is smart, which is a good thing in qbs.

 

[homerHAWKeye777]

Quite apart from some brilliant flashes ... another reason why many Iowa fans are so excited about Vandenberg is due to the buzz that he has generated coming out of practice. It's one thing to flash in a game ... however, to consistently be pretty impressive in practice ... that suggests that the kid has definitely put in the work and likely has the consistency to win the job.

Prior to Christensen's first season starting, most of the "buzz" surrounding Jake was pretty negative. I was hearing plenty of stuff about how his development was behind schedule. Furthermore, it also sounded like Jake didn't have a very good chemistry with the guys behind him.

In contrast, Vandenberg has nearly always generated POSITIVE BUZZ. From folks whom I trust, I've heard that Vandenberg has all the tangibles. Now the question will how he develops on the mental side of the game ... and whether he learns from what prior mistakes he has made. Considering that I've also heard that he's a pretty darn smart young man ... I'm inclined to believe that he'll be able to nail down these latter issues too.

Lastly, let us not forget that Ricky had a pretty darn positive impact on the QBs backing him up. Thus, I believe that whether Vandenberg wins the job or not, we can rest assured that the team will be in good hands regardless of who ends up winning the job.

And, for the record, I have ZERO worries about Vandenberg.

 

[trj]

Even though I agree with the assessments of 89, burk and tm the sample size is large enough for me to know moving forward that he will be okay. The mental make-up and the physical skills are there. Yes, OSU played a pretty vanilla scheme, but I have watched enough football over the years to see many a qb crumble put under similar circumstances.

In fact, I'm more worried about who is going to step up behind Mcnutt/Herman as pass catchers and make plays than i am Vandy.

 

[ripvdub]

IMO, James had a lot better players surrounding him that year than he will next year.

 

[Hawkfromnorwalk]

IMO, James had a lot better players surrounding him that year than he will next year.

Iowa's running game will probably be better than what JVB had around him in 2009. That will take some pressure off of him. Plus, Iowa's OLine will be extremely solid this year as well. There may be a learning curve at wide receiver but I don't think it will be that bad.

 

[DowsHawk]

I would expect Vandy and Davis to work well together as they have had a bunch of practice reps. By the time the season gets here he'll know more of what to expect from the receivers and they'll be used to the speed of his ball. I'm sure he's much more ready for blitz packages after a full season of practice and the memorization of his game film. He got talent, and his interviews and the buzz show him to be a smart well liked leader.

He's still a new starting QB and we will have growing pains. We'll see a return of the pick 6 happen a time or two. I hope Hawkeye fans realize it will be a learning process and give the kid a chance to grow to his potential. He could be special, but lets not let the hype become our immediate expectations.