Maddie, who spent fall camp competing for the starting quarterback spot along with Drew Hare and Matt McIntosh, wanted to come to NIU out of high school, but never received an offer. He finally got his chance to be a Huskie when he transferred before the 2013 season.
I haven't seen any practices but from his HS film the one thing I like about Maddie is that in the clips he looked like was a decent passer on the run, of course highlight packages aren't going to have bad passes, but nonetheless it looked like he could throw on the run.
(08-27-2014 08:57 PM)The Frisky Biscuit Wrote: [ -> ]Well if the general QB progression continues, NIU will finally field a highly drafted, Heisman winning QB, right? Progress is linear, right?
(08-28-2014 05:26 AM)foch41 Wrote: [ -> ]Let's just hope they don't try to get cute like that year they started a backup QB in front of Chandler Harnish vs Iowa State a few years back
Oooh! not happy you brought that up!
I remember not being happy at all because I thought and still do, that not playing Harnish against Iowa State cost us the game against Illinois. Harnish came in to the Illinois game and had to knock off some rust. If he had that Iowa State game under his belt before the Illinois, we may have beaten Illinois that day.
Will the same thing happen this time with NU? God, I hope not.
In that case my displeasure was fueled by the fact that I thought Harnish was the better QB. I gave benefit of the doubt to the coaches, but I never bought in to people that said Harnish couldn't throw well. He could, and he proved it. Nothing against Grady, but there seemed to be more going on in Kill's decision than just ability to win in my opinion on that choice. Maybe the "knee issue?"
At any rate, here today I truly don't know who is the best QB of the three. I think the decision rubric is (or should be), who gives us the best chance to win? Not, who is the better passer, or runner, or leader, or decision maker, but overall, who gives us the best chance to win.
(08-28-2014 08:58 AM)7 Wrote: [ -> ]Harnish played an entire game the week before against North Dakota. What rust was he knocking off?
hmmm. Playing North Dakota is the same as playing Iowa State at Iowa State.
Simply put, Harnish would have been better against Illinois with more quality reps going into the Illinois game
I think we can all agree with that. In fact, as he got more playing time, he player rather well. Look at his stats. He made it to the NFL, right? He must have done something well.
But I guess not everyone in the Grady camp is ready to give up!
Count me in as part of the Grady camp as well, and that was a season after I had announced the I thought Harnish had what it took to be an elite MAC QB. That's how good I thought Grady was going to be.
With the benefit of hindsight, a lot of people can say they didn't want Grady to start against Iowa State, or that it was a dumb decision, but at the time it wasn't that outlandish a thought.
None of us knew how big of a step forward Harnish was going take between his sophomore and junior seasons, plus we didn't know how healthy he was because he hadn't practiced all spring and very little in the summer.
Grady had pretty much taken all of the first team snaps in the off-season and looked to be the most game ready of the top 3 on the roster at the time.
The consensus at the time, before the game was even played, IIRC, was "If Grady starts I'm okay with it." It was only afterward when he performed as poorly as he did and then Harnish had his best season and the best by an NIU QB in a long time, that we started asking why did Grady start against ISU.
Watching Grady play QB vs. Tennessee in 2008 nearly made me retire from watching football. Well, NIU's offensive performance in that game as a whole almost did. Tennessee's too.
(08-28-2014 12:54 PM)The Frisky Biscuit Wrote: [ -> ]Watching Grady play QB vs. Tennessee in 2008 nearly made me retire from watching football. Well, NIU's offensive performance in that game as a whole almost did. Tennessee's too.
(08-28-2014 12:54 PM)The Frisky Biscuit Wrote: [ -> ]Watching Grady play QB vs. Tennessee in 2008 nearly made me retire from watching football. Well, NIU's offensive performance in that game as a whole almost did. Tennessee's too.
What a terrible game that was.
I remember that clearly. Should've won.
If not for one lucky pass, NIU "wins" 9-6. EWWWWWWWWWW
