Lingering Questions: Can Connor Weigman Reach His Ceiling? | GSMC College Football Podcast

alrighty welcome back everyone we just talked about dynasties in college football and how maybe maybe they're just a thing of the past and yes I cannot wait on the sav and era untold stories man that is going to be incredible um and yes we are firmly could be in the center of a Kirby Smart Dynasty the question is is that the last one that we will see but it'll be definitely a really interesting thing to watch over the next 5 10 15 years so definitely will be awesome to watch there but let's get into some lingering questions around the top 25 team in the country we have jumped through I believe the top 16 at this point and then we're going to get into a number another six uh upcoming right here so let's start with the Oklahoma State uh Cowboys and the biggest question firmly is can Allan Bowman avoid the mistakes this has been a problem for him throughout the entirety of his college career and the good news is he has one of the best offensive lines in the country maybe the best Oly Gordon is one of the best uh running backs in the country Maybe the best I think the ability on the outside at the wide receiver is really good and it's very veteran which is maybe even more important frankly um but Alan Bowman is a turnover guy last year he had 13 passing touchdowns he had 12 interceptions and I understand they made it to the Big 12 title that year and I understand there were a number of things that happened along the way that kind of went Oklahoma State's Direction but that can't be the case this year if they want to be successful this year that just plainly cannot be the case because they're going to see a lot of stacked boxes they're going to see a lot of eight seven six guys standing there waiting for olly Gordon to get that ball and when he does they're going to absolutely swarm so he's going to be fine Oly Gordon's going to be able to put up numbers I'm not arguing that but they have to be able to scare teams down the field they have to be able to spread teams out and they have to be able to open up Running Room for Oly Gordon to go to work because that is the Crux of this offense so overall I mean you look at this team and it's a really good team across the board they have so many guys coming back they have so much in place to really make a run at a possible college football playoff uh birth but at the end of the day there's a couple of things that he just has to do better now he's going to be doing plenty of that so that makes it a little bit easier for sure but he's going to have to cut the interceptions maybe you know by three five maybe even cut it them half and and go down to six uh interceptions he's got to up that completion percentage that was all the way down I believe below 60% a year ago he's got to bring that up to like 63 64% then you can make a difference you know it doesn't have to be Leaps and Bounds it doesn't have to be you know making every single play for your team and totally airing the ball out he's just got to make sure that using olly Gordon isn't the only option on this team and if a team can back up into coverage and pick them off every couple of drives they're just going to have a really tough time keeping up in this league that is remarkably competitive moving on to Kansas State uh the question I have is was Will kicking will Howard out the door a mistake uh because we all know the story at this point Avery Johnson came in late last year played incredible football was an incredible athlete especially running the ball and then will Howard hit the transfer portal found his way to Ohio State he is now the starter the question is do they want that veteran presence did they miss out on having this guy in that room and making sure that they had someone that maybe this Avery Johnson thing doesn't go quite as smoothly as they wanted to now I'm having a hard time arguing this because I don't think any Kans of State fan is worried about it and I'm not worried about it one bit because I think Avery Johnson is downright special and I think he's going to do a number of really good things that being said he does need to take a big time step forward passing the ball that was the place that will Howard was pretty comfortably better than him a year ago and Avery Johnson's definitely got to take a step forward there got to get better at completion percentage got to be just more consistent delivering the football so I do think it's one of those things that I don't know if it's uh really going to cause too much of a problem but there's a reality where maybe Avery Johnson goes down with an injury or maybe Avery Johnson just isn't playing all that great late down the stretch and you need a guy that has been in those scenarios to come in and make those plays now will Howard's not a guy that was going to wait around by any means but it is something that maybe is something to watch as we get a little bit closer they're still trying to figure out the backup over there so if Will Howard was there it wouldn't necessarily be too much of an issue but at the end of the day it's kind of a big time hypothetical that I don't think we'll be questioning at the the end of the year but always something to keep in mind moving on to Miami the biggest question about this team is not the transfer portal guys it's not the talent of this team because it's absolutely ridiculous can Mario Cris ball coach the games that he needs to coach can he win those Big Time games down the stretch of a season and it's going to fall on him in a lot of ways when you look at those games towards the end of the season in the conference Championship in the playoff there are a lot of tactics that are put into play there is a lot of Chess matches that are put into play between the those two coaches and in a lot of ways the coaches are the ones that win those games Mario crystal ball has been downright bad in a lot of those big time games and a lot of those moments that you're going to be in uh throughout the season if you want to do what you're capable of doing so I think it's one of those things where if you're up four with four minutes left and you have to make some time management decisions or you have a fourth and down uh you have a fourth down maybe on your own 45 yd line with two and a half minutes left you have all three timeouts do you punt the ball away do you go for it those are the type of decisions that he has to be able to make down the stretch of this season or they're just going to be a little bit disappointing this upcoming year now another part of this is he just got to lean on his coordinators more he has two really really good coordinators in Al golden and uh shaneon Shannon Dawson and trust them believe that they are going to make the right decision and I understand you got to get involved from time to time but at the end of the day it felt like last year he just had his hands on it just a little bit too much at times especially late in that Georgia Tech game so I think it's one of those things that Miami has everything on the table this upcoming year including a national title but the coach could be the thing that holds them back if he doesn't get some of the issues that he's had in the past under control and definitely something that will be fun to watch down the stretch of those big time games for Miami even in week one frankly um but moving on to Texas A&M the big question I have here is kind of twofold can Connor Wegman stay on the field and then can he hit ceiling because the way that NFL Scouts talk about this kid is out of this world they talk about this kid as he could be a number one overall pick in the NFL draft this upcoming year and I'm having a hard time disagreeing with them I know we have not seen a ton of that kid I know that he is not necessarily played the amount of football that you would love to see from him but man the arm Talent is ridiculous he can fit balls into windows that are just remarkable and he's one of those guys that throws with remarkable anticipation so I understand you know it's not necessarily A full uh case study it's not easy to get an idea of how good this kid is after a couple of games starting and then getting injured here and there but this uh the talent is off the charts and the it comes down to a number of different things of can he hit that ceiling whether it's the play calling of uh Colin Klein or the o line getting a little bit better than it was last year because that played a part in his availability throughout the year the wide receiver depth is something that they're a little bit worried about and then obviously him just staying on the field is the biggest thing of this but if he hits a SE if he hits a ceiling this is not a team that can just win nine games this is not a team that can just play spoiler in the SEC this is a team that can go to the playoff this is a team that could possibly go to Atlanta and play for that SEC title now you're walking a little bit of a tight RPP obviously with a new head coach but imagine if Mike Elko walked in there and took them to the playoff in his very first year the amount of A&M fans that would be just ridiculously mad at Jimbo fer that aren't already ridic ully mad at Jimbo fiser would be off the charts but this is one of those teams that is remarkably dangerous and you look across that roster it's one of the most talented in the country and that quarterback is right at the center of that very much like this kid and I think he's going to be one of those that makes plenty of plays this upcoming year and maybe just maybe plays himself into that first round of the NFL draft moving on to Arizona my biggest question here is was losing Jed fish bigger than keeping Noah faf because that's the biggest question uh when you're talking about last last year you know it was Jaden delore to start the season then he wasn't playing quite well enough no faf came in and did something that frankly shouldn't be capable of being done this is a very young kid that was still learning that offense that jumped in and just tore people to Pieces so we know the physical ability incredible we know the armed talent's awesome we know all of that is in place we also know Jed fish's offense is really incredible we also know that he does a really good job of putting his quarterbacks in really good position so the question is keeping Noah F into Tor McMillan was as big of a deal for Arizona as anything this off season is that enough to make sure you get a repeat of what you had is the change in offensive coordinator going to be enough to really kind of change the way this team operates and change what no faf can do on the field so I think it's one of those things that they did change the coaching staff there's no doubt about that but also the coaching staff isn't dumb they know what they saw last year they know what he succeeded in and I would be very surprised if it wasn't a very similar approach um I think it's going to be one of those that you just play to your player um you don't worry about what you like to run you don't worry about what you're bringing into the job you worry about what that guy likes to run and if he can run he can run just about anything but at the end of the day there's a world where there's a little bit of a sophomore slump because he doesn't have that guy calling plays and it'll be a really interesting thing to watch especially early on the season they play Kansas state if things look a little bit out of whack in that game maybe that's the reason maybe no faf isn't quite as comfortable in this offense as he was in the offense a year ago and he'll likely develop into a fine player in that offense but definitely something that could stumble Arizona early on and maybe they can't recover towards the end of the season then Kansas to finish it off and this question is very very simple jayen Daniels can you stay on the field uh we have to ask this question just about every year and it's been a negative question just about every year but this is one that's obviously impossible to answer right now and it's going to be a day-to-day nightmare for Kans State fans just hoping that they don't have any tough hits hoping they don't see him on the ground after a play and really hoping they don't see any tweet come across their page that says he's out for the season he is a remarkably talented player and one of those guys that we talk about players or quarterbacks in particular that have the most power over their uh Team season you know if you lose this guy you're in in deep deep trouble whether it's Carson Beck or Cam Ward or uh Avery Johnson this guy's right there he might be the number one on that list frankly cuz this is a totally different team without Jaylen Daniels on the field and he's someone that totally changes the way that your team works and it's not just the offense it's not just he makes that offense more explosive and more dangerous the defense plays harder when they see him on the field because he's a natural leader because he brings so much energy and because he's someone that not only uh can he bring energy to the offensive line to the wide receivers to the tight ends he'll bring it plenty to the dline and the linebackers and all of those guys because he's not just the leader on the offense he's the leader of this entire team so seeing number six on the field is going to be huge for this team and it sounds like they will for week one but beyond that you just got to make sure that he is on the field and cross your fingers hold your breath do whatever you got to do but for Kansas to be successful this year that guy's got to be on the field and he's got to be on the field pretty much every single week maybe there's a little bit of leeway there somewhere in that in that uh schedule but keeping him on the field is the number one priority and if they can do that and this is as dangerous of a team as there is really in the country um but also you got to figure out what that backup situation is going to be still kind of a fight there but it's definitely something that you don't want to have to worry about those backups I'll put it that way um so a ton of stuff happening around all of these programs I mean you get into fall Camp some new questions present themselves and that was actually the one I used for Texas you know figuring out what they're going to do with those running backs how are they going to pull that off so it's going to be a really really interesting thing to watch and absolutely love breaking these down but we'll do our last segment on that tomorrow round out the top 25 even dip a little bit below the top 25 for that one but let's go into uh our last break here and when we come back we're going to do some fall Camp Intel we're kind of wrapping up camp there's a number of teams that are starting to kind of wind down get into gameweek preparation and there's a number of things that I want to update you on just kind of grandos things throughout camp that uh around some of the big teams in the country so we'll break it down right after this so stick with it do